diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 16272-8.txt | 9730 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 16272-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 211032 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 16272-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 352634 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 16272-h/16272-h.htm | 9883 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 16272-h/images/007.png | bin | 0 -> 64067 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 16272-h/images/137.png | bin | 0 -> 71050 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 16272-h/images/pointingfinger.jpg | bin | 0 -> 8705 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 16272.txt | 9730 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 16272.zip | bin | 0 -> 210887 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
12 files changed, 29359 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16272-8.txt b/16272-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6db1174 --- /dev/null +++ b/16272-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9730 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Continental Monthly, Vol. II. July, 1862. +No. 1., by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Continental Monthly, Vol. II. July, 1862. No. 1. + +Author: Various + +Release Date: July 12, 2005 [EBook #16272] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONTINENTAL MONTHLY *** + + + + +Produced by Cornell University, Joshua Hutchinson, Janet +Blenkinship and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +Production Note + +Cornell University Library produced this volume to preserve the +informational content of the deteriorated original. The best available +copy of the original has been used to create this digital copy. It was +scanned bitonally at 600 dots per inch resolution and compressed prior +to storage using ITU Group 4 compression. Conversion of this material to +digital files was supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Digital +file copyright by Cornell University Library 1995. + +This volume has been scanned as part of The Making of America Project, a +cooperative endeavor undertaken to preserve and enhance access to +historical material from the nineteenth century. + + + + +CORNELL + +UNIVERSITY + +LIBRARY + + +FROM + +Charles William Wason + + + + +THE + +CONTINENTAL MONTHLY. + + +DEVOTED TO + +Literature and National Policy. + +VOL. II. + +JULY-DECEMBER, 1862. + + +New York: JOHN F. TROW, 50 GREENE STREET. (FOR THE PROPRIETORS). + +1862. + +Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by + +JOHN F. TROW, + +For the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for +the Southern District of New York. + +JOHN F. TROW, + +Printer, Stereotyper and Electrotyper, 48 & 50 Greene Street, New York. + +ENTERED, according to an Act of Congress, in the year 1882 by JAMES B. +GILMORE, in the Clerk of the Office of the District Court of the United +States for the Southern District of New-York. + +JOHN A. GRAY PRINTER + + + + +The Continental Monthly: + +Devoted to Literature and National Policy. + + + +CONTENTS.----No. VII + +What shall be the end? 1 +Bone Ornaments, 5 +The Molly O'Molly Papers. No. V., 6 +Glances from the Senate-Gallery, 10 +Maccaroni and Canvas. No. V., 14 +For the Hour of Triumph, 26 +In Transitu, 27 +Among the Pines, 28 +Was He Successful? 48 +Newbern as it was and is, 58 +Our Brave Times, 62 +The Crisis and the Parties, 65 +I Wait, 69 +Taking the Census, 70 +The Peloponnesus in March, 74 +Adonium, 82 +Polytechnic Institutes, 83 +Slavery and Nobility vs. Democracy, 89 +Watching the Stag, 105 +Literary Notices, 106 +Editor's Table, 109 + + +SLAVERY AND NOBILITY vs. DEMOCRACY. + +This article, written by a gentleman who, for fifteen years, was one of +the most prominent citizens of Texas, will be found worthy of most +attentive perusal. + + +WATCHING THE STAG + +An unfinished Poem by FITZ-JAMES O'BRIEN, we give as it came wet from +the pen of its lamented author. + + + + +INDEX TO VOLUME II. + + PAGE +Among the Pines. Edmund Kirke, 28, 127 +An Englishman in South Carolina, 689 +Adorium, 82 +A True Romance. Isabella McFarlane, 190 +A Physician's Story, 667 +Astor and the Capitalists of New York. W. Frothingham, 207 +A Merchant's Story. Edmund Kirke, 232, 328, 451, 560, 719 +American Student Life, 266 +Author Borrowing, 285 +Anthony Trollope on America, 302 +A Military Nation. Charles G. Leland, 453 +A Southern Review. Charles G. Leland, 466 +Aurora. Hon. Horace Greeley, 622 + +Bone Ornaments. Charles G. Leland, 5 + +Cambridge and its Colleges, 662 +Corn is King, 237 + +Editor's Table, 109, 241, 369, 481, 638, 750 +Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-Two, U.S. Johnson, 442 + +For the Hour of Triumph, 26 +Flower Arranging, 444 + +Glances from the Senate Gallery. G.W. Towle, 10, 154 +Gold. Hon. E.J. Walker, 743 + +Helter-Skelter Papers, 175 +Hopeful Tackett. Richard Wolcott, 262 +Huguenots of New York City. Hon. G.P. Disosway, 193 +Henry Thomas Buckle, 253 + +In Transitu, 27 +I Wait, 69 + +John McDonogh. Alexander Walker, 165 +John Bull to Jonathan, 265 +John Neil, 295 + +La Vie Poetique, 679 +Literary Notices, 106, 238, 866, 478, 636, 747 +London Fogs and London Poor, 404 + +Maccaroni and Canvas. Henry P. Leland, 14, 144, 290, 383, 591 + +Newbern as it Was and Is. F. Kidder, 58 +National Unity. Hon. Horace Greeley, 357 + +On Guard. John G. Nicolay, 706 +Our Brave Times, 62 +Our Wounded. C.K. Tuckerman, 465 +One of the Million. Caroline Chesebro', 541 + +Polytechnic Institutes. Charles G. Leland, 83 + +Railway Photographs. Isabella McFarlane, 708 +Rewarding the Army. Charles G. Leland, 161 +Reminiscences of Andrew Jackson, 318 +Red, Yellow, and Blue, 535 + +Slavery and Nobility _vs._ Democracy. Lorenzo Sherwood, 89 +Southern Rights, 143 +Sketches of the Orient. Hon. J.P. Brown, 179 +Shakspeare's Richard III. Rev. E.G. Holland, 320 +Shoulder Straps. Henry Morford, 342 +Sir John Suckling, 397 +Southern Hate of the North. Horace Greeley, 448 +Something we have to Think of, and to Do. C.S. Henry, LL.D., 657 +Stewart, and the Dry Goods Trade of New York. W. Frothingham, 528 + +Thank God for All. Charles G. Leland, 718 + +The Molly O'Molly Papers, 6, 200, 257 +The Crisis and the Parties. C.G. Leland, 65 +Taking the Census, 70 +The Ash Tree. Charles G. Leland, 682 +The Obstacles to Peace. A Letter to an Englishman. +Hon. Horace Greeley, 714 +The Freed Men of the South. Hon. F.P. Stanton, 730 +The Peloponnesus in March, 74 +The Last Ditch. Charles G. Leland, 159 +The Bone of our Country, 198 +The Soldier and the Civilian. C.G. Leland, 281 +The Negro in the Revolution, 324 +The Children in the Wood. Henry Morford, 354 +The Constitution as It Is. C.S. Henry, LL.D., 377 +Tom Winter's Story. G.W. Chapman, 416 +The White Hills in October. C.M. Sedgwick, 423 +The Union. Hon. E.J. Walker, 457, 572, 641 +The Causes of the Rebellion. Hon. F.P. Stanton, 513, 695 +The Wolf Hunt. Charles G. Leland, 580 +The Poetry of Nature, 581 +The Proclamation, 603 +The Press in the United States. Hon. F.L. Stanton, 604 +The Homestead Bill. Hon. R.J. Walker, 627 + +Up and Act. Charles G. Leland, 314 +Unheeded Growth. John Neil, 534 + +What shall be the End? Hon. J.W. Edmonds, 1 +Was He Successful? 48, 218, 360, 470, 610, 734 +Watching the Stag. Fitz-James O'Brien, 105 +Witches, Elves and Goblins, 184 +Wounded. Henry P. Leland, 206 +Word-Murder, 524 + + + +Vol. II.--July, 1862.--No. 1. + + + +WHAT SHALL BE THE END? + + +If we look to the development of slavery the past thirty years, we shall +see that the ideas of Calhoun respecting State Sovereignty have had a +mighty influence in gradually preparing the slave States for the course +which they have taken. Slavery, in its political power, has steadily +become more aggressive in its demands. A morbid jealousy of Northern +enterprise and thrift, with the contrast more vivid from year to year, +of the immeasurable superiority of free labor, has brought about a +growing aversion, in the South, to the free States, until with every +opportunity presented for pro-slavery extension, there has resulted the +present organized combination of slave States that have seceded from the +Union. When the mind goes back to the early formation of our Government +and the adoption of the Constitution, it will be found that an entire +revolution of opinion and feeling has taken place upon the subject of +slavery. From being regarded, as formerly, an evil by the South, it is +now proclaimed a blessing; from being viewed as opposed to the whole +spirit and teachings of the Bible, it is now thought to be of divine +sanction; from being regarded as opposed to political liberty, and the +elevation of the masses, the popular doctrine now is, that slavery is +the corner-stone of republican institutions, and essential for a manly +development of character upon the part of the white population. Formerly +slavery was looked upon as peculiarly pernicious to the diffusion of +wealth and the progress of national greatness; now the South is +intoxicated with ideas of the profitableness of slave labor, and the +power of King Cotton in controlling the exchanges of the world. And the +same change has taken place in relation to the African slave-trade. +While the laws of the land brand as piracy the capture of negroes upon +their native soil, and the transportation of them over the ocean, it is +nevertheless true that a mighty change in Southern opinion has taken +place in respect to the character of this business. It is not looked +upon with the same horror as formerly. It is apologized for, and in some +places openly defended as a measure indispensable to the prosperity of +the cotton States. As a natural inference from the theory of those who +hold to the views of Calhoun upon State sovereignty, the doctrine of +coercion in any form by the Federal Union is denounced, and to attempt +to put it in practice even so far as the protection of national property +is concerned, is construed into a war upon the South. Thus, while it is +perfectly proper for the slave States to steal, and plunder the nation +of its property, to leave the Union at their pleasure, and to do every +thing in their power to destroy the unity of the National Government, it +is made out that to attempt to recover the property of the Federal Union +is unjustifiable aggression upon the slave States. Thus we see eleven +States in a confederate capacity openly making war upon the Federal +Government, and compelling it either into a disgraceful surrender of its +rights as guaranteed by the Constitution, or war for self-defense. Fort +Sumter was not allowed to be provisioned, nor was there any disposition +manifested to permit its possession in any manner honorable to the +Government, although its exclusive property. It must be surrendered +unconditionally, or be attacked. + +The worst feature connected with the secession movement is the hot haste +with which the most important questions connected with the interests of +the people are hurried through. The ordinance of secession is not fairly +submitted to the people, but a mere oligarchy of desperate men +themselves assume to declare war, and exercise all the prerogatives of +an independent and sovereign government. And yet the terms submitted in +the Crittenden Resolutions as a peace-offering to the seceding States to +win them back by concessions from the North, present a spectacle quite +as mournful for the cause of national unity and dignity as the open +rebellion of the seceding States. The professed aim of these States is +either a reconstruction of the Constitution in a way that shall +nationalize slavery and give it supreme control, or a forcible +disruption of the Union. What are the terms proposed that alone appear +to satisfy the South? They may be briefly comprehended in a short +extract from a speech delivered by Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, +February 21, 1861: + + 'But the Senator from Kentucky asks us of the North by irrepealable + constitutional amendments to recognize and protect slavery in the + Territories now existing, or hereafter acquired south of thirty-six + degrees, thirty minutes; to deny power to the Federal Government to + abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, in the forts, + arsenals, navy-yards, and places under the exclusive jurisdiction + of Congress; to deny the National Government all power to hinder + the transit of slaves through one State to another; to take from + persons of the African race the elective franchise, and to purchase + territory in South-America, or Africa, and send there, at the + expense of the Treasury of the United States, such free negroes as + the States may desire removed from their limits. And what does the + Senator propose to concede to us of the North? The prohibition of + slavery in Territories north of thirty-six degrees and thirty + minutes, where no one asks for its inhibition, where it has been + made impossible by the victory of Freedom in Kansas, and the + equalization of the fees of the slave Commissioners.' + +Here we have the true position in which the free States are placed +toward the slaveholding States. Seven States openly throw off all +allegiance to the Federal Union, do not even profess to be willing to +come back upon any terms, and then such conditions are proposed by the +other slaveholding States as leads to the repudiation of the +Constitution in its whole spirit and import upon the subject of slavery. +The alternative, in reality, is either civil war or the surrender of the +Constitution into the hands of pro-slavery men to be molded just as it +may suit their convenience. The price they ask for peace is simply the +liberty to have their own way, and that the majority should be willing +to submit to the minority. They aim for a reconstruction of the Union +that shall incorporate the Dred Scott decision into the whole policy of +the Government and make slavery the supreme power of the country, and +all other interests subservient to it. The North has its choice of two +evils--unconditional and unqualified submission to the demands of +slavery, or civil war. It is expected, since the country has yielded +step by step to the exactions of slavery ever since the Government was +instituted, that the free States will keep on yielding until the South +has nothing more to ask for, and the North has nothing more to give. +With such a servile compliance, the free States are assured that they +will have no difficulty in keeping the peace. But the question to be +decided is: Is such a kind of peace worth the price demanded for it? May +it not be true that great as is the evil of civil war, it is less an +evil than an unresisting acquiescence to the exactions of slavery, and +the admission that any State that pleases can leave the Union? The +theory of secession involves, if admitted, a greater disaster to the +Federal Union than even the slow eating at its vitals of the cancer of +slavery. National unity, one country, the sovereignty of the +Constitution, are all sacrificed by secession. It involves in it either +the worst anarchy or the worst despotism. United, the States can stand, +and command the respect of the world, but secession is an enemy to the +country, the most cruel. Rev. Dr. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, most +forcibly says: + + 'Every man who has any remaining loyalty to the nation, or any hope + and desire for the restoration of the seceding States to the + Confederacy, must see that what is meant by the outcry against + coërcion is in the interest, of secession, and that what is meant + is, in effect, that the Federal Government must be terrified or + seduced into complete coöperation with the revolution which it was + its most binding duty to have used all its power and influence to + prevent.' + +Jefferson Davis, in his late message, says: 'Let us alone, let us go, +and the sword drops from our hands.' But what does this involve? The +admission of the right of secession, which, as has been proved, is fatal +to all national unity and preservation. Even if this arrogant demand was +complied with, would peace be thus possible? Would not the breaking up +of the Union involve the people in calamities that no patience, or +wisdom upon the part of the North could avert? Remember a long border in +an open country, stretching from the Atlantic, possibly even to the +Pacific, is to be defended. Will the bordering people sink down from +war, and all its exasperations, and become as peaceful as lambs? +Constituted as human nature now is, will the dissolution of the Union +create with the great North and South the experience of millennium +prediction, 'The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall +lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and fatling +together; and a little child shall lead them'? Here is a line crossed by +great rivers; we are to shut up the mouth of the Chesapeake bay, on Ohio +and Western Virginia; we are to ask the Western States to give up the +mouth of the Mississippi to a foreign power. Is it reasonable to suppose +that no provocation will occur on this long frontier? Will no slaves run +away? What is to be gained by a dissolution of the Union? Not peace; for +if, when united, there exists such cause of dissension, the evil will be +tenfold greater when separated. Not national aggrandizement, for +division brings weakness, imbecility, and a loss of self-respect; it +invites aggressions from foreign powers, and compels to submission to +insults that otherwise would not be given. Not general competence, for +the South is quite as dependent upon the North as the North upon the +South. + +Disunion is a violent disruption of great material interests that now +are wedded together. The dream of separate State sovereignty, our great +Union split into two or more confederacies, prosperous and peaceable, is +Utopian. So far from the secession doctrine carried out leading to peace +and prosperity, it can only lead to perpetual war and adversity. The +request to be 'let alone,' is simply a request that the nation should +consent to see the Constitution and Union overthrown, slavery +triumphant, and the great problem that a free people can not choose its +own rulers against the will of a minority prove a disgraceful failure. +It is a request that a nation should purchase a temporary peace at the +price of all that is dear to its liberty and self-respect. The arrogance +of the demand '_to be let alone_,' is only equaled by the iniquity of +the means resorted to, to break up the best Government under the sun. +The question of disunion, of separate State sovereignty, was fully +discussed by our fathers. Thus Hamilton, whose foresight history has +proved to be prophetic, says: + + 'If these States should be either wholly disunited, or only united + in partial Confederacies, a man must be far gone in Utopian + speculations, who can seriously doubt that the subdivisions into + which they might be thrown would have frequent and violent contests + with each other. To presume a want of motives for such contests, as + an argument against their existence, would be to forget that men + are ambitious, vindictive, and rapacious. To look for a + continuation of harmony between a number of independent, + unconnected sovereignties, situated in the same neighborhood, would + be to disregard the uniform course of human events, and to set at + defiance the accumulated experience of ages.' + +From a consideration of the true import of the Constitution, in relation +to slavery and the fallacy and wickedness of the doctrine of Secession, +we are now prepared to deduce, from what has been said, the following +reflections: First, the war in which the nation is now plunged should +have strictly for its great end, the restoration of the Constitution and +the Union to its original integrity; all side issues, all mere party +questions should be now merged in one mighty effort, one persevering and +self-sacrificing aim to maintain the Constitution and the Union. As +essential for this purpose, it is indispensable that all the rights +guaranteed to loyal citizens in the slave States should be respected. +The reason is two-fold. First, this war, upon the part of the North, is +for the maintenance of the Constitution as our fathers gave it to us. +Its object is not a crusade against slavery. What may be the results of +the war in relation to slavery is one thing; what should be the simple +purpose of the North is another. That this war, however it may turn, +will be disastrous to slavery, is evident from a great variety of +considerations. But that we should pretend to fight for the Constitution +and the Union, and yet against its express provisions, in respect to +those held in bondage by loyal citizens, is simply to act a part +subversive of the true intent of the Constitution. To violate its +provisions, in relation to loyal citizens South, is in the highest +degree impolitic and suicidal. It is the constant aim of the enemies now +in armed rebellion against the Union, to misrepresent the North upon +this very point. By systematic lying, they have induced thousands South +to believe that the election of Lincoln was designed as an act of war +upon slave institutions, and to subvert the Constitution that protects +them in all that they call their property. + +There is nothing that the rebels South are more anxious to see than the +Government adopting a policy that will give them a plausible pretense +for continuing in rebellion. The Constitution places the local +institution of slavery under the exclusive control of those States where +it exists. Its language, faithfully interpreted, is simply this: Your +own domestic affairs you have a right to manage as you please, so long +as you do not trespass upon the Union, or seek its ruin. All loyal +citizens should be encouraged to stand by the Union in every Southern +State, with the unequivocal declaration that all their rights will be +respected, and that their true safety, even as noblest interests, must +lie in upholding the North in the effort made to put down the vilest +rebellion under the sun. My second reflection is, that those South, who +are in armed rebellion against the Constitution and the Union, must make +up their minds to take what the fortune of war gives them. This +rebellion should be bandied without gloves. The North should permit +nothing to stand in the way of a complete and permanent triumph. As +Northern property is all confiscated South; as Union men there are +treated with the utmost barbarity; as nothing held by the lovers of the +Union is respected, the greatest injury in the end to the Constitution +and the Union is, an unwise clemency to armed rebellion. In this +death-struggle to test the vital question, whether the majority shall +rule, let there be no holding back of money or men. Dear as war may be, +a dishonorable peace will prove much dearer. Great as may be the +sufferings of the camp and the battle-field, yet the prolonged tortures +of a murdered Union, a violated Constitution, and Secession rampant over +the country, will be found to be greater. My third reflection is, that +the main cause of our civil war is slavery. It has now assumed gigantic +proportions of mischief, and with its hand upon the very throat of the +Constitution and the Union, it seeks its death. The worst feature +connected with it has ever been, that it is satisfied with no +concession, and the more it has, the more it asks. By the very admission +of the chiefs of this rebellion, it is confessedly got up for the sake +of slavery, and to make it the corner-stone of the new Confederacy of +States. The real issue involved by the rebellion is, complete +independence of the North, the dissolution of the Union, and exclusive +possession of all the territories south of Mason and Dixon's line; or +reconstruction upon such conditions as would result in the repudiation +of the old Constitution, the nationalization of slavery, and giving +complete political control to a slaveholding minority of the country. +This rebellion has placed the North where it must conquer, for its own +best interests, and dignity, and the salvation of free institutions. It +must conquer, to command future friendship and that respect without +which Union itself is a mockery. Let the South see that the North can +not be beaten, and the universal consciousness of this fact will command +an esteem, and the useful fear of committing offense, that will do more +to keep the peace than all the abject professions or humble submissions +in the world. Having found out that the North not only is conscious of +its rights, but has the willingness and the ability to defend them, it +is certain that the country will yet have as much peace, general thrift, +and noble enterprise with the onward march of virtue and intelligence, +as may be reasonably expected of any community upon the face of the +earth. + + + + + BONE ORNAMENTS. + + + Silent the lady sat alone: + In her ears were rings of dead men's bone; + The brooch on her breast shone white and fine, + 'Twas the polished joint of a Yankee's spine; + And the well-carved handle of her fan, + Was the finger-bone of a Lincoln man. + She turned aside a flower to cull, + From a vase which was made of a human skull; + For to make her forget the loss of her slaves, + Her lovers had rifled dead men's graves. + Do you think I'm describing a witch or ghoul? + There are no such things--and I'm not a fool; + Nor did she reside in Ashantee; + No--the lady fair was an F.F.V. + + + + +THE MOLLY O'MOLLY PAPERS. + + +V. + + +'Hearts are trumps,' is a gambler's cant phrase. That depends on the +game you are playing. In many of the games of life the true trump cards +are Diamonds; which, according to the fortune-teller's lore, stand for +wealth. Indeed, Hearts are by many considered so valueless that they are +thrown away at the very outset; whereas they should, like trumps, only +be played as a last resort. No trick that can be won with any other +card, should be taken with a heart--the card will be gone and nothing to +show for it. If you wish wealth, win it if you can--honestly, of +course--but don't throw in the heart. Are you ambitious--would you win +honor? Very well, if for political honor you can endure it to be spit +upon by the crowd, to have all manner of abuse heaped on you and your +_forbears_ to the remotest generation--a ceremony that in Africa follows +the election, but is 'preliminary to the crowning,' but in this country +is preliminary to the election--but if you can make up your mind to pass +through this ordeal, well and good--but don't throw in the heart.... Yet +in games on which is staked all that is worth playing for, 'hearts _are_ +trumps;' and he who holds the lowest card, stands a better chance of +winning than he who has none, though in his hand may be all the aces of +the others, diamonds included. But, lest I go too far beyond the +analogy--as I might ignorantly do, being unskilled in the many games of +cards--I will drop the figurative.... Keep your heart for faith, love, +friendship, for God, your country, and truth. And where the heart is +given, it should be unreservedly. Its allegiance is too often withheld +where it is due, yet this is better than a half-way loyalty; there +should be no _if_, followed by self-interest.... The seal of confederate +nobles, opposed to some measures of Peter IV. of Aragon, 'represents the +king sitting on his throne, with the confederates kneeling in a +suppliant attitude, around, to denote their loyalty and unwillingness to +offend. But in the back-ground, tents and lines of spears are +discovered, as a hint of their ability and resolution to defend +themselves.' ... This kind of allegiance no true heart will ever give. + +I take it for granted that you have a heart--not merely anatomically +speaking, an organ to circulate the blood, but a something that prompts +you to love, to self-sacrifice, to scorn of meanness, and, it may be, to +good, honest hatred. All metals can be separated from their ores; but +meanness is inseparable from some natures, so it is impossible to hate +the sin without hating the sinner; we can't, indeed, conceive of it in +the abstract. I don't mean hate in a malignant sense--here I may as well +express my scorn of that sly hatred that is too cowardly to knock a man +down, but quietly trips him up. + +It is well enough for those who think that 'life is a jest,' (and a +bitter, sarcastic one it must be to them,) to mock at all nobler +feelings and sentiments of the heart. None do they more contemn than +friendship. I would not 'sit in the seat' of these 'scornful,' however +they may have found false friends. Yet every man capable of a genuine +friendship himself, will in this world find at least one true friend. +Oxygen, which comprises one fifth of the atmosphere, is said to be +highly magnetic; and any ordinary, healthy soul can extract magnetism +enough from the very air he breathes to draw at least one other soul. +Some people have an amazing power of absorption and retention of this +magnetism. You feel irresistibly drawn toward them--and it is all right, +for they are noble, true souls. There is a great difference between +their attractive force and that kind of 'power of charming' innocence +that villainy often has--just as I once saw a cat charm a bird, which +circled nearer and nearer till it almost brushed the cat's whiskers--and +had he not been chased away, he would have that day daintily +lunched--and there would have been one songster less to join in that +evening's vespers. + +False----s there are--I will not call them false _friends_--this noun +should never follow that adjective. To what shall I liken them--to the +young gorilla, that even while its master is feeding it, looks +trustingly in his face and thrusts forth its paw to tear him? Who blames +the gorilla? Torn from its dam, caged or chained, it owes its captor a +grudge. To the serpent? The story of the warming of the serpent in the +man's bosom, is a mere fable. No man was ever fool enough to warm a +serpent in his bosom. And the serpent never crosses the path of man if +he can help it. The most deadly is that which is too sluggish to get out +of his way--therefore bites in self-defense. And the serpent generally +gives some warning hiss, or a rattle. Indeed, almost every animal gives +warning of its foul intent. The shark turns over before seizing its +prey. But the false friend (I am obliged to couple these words) takes +you in without changing his side.... In truth, a man, if he has a vice, +be it treachery or any other, goes a little beyond the other animals, +even those of which it is characteristic. We say, for instance, of a +treacherous man, _He is a serpent_; but it would be hyperbole to call a +serpent _a treacherous man_. + +But these false friends, who deceive you out of pure malignity, who +would rather injure you than not, who, perhaps, have an old, by you +long-forgotten, grudge, and become your apparent friends to pay you +back--these are few. Human nature, with all its depravity, is seldom so +completely debased. But there are many who are only selfishly your +friends. When you most need their friendship, where is it? When some +great calamity sweeps over you, and, bowed and weakened, you would lean +on this friendship, though it were but a 'broken reed,' you stretch +forth your hand--feel but empty space. + +Then there are some who let go the hand of a friend because they feel +sure of him, to grasp the extended hand of a former enemy. Politicians, +especially, do this. An enemy can not so easily be transformed into a +friend. As in those paintings of George III., on tavern-signs, after the +Revolution changed to George Washington, there will still be the same +old features.... The opposite of this is what every generous nature has +tried. To revive a dying friendship, this is impossible. If you find +yourself losing your friendship for a person, there must be some reason +for it. If the former dear name is becoming indistinct on the tablet of +your heart, the attempt to re-write it will entirely obliterate it. It +is said that a sure way to obliterate any writing, is to attempt to +re-write it.... But it is not true that 'hot love soon cools.' With all +my faults--and to say that I am an O'Molly is to admit that I have +faults, and I am not sure that I would wish to be without them. To speak +paradoxically, a fault in some cases does better than a virtue--as on +some organs 'the wrong note in certain passages has a better effect than +the right.' But, as I was saying, with all my faults, I have never yet +changed toward a friend; I will not admit even to the ante-chamber of my +heart a single thought untrue to my friend. Though it is true my friends +are so few that I could more than count them on my fingers, had I but +one hand.... And these few friends--what shall I say of them? They have +become so a part of my constant thoughts and feelings, so a part of +myself, that I can not project them--if I may so speak--from my own +interior self, so as to portray them. Have you not such friends? Are +there none whom to love has become so a _habit_ of your life that you +are almost unconscious of it--that you hardly think of it, any more than +you think--_'I breathe'_? + +There is probably no one who has not some time in his or her life felt +the dreariness of fancied friendliness. I can recall in my own +experience at least one time when this dreary feeling came over me. It +was during a twilight walk home from a visit. I can convey to you no +idea of the utter loneliness of the unloved feeling; it seemed that not +even the love of God was mine, or if it was, there was not individuality +enough in it; it was so diffused; this one, whom I disliked--that +insignificant person, might share in it. I know not how long I indulged +in these thoughts, with my eyes on the ground, or seeing all things 'as +though I saw them not,' but when I did raise them to take cognizance of +any thing, there was, a few degrees above the horizon, the evening star; +it shone as entirely on me as though it shone on me _exclusively_. It is +thus, I thought, with _His_ love; thus it melts into each individual +soul. Such gentle thoughts as these, long after the star had sunk behind +the western mountains, were a calm light in my soul. And I awoke the +next morning, the old cheerful + +MOLLY O'MOLLY. + + + + +VI. + + +I have often thought what splendid members of the diplomatic corps women +would make, especially married women. As much delicate management is +required of them, they have as much financiering to do as any minister +plenipotentiary of them all. Let a woman once have an object in view, +and 'o'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense or rare; with +head, hands, or feet, _she_ pursues _her_ way, and swims, or sinks, or +wades, or creeps, or flies;' but _she attains her object_. + +You poor, hood-winked portion of humanity--man--you think you know +woman; that she 'can't pull the wool over your eyes.' Just take a +retrospective view. Did your wife ever want any thing that she didn't +somehow get it? Whether a new dress, or the dearest secret of your soul, +she either, Delilah-like, wheedled it out of you, or, in a passion, you +almost _flung_ it at her, as an enraged monkey flings cocoa-nuts at his +tormentor. + +And how she has changed your habits, has turned the course of your life, +made it flow in the channel _she_ wished, instead of, as heretofore, +'wandering at its own sweet will,' as the gently-winding but useless +brook has been converted into a mill-race. + +There is Mr. Jones. Before he married, as free and easy a man as ever +smoked a meerschaum. Mrs. Jones is considered a pattern woman; but of +that you can judge for yourself. Her first reformation was in regard to +his club, from which he returned home late, redolent of brandy-punch, +and lavish of _my dears_. All she could say to him had no effect, till, +after the birth of little Nellie, she joined a Ladies' Reading Society, +meeting on his club evening; he wouldn't leave the baby to the care of a +servant, consequently staid at home himself. + +He was also in the habit of resorting to the gymnasium, ostensibly for +exercise, as he was dyspeptic; but his wife suspected it was more to +meet his old cronies. Finding retrenchment necessary, and looking on +gymnastics somewhat as a Yankee looks on a fine stream that turns no +mill, she dismissed one of the servants, and so arranged it that the +surplus strength that formerly so ran to waste should make the fires, +rock the cradle, and split certain hickory logs. Very soon Mr. Jones, +who is a lawyer, found his business so much increased that he was +obliged to remain in his office all day, except at meal-time; after +which, however heartily he might have eaten, he never complained of +indigestion. With this, thrifty Mrs. Jones was delighted, till one day +she surprised him in his office, enveloped in tobacco-smoke, with +elevated feet, reading a nice new novel; you may be sure that after +that, she insisted on the exercise. As their family increased, thinking +still further retrenchment necessary, she gently broached the +relinquishing of the meerschaum. Finding him obstinate in his +opposition, she one day accidentally broke it. It was one that he had +been coloring for years; he had devoted time and attention to it, that, +if properly directed, might have made him a German philosopher, an +antiquary, or a profound theologian; or, if devoted to his law studies, +would have fitted him for Chief-Justice of the United States. + +The countryman who mistook for a bell-rope the cord attached to a +shower-bath, was not more astonished at the result of pulling it, than +she was at the result of this trifling accident. Such an overwhelming +torrent of abuse as was poured on her devoted head; such an array of +offenses as was marshaled before her; Banquo's issue wasn't a +circumstance to the shadowy throng. She had recourse to woman's only +means of assuaging the angry passions of man--tears, (you know the +region of constant precipitation is a perpetual calm;) but these, +instead of operating like oil poured on the troubled waters, were rather +like oil thrown on the fire. Pleading her delicate health, she hinted +that his unkindness would kill her, and that, when she was gone, her +sweet face would haunt him. Muttering something about one consolation, +ghosts couldn't speak till spoken to, and he was sure he wouldn't break +the spell of silence, he picked up his hat and strode out of the house, +slamming the door after him. For a while, Mrs. Jones was struck with +consternation; she felt somewhat as the woman must have felt who, in +attempting to pull up a weed, overturned the monument that crushed her; +and, though not quite crushed by the weight of Mr. Jones's indignation, +she only resolved to give no more tugs at the weed that had taken such +deep root in his heart; and that, if he brought home another meerschaum, +(which he did that evening,) it was best to ignore its existence. Mrs. +Jones says she believes that the meerschaum absorbs 'the disagreeable' +of a man's temper, as it is said to absorb that of tobacco; at least, +her husband is never so serene as when smoking one. Indeed, it is said +that the fiercest birds of prey can be tamed by tobacco-smoke. + +Don't think that after this little _contretemps_ all Mrs. Jones's +authority was at an end; no, indeed; though she had, by stroking the +wrong way the docile, domestic animal, roused him into a tiger, she +hastened to smooth him down; and time would fail me to give even a list +of her reforms. + +After having heard her story, as I did, chiefly from her own lips, my +wonder at the immense Union army, raised on such short notice, was +considerably diminished. 'Extremes meet.' Probably Union and disunion +sentiments met in the mind of many a volunteer Jones. Then, too, I used +to wonder at the ease with which men apparently forget their buried +wives, and marry again; and, as I then had a great respect for the race, +thought their hearts must be very rich, new affections spring up with +such amazing rapidity; like the soil of the tropics, whose vegetation is +hardly cut down before there is a new, luxuriant growth. I've, however, +since come to the conclusion, that the poor man, somehow feeling that he +must marry, chooses in a manner at random, having, the first time, taken +the greatest care, and 'caught a Tartar,' in the same sense that the man +had with whom the phrase originated, that is, _the Tartar had caught +him_. + +In my childhood I was particularly fond of the hoidenish amusement of +jumping out of our high barn-window, and landing on the straw +underneath. The first few times I went to the edge--then drew +back--looked again--almost sprang--again stepped back--till finally I +took the leap. Thus old bachelors take the matrimonial leap--not so +widowers--how is it to be accounted for? Well, brother man, (for this is +the nearest relationship to you that I can claim,) you do about as well +in this way as in any other. You are destined to be taken in as +effectually as was Jonah, when he made that 'exploration of the +interior,' or, as was the fly, when Dame Spider's 'parlor' proved to be +a dining-room. + +Sam Slick says that 'man is common clay--woman porcelain.' Alas! there +is but little genuine porcelain. It is a pity that you couldn't contrive +to have a few jars before matrimony, to crack off some of the glazing, +and show the true character of the ware. + +And you, sister woman, learn a lesson from the 'tiny nautilus,' which, +'by yielding, can defy the most violent ragings of the sea.' And, though +man is so nicely adapted to your management that it is obviously the end +of his creation, remember Mrs. Jones's trifling miscalculation in regard +to the meerschaum, and--_'N'évéillez pas le chat qui dort.'_ + +Abruptly yours, MOLLY O'MOLLY. + + + + +GLANCES FROM THE SENATE-GALLERY. + + +The comparative excellence of different periods of eloquence and +statesmanship affords a subject of curious and profitable contemplation. +The action of different systems of government, encouraging or depressing +intellectual effort, the birth of occasions which elicit the powers of +great minds, and the peculiar characteristics of the manner of thinking +and speaking in different countries, are observable in considering this +topic. A pardonable curiosity has led the writer frequently to visit the +United States Senate Chamber, and to place mentally the intellectual +giants of that body in contrast with their predecessors on the same +scene, and with the eminent orators and statesmen of other countries and +other ages; and the result of such comparisons has always been to awaken +national pride, and to convince that the polity bequeathed us by our +fathers, no less than the distinctive genius of the race, have +practically demonstrated that a free system is the most prolific in the +production of animated oratory and vigorous statesmanship. Undoubtedly, +the golden age of American eloquence must be fixed in the time of +General Jackson, when Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Rives, Woodbury, and Hayne +sat in the Upper House; and whatever may be our wonder, when we +contemplate the brilliant orations of the British statesmen who shone +toward the close of the last century, if we turn from Burke to Webster, +from Pitt to Calhoun, from Fox to Clay, and from Sheridan to Randolph +and to Rives, Americans can not be disappointed by the comparison. Since +the death of the last of that illustrious trio, whose equality of powers +made it futile to award by unanimity the superiority to either, and yet +whose greatness of intellect placed them by common assent far above all +others, the eloquence of the Senate has been less brilliant and less +interesting. And yet it has not fallen below a standard of eloquence +equal, if not superior, to that of any other nation. Unlike the English +and the French, who have to go back more than half a century to deplore +their greatest Senators and Ministers, the grave closed over the +greatest American intellects within the memory of the present +generation; and the contrast between the Senate of to-day and the Senate +of a score of years ago, is too striking, perhaps, to give us an +impartial idea of the abilities which now guide the nation. + +The Senate which is at present deliberating on the gravest questions +which our legislature has been called upon to consider since the +establishment of the Constitution, is, without doubt, inferior in point +of eminent talent, to the Senate of Webster's time, and even to the +Senate which closed its labors on the day of Mr. Lincoln's inauguration. +In this latter body were three men, who, though far below the great trio +preceding them, still occupied in a measure their commanding influence +on the floor and before the country: one of whom now holds an Executive +office, another sits in the Lower House, and the third has passed away +from the scenes of his triumphs forever. Mr. Seward, whose keen logic, +accurate statement of details, and imperturbable coolness, remind one of +Pitt and Grey, was considered, while Senator from New-York, as the +leading Statesman of the body, and was the nucleus around which +concentrated the early adherents of the now dominant party. Mr. +Crittenden's fervent and earnest declamation, wise experience, and +good-nature, gave him a high rank in the respect and esteem of his +colleagues, while his age and life-long devotion to the service of the +state, endowed him with unusual authority. The lamented Douglas, who +surpassed every other American statesman in casual discussion, and whose +name will rank with that of Fox, in the art of extempore debate, could +not fail to be the leader of a large party, and the popular idol of a +large mass, by the manly energy of his character, his devotion to +popular principles, and a rich and sonorous eloquence, which convinced +while it delighted. + +It must also in candor be admitted, that the secession of the Southern +Senators from the floor, made a decided breach in the oratorical +excellence of that body. However villainous their statesmanship, and to +whatever traitorous purposes they lent the power of their eloquence, +there were several from the disaffected States who were eminent in a +skillful and brilliant use of speech. Probably the man who possessed the +most art in eloquence, and who united a keen and plausible sophistry +with great brilliancy of language and declamation with the highest +skill, was Benjamin, of Louisiana. Born a Hebrew, and bearing in his +countenance the unmistakable indications of Jewish birth, his person is +small, thick, and ill-proportioned; his expression is far less +intellectual than betokening cunning, while his whole manner fails to +give the least idea, when he is not speaking, of the wonderful powers of +his mind. + +Shrewd and unprincipled, devoting himself earnestly and without the +least scruple of conscience to two objects--the acquisition of money and +the success of treason--he yet concealed the true character of his +designs under an apparently ingenuous and fervent delivery, and in the +garb of sentiments worthy a Milton or a Washington. His voice, deeply +musical, and uncommonly sweet, enhanced the admiration with which one +viewed his matchless delivery, in which was perfect grace, and entire +harmony with the expressions which fell from his lips. How mournful a +sight, to see one so nobly gifted, leading a life of baseness and vice, +devoting his immortal qualities to the vilest selfishness, and to the +betrayal of his country and of liberty! Should the descendant of an +oppressed and persecuted race take part with oppressors? Senator +Benjamin is a renegade to the spirit of freedom which animated his +ancestors. + +He who, among the Southern Senators, ranked as an orator next to +Benjamin, now leads the rebellious hosts against the flag under which he +was reared, and lends his unquestioned powers to the demolition of the +great Republic of which he was once a brilliant ornament. Certainly +endowed with more forethought and practical wisdom than any of his +Democratic colleagues, well qualified by his calm survey of every +question and every political movement, to lead a large party, and +forcible and ironical in debate, Jefferson Davis stood at the head of +the disaffected in the Senate, as he now does in the field. Cautious and +deliberate in speech, he yet never failed to launch out in strong +invective, and to make effective use of irony in his attacks. He is in +personal appearance, rather small and thin, with a refined and decidedly +intellectual countenance, and a not unamiable expression. His health +alone prevented his rising to the first rank of American orators; and +what of his statesmanship was not directed to the accomplishment of +partisan purposes, gave him much consideration. He was incapable, from +a weak constitution, of sustaining, at great length, the vivacity and +energy with which he commenced his speeches; and therefore, their sharp +sarcasm and great power, made them appear more considerable in print +than in the delivery. Even after he had enlisted all his energies in the +detestable scheme which he is now trying to fulfill, his prudence halted +at the rash idea he had embraced; and he attempted for a moment to stem +the torrent, by voting for the Crittenden propositions. His delivery was +graceful and dignified, his manner sometimes courteous, often +contemptuous, and always impressive. His eloquence consisted rather in +the lucid logic and deliberate thought evinced than for rhetorical +beauty or range of imagination; occasionally, however, he would diverge +from the plain thread of argument, and rise to declamation of striking +brilliancy and power. Over-quick, with all his natural phlegm, to +discern and to resent personal affronts--oftentimes when there was no +occasion therefor--he was a favorable exemplar of that peculiar, and to +our mind, somewhat incomprehensible quality, which the Southern people +glory in, and which they dignify by the stately epithet of 'chivalry.' +On the whole, he must be regarded as the ablest, and therefore the most +culpable and dangerous of the insurgent leaders; and he may, perhaps, be +considered the first of Southern statesmen since the time of Calhoun. + +Another Senator who occupied a high rank as a partisan and statesman +among the Southern Democracy, was Hunter, of Virginia. He is a +thickly-built person, with a countenance possessing but little +expression, and far from intellectual; and would rather be noticed by +one sitting in the gallery for the negligence of his dress, utter want +of dignity, and exceedingly unsenatorial bearing, than for any other +external qualities. But when he had spoken a few moments, a decided +soundness of head, and shrewdness, appeared to enter into the +composition of his mind. No man in the Senate had a juster idea of +financial philosophy; and his services on the Committee devoted to that +department, were highly appreciated by every one. He was, however, +little trusted by loyal Senators, and his frequent professions of +devotion to the Union, failed to conceal the bent of his mind toward +those with whom he is now in intimate concert. Sincerity had least place +of all the virtues in his breast; and his hypocrisy, somewhat hidden by +the apparent ingenuousness and conciliatory address of his manner, +became manifest in actions and votes, rather than in words. He was, so +far as can now be ascertained, one of the prime movers of the Senatorial +cabal, or caucus, which was devoted either to the complete dominance of +the Southern element in the Union, or to their forcible secession from +the Union; and was probably as active and earnest a traitor, long before +the doctrine of secession was ventured upon, as the most fiery of +South-Carolina fire-eaters. Mr. Hunter is, in private, courteous and +affable, and, indeed, in the debates in which he took part, he never +transgressed the rules of respect due to his colleagues, or violated the +dicta of parliamentary etiquette. + +His colleague, Mason, is an irritable, petulant, arrogant man, not +without a certain ability in debate, but censorious, and unconfined by +the restraints of decency in his tirades against the North. He was 'one +of the finest-looking men,' if we speak phrenologically, in the last +Senate; and would always be noticed for his dignified manner and fine +head, by a stranger visiting the Chamber for the first time. We have +briefly noticed him, rather on account of the notoriety recently +attached to his name by the 'Trent' affair, than from his prominence +among Southern orators and statesmen--his talent, being, in fact, of a +decidedly mediocre description. + +While speaking of Mason, it will be _apropos_ to allude to his late +companion in trouble, John Slidell, who was certainly the shrewdest +politician and party tactician among his friends on the north side of +the chamber; he is indeed the Nestor of intriguers. From the time when, +early in life, he aspired to, and in a degree succeeded in controlling +the politics of the Empire City, up to this hour, when he is with +snake-like subtleness attempting to poison French honor, his career has +been a series of successful intrigues. Utterly devoid of moral +principle, he resembles his late colleague, Benjamin, in the immorality +of his life, and the baseness of his ends, attained by as base means. He +is rather a good-looking man, short, with snowy-white hair and red face, +his countenance indicative of the secretiveness and cunning of his +character. He was rather the caucus adviser and manager than one of the +orators of his party; seldom speaking, and never except briefly and to +the point. Imagination in him has been warped and made torpid by a life +of dissipation, as well as by his practical tendencies. He is, like many +other Southern statesmen, courteous and pleasing in social conversation; +but is heartless, selfish, and malignant in his enmities. + +Robert Toombs stood deservedly high in the traitorous cabal in the +Senate; for, to a bold and energetic spirit, great arrogance of manner, +and activity, he added a powerful mind and a clear head. In the street, +he would strike you as a self-conceited, bullying, contemptuous person, +with brains in the inverse proportion to his body, which was large and +apparently strong. His manner, when addressing the Senators, had indeed +much of an overbearing and insolent spirit; but the impression, in +regard to his character, after hearing him speak, was much better than +before. There was an indication of strength behind the bullying, +blustering air which he put on, which raised one's respect for his +attainments. One of the most rabid and uncompromising of secession +leaders, and bigoted in his hatred of the North, he was yet, in private, +a courteous and hospitable gentleman, and, apparently at least, frank in +the expression of opinion. Probably he had as little principle in +political and social life as most of his associates in treason; while +his great self-reliance, activity, and mental ability gave him a very +high position in their confidence. He was tall and stout, though not +corpulent; and was very negligent of his toilet and dress. Self-conceit +was written on his countenance, and displayed itself in his arrogant +assumptions of superiority. But his method of dealing with his Northern +opponents was open and bold, although insolent and overbearing, and not +like Hunter, Davis, and Benjamin, using ingenious sophistry and hidden +sarcasm, cautiously smoothing over their real purpose, by rhetoric and +elegant sentiment. Mr. Toombs became early an object of peculiar dislike +to Northern men, by the rude ingenuousness with which he announced the +last conclusions of his political creed, and the intolerable insolence +with which, not heeding the admonitions of his more cautious +confederates, he thundered out his anathemas of hatred and vengeance on +what he was pleased to call 'Northern tyranny.' It was only when the +crisis came, that others unfolded together their base character and +their hypocrisy. Davis, who had been fondled by New-Englanders but a +year or two since, and Hunter, who had cried for peace and compromise, +standing forth at last in the true light of traitors, and thereby +proclaiming their past life a game of hypocrisy. Toombs, therefore, who +was an original fire-eater, and hence could not be called a hypocrite, +has become less an object of hatred to us of the loyal States, than +those who, while they sat at the cabinet councils, or were admitted to +the confidence of the Executive, or were sent to foreign courts, or +presided over the Upper House, were using the power of such high trusts +for the consummation of a conspiracy against their country, yet +retaining the cant of patriotism and feigning a devotion to the Union. +We have dwelt almost exclusively, in the present chapter, upon Senators +whose highest honors have been tarnished or obliterated by the gravest +of crimes, that of treason toward a vast community. But it has been +with the idea that the least should be presented first, and that the +greater should close the scene; as in royal processions, the monarch +always brings up the rear. We conceive that the great talents which we +have acknowledged, and which doubtless all will agree with us in +acknowledging, the leaders of the Southern rebellion to possess, only +enhance the magnitude of their offense, and serve to illustrate with +greater force the enormity of their purposes. That a brainless fanatic +like Lord George Gordon, or the Neapolitan fisherman, Massaniello, +should stir up tremendous agitation, may be matter for critical study, +but is hardly a subject of wonder. But that men gifted with exalted +ability, undoubted caution, well-balanced intellect, and apparently +refined reason, all of which have been appreciated and acknowledged, +should propound an erroneous doctrine of a chaotic system, and proceed +to the violence of civil war, on what they must know to be a false and +heretical plea, can only remind us of those devils who have been +pictured by the matchless art of Milton, of Dante, and of Goethe, as +possessing stately intellects with perfectly vicious hearts. We propose, +in a future number, if these remarks on public characters are +acceptable, to continue our remarks, by introducing the loyal Senators +of the last Congress, a band of men who will be found to equal in +talent, and immeasurably to surpass in moral rectitude and earnest +patriotism, the bad company from whom we now part. + + + + +MACCARONI AND CANVAS. + + +V. + +THE GRECO. + + +The Café Greco, like the belle of many seasons, lights up best at night. +In morning, in _deshabille_, not all the venerability of its age can +make it respectable. Caper declares that on a fresh, sparkling day, in +the merry spring-time, he once really enjoyed a very early breakfast +there; and that, with the windows of the Omnibus-room open, the fresh +air blowing in, and the sight of a pretty girl at the fourth-story +window of a neighboring house, feeding a bird and tending a rose-bush, +the old café was rose-colored. + +This may be so; but seven o'clock in the evening was _the_ time when the +Greco was in its prime. Then the front-room was filled with Germans, the +second room with Russians and English, the third room--the Omnibus--with +Americans, English, and French, and the fourth, or back-room, was brown +with Spaniards. The Italians were there, in one or two rooms, but in a +minority; only those who affected the English showed themselves, and +aired their knowledge of the Anglo-Saxon tongue and habits. + +'I habituate myself,' said a red-haired Italian of the Greco to Caper, +'to the English customs. I myself lave with hot water from foot to head, +one time in three weeks, like the English. It is an idea of the most +superb, and they tell me I am truly English for so performing. I have +not yet arrive to perfection in the lessons of box, but I have a smart +cove of a bool-dog.' + +Caper told him that his resemblance to an English 'gent' was perfect, at +which the Italian, ignorant of the meaning of that fearful word, smiled +assent. + +The waiter has hardly brought you your small cup of _caffe nero_, and +you are preparing to light a cigar, to smoke while you drink your +coffee, when there comes before you a wandering bouquet-seller. It is, +perhaps, the dead of winter; long icicles are hanging from fountains, +over which hang frosted oranges, frozen myrtles, and frost-nipped +olives, Alas! such things are seen in Rome; and yet, for a dime you are +offered a bouquet of camellia japonicas. By the way, the name camellia +is derived from _Camellas_, a learned Jesuit; probably _La Dame aux +Camélias_ had not a similar origin. You don't want the flowers. + +'Signore,' says the man, 'behold a ruined flower-merchant!' + +You are unmoved. Have you not seen or heard of, many a time, the +heaviest kind of flour-merchants ruined by too heavy speculations, burst +up so high the crows couldn't fly to them; and heard this without +changing a muscle of your face? + +'But, signore, do buy a bouquet to please your lady?' + +'Haven't one.' + +'_Altro_!' answers the man, triumphantly, 'whom did I see the other day, +with these eyes, (pointing at his own,) in a magnificent carriage, +beside the most beautiful _Donna Inglesa_ in Rome? _Iddio giusto_!'.... +At this period, he sees he has made a ten strike, and at once follows it +up by knocking down the ten-pin boy, so as to clear the alley, thus: +'For _her_ sake, signore.' + +You pay a paul, (and give the bouquet to--your landlady's daughter,) +while the departing _mercante di fiori_ assures you that he never, no, +never expects to make a fortune at flowers; but if he gains enough to +pay for his wine, he will be very tipsy as long as he lives! + +Then comes an old man, with a chessboard of inlaid stone, which he +hasn't an idea of selling; but finds it excellent to 'move on,' without +being checkmated as a beggar without visible means of s'port. The first +time he brought it round, and held it out square to Caper, that cool +young man, taking a handful of coppers from his pocket, arranged them as +checkers on the board, without taking any notice of the man; and after +he had placed them, began playing deliberately. He rested his chin on +his hand, and with knitted brows, studied several intricate moves; he +finally jumped the men, so as to leave a copper or two on the board; and +bidding the old man good-night, continued a conversation with Rocjean, +commenced previous to his game of draughts. + +Next approaches a hardware--merchant, for, in Imperial Rome, the peddler +of a colder clime is a merchant, the shoemaker an artist, the artist a +professor. The hardware-man looks as if he might be 'touter' to a +broken-down brigand. All the razors in his box couldn't keep the small +part of his face that is shaved from wearing a look as if it had been +blown up with gunpowder, while the grains had remained embedded there. +He tempts you with a wicked-looking knife, the pattern for which must +have come from the _litreus_ of Etruria, the land called the _mother of +superstitions_, and have been wielded for auguries amid the howls and +groans of lucomones and priests. He tells you it is a Campagna-knife, +and that you must have one if you go into that benighted region; he says +this with a mysterious shake of his head, as if he had known Fra Diavolo +in his childhood and Fra 'Tonelli in his riper years. The +crescent-shaped handle is of black bone; the pointed blade long and +tapering; the three notches in its back catch into the spring with a +noise like the alarum of a rattle-snake. You conclude to buy one--for a +curiosity. You ask why the blade at the point finishes off in a circle? +He tells you the government forbids the sale of sharp-pointed knives; +but, signore, if you wish to _use it_, break off the circle under your +heel, and you have a point sharp enough to make any man have an +_accidente di freddo_, (death from cold--steel.) + +Victor Hugo might have taken his character of Quasimodo from the wild +figure who now enters the Greco, with a pair of horns for sale; each +horn is nearly a yard in length, black and white in color; they have +been polished by the hunchback until they shine like glass. Now he +approaches you, and with deep, rough voice, reminding you of the lowing +of the large grey oxen they once belonged to, begs you to buy them. Then +he facetiously raises one to each side of his head, and you have a +figure that Jerome Bosch would have rejoiced to transfer to canvas. His +portrait has been painted by more than one artist. + +Caper, sitting in the Omnibus one evening with Rocjean, was accosted by +a very seedy-looking man, with a very peculiar expression of face, +wherein an awful struggle of humor to crowd down pinching poverty +gleamed brightly. He offered for sale an odd volume of one of the early +fathers of the Church. Its probable value was a dime, whereas he wanted +two dollars for it. + +'Why do you ask such a price?' asked Rocjean, 'you never can expect to +sell it for a twentieth part of that.' + +'The moral of which,' said the seedy man, no longer containing the +struggling humor, but letting it out with a hearty laugh; 'the moral of +which is--give me half a baioccho!' + +Ever after that, Caper never saw the man, who henceforth went by the +name of _La Morale é un Mezzo Baioccho_! without pointing the moral with +a copper coin. Not content with this, he once took him round to the +_Lepre_ restaurant, and ordered a right good supper for him. Several +other artists were with him, and all declared that no one could do +better justice to food and wine. After he had eaten all he could hold, +and drank a little more than he could carry, he arose from table, having +during the entire meal sensibly kept silence, and wiping his mouth on +his coat-sleeve, spoke: + +'The moral this evening, signori, I shall carry home in my stomach.' + +As he was going out of the restaurant, one of the artists asked him why +he left two rolls of bread on the table; saying they were paid for, and +belonged to him. + +'I left them,' said he, 'out of regard for the correct usages of +society; but, having shown this, I return to pocket them.' + +This he did at once, and Caper stood astonished at the seedy-beggar's +phraseology. + +In addition to these characters, wandering musicians find their way into +the café, jugglers, peddlers of Roman mosaics and jewelry, plaster-casts +and sponges, perfumery and paint-brushes. Or a peripatetic shoemaker, +with one pair of shoes, which he recklessly offers for sale to giant or +dwarf. One morning he found a purchaser--a French artist--who put them +on, and threw away his old shoes. Fatal mistake. Two hours afterward, +the buyer was back in the Greco, with both big toes sticking out of the +ends of his new shoes, looking for that _cochon_ of a shoemaker. + +To those who read men like books, the Greco offers a valuable +circulating library. The advantage, too, of these artistical works is, +that one needs not be a Mezzofanti to read the Russian, Spanish, German, +French, Italian, English, and other faces that pass before one +panoramically. There sits a relation of a hospodar, drinking Russian +tea; he pours into a large cup a small glass of brandy, throws in a +slice of lemon, fills up with hot tea. Do you think of the miles he has +traveled, in a _telega_, over snow-covered steppes, and the smoking +_samovar_ of tea that awaited him, his journey for the day ended? Had he +lived when painting and sculpture were in their ripe prime, what a fiery +life he would have thrown into his works! As it is, he drinks cognac, +hunts wild-boars in the Pontine marshes--and paints Samson and Delilah, +after models. + +The Spanish artist, over a cup of chocolate, has lovely dreams, of burnt +umber hue, and despises the neglected treasures left him by the Moors, +while he seeks gold in--castles in the air. + +The German, with feet in Italy and head far away in the Fatherland, +frequents the German-club in preference to the Greco; for at the club is +there not lager beer?.... In imperial Rome, there are lager beer +breweries! He has the profundities of the esthetical in art at his +finger-ends; it is deep-sea fishing, and he occasionally lands a whale, +as Kaulbach has done; or very nearly catches a mermaid with Cornelius. +Let us respect the man--he _works_. + +The French artist, over a cup of black coffee, with perhaps a small +glass of cognac, is the lightning to the German thunder. If he were +asked to paint the portrait of a potato, he would make eyes about it, +and then give you a little picture fit to adorn a boudoir. He does every +thing with a flourish. If he has never painted Nero performing that +celebrated violin-solo over Rome, it is because he despaired of +conveying an idea of the tremulous flourish of the fiddle-bow. He reads +nature, and translates her, without understanding her. He will prove to +you that the cattle of Rosa Bonheur are those of the fields, while he +will object to Landseer that his beasts are those of the guinea +cattle-show. He blows up grand facts in the science of art with +gunpowder, while the English dig them out with a shovel, and the Germans +bore for them. He finds Raphael, king of pastel artists, and never +mentions his discovery to the English. He is more dangerous with the +_fleurette_ than many a trooper with broadsword. Every thing that he +appropriates, he stamps with the character of his own nationality. The +English race-horse at Chantilly has an air of curl-papers about his mane +and tail. + +The Italian artist--the night-season is for sleep. + +The English artist--hearken to Ruskin on Turner! When one has hit the +bull's-eye, there is nothing left but to lay down the gun, and go and +have--a whitebait dinner. + +The American artist--there is danger of the youthful giant kicking out +the end of the Cradle of Art, and 'scatterlophisticating rampageously' +over all the nursery. + +'I'd jest give a hun-dred dol-lars t'morrow, ef I could find out a way +to cut stat-tures by steam,' said Chapin, the sculptor. + +'I can't see why a country with great rivers, great mountains, and great +institutions generally, can not produce great sculptors and painters,' +said Caper sharply, one day to Rocjean. + +'It is this very greatness,' answered Rocjean, 'that prevents it. The +aim of the people runs not in the narrow channel of mountain-stream, but +with the broad tide of the ocean. In the hands of Providence, other +lands in other times have taken up painting and sculpture with their +whole might, and have wielded them to advance civilization. They have +played--are playing their part, these civilizers; but they are no longer +chief actors, least of all in America. Painting and sculpture may take +the character of subjects there; but their rôle as king is--played out.' + +'Much as you know about it,' answered Caper, 'you are all theory!' + +'That maybe,' quoth Rocjean; 'you know what THEOS means in Greek, don't +you?' + + + + +AMONG THE WILD BEASTS. + + +There came to Rome, in the autumn, along with the other travelers, a +caravan of wild beasts, ostensibly under charge of Monsieur Charles, the +celebrated Tamer, rendered illustrious and illustrated by Nadar and +Gustave Doré, in the _Journal pour Rire_. They were exhibited under a +canvas tent in the Piazza Popolo, and a very cold time they had of it +during the winter. Evidently, Monsieur Charles believed the climate of +Italy belonged to the temperance society of climates. He erred, and +suffered with his '_superbe et manufique_ ÉLLLLLÉPHANT!' 'and when we +reflec', ladies _and_ gentlemen, that there _are_ persons, forty and +even fifty years old, who have never seen the Ellllephant!!!...and who +DARE TO SAY so!!!...' Monsieur Charles made his explanations with teeth +chattering. + +Caper, anxious to make a sketch of a very fine Bengal tiger in the +collection, easily purchased permission to make studies of the animals +during the hours when the exhibition was closed to the public; and as +he went at every thing vigorously, he was before long in possession of +several fine sketches of the tiger and other beasts, besides several +secrets only known to the initiated, who act as keepers. + +The royal Bengal tiger was one of the finest beasts Caper had ever seen, +and what he particularly admired was the jet-black lustre of the stripes +on his tawny sides and the vivid lustre of his eyes. The lion curiously +seemed laboring under a heavy sleep at the very time when he should have +been awake; but then his mane was kept in admirable order. The hair +round his face stood out like the bristles of a shoe-brush, and there +was a curl in the knob of hair at the end of his tail that amply +compensated for his inactivity. The hyenas looked sleek and happy, and +their teeth were remarkably white; but the elephant was the constant +wonder of all beholders. Instead of the tawny, blue-gray color of most +of his species, he was black, and glistened like a patent-leather boot; +while his tusks were as white as--ivory; yea, more so. + +'I don't understand what makes your animals look so bright,' said Caper +one day to one of the keepers. + +'Come here to-morrow morning early, when we make their toilettes, and +you'll see,' replied the man, laughing. 'Why, there's that old hog of a +lion, he's as savage and snaptious before he has his medicine as a +corporal; and looks as old as Methusaleh, until we arrange his beard and +get him up for the day. As for the ellllephant ... ugh!' + +Caper's curiosity was aroused, and the next morning, early, he was in +the menagerie. The first sight that struck his eye was the elephant, +keeled over on one side, and weaving his trunk about, evidently as a +signal of distress; while his keeper and another man were--blacking-pot +and shoe-brushes in hand--going all over him from stem to stern. + +'Good day,' said the keeper to him, 'here's a pair of boots for you! put +outside the door to be blacked every morning, for five francs a day. +It's the dearest job I ever undertook...and the boots are ungrateful! +Here, Pierre,' he continued to the man who helped him, 'he shines +enough; take away the breshes, and bring me the sand-paper to rub up his +tusks. Talk about polished beasts! I believe, myself, that we beat all +other shows to pieces on this 'ere point. Some beasts are more knowing +than others; for example, them monkeys in that cage there. Give that big +fool of a shimpanzy that bresh, Pierre, and let the gentleman see him +operate on tother monkeys.' + +Pierre gave the large monkey a brush, and, to Caper's astonishment, he +saw the animal seize it with one paw, then springing forward, catch a +small monkey with the other paw, and holding him down, in spite of his +struggles, administer so complete a brushing over his entire body that +every hair received a touch. The other monkeys in the cage were in the +wildest state of excitement, evidently knowing from experience that they +would all have to pass under the large one's hands; and when he had +given a final polish to the small one, he commenced a vigorous chase for +his mate, an aged female, who, evidently disliking the ordeal, commenced +a series of ground and lofty tumblings that would have made the fortune +of even the distinguished--Léotard. In vain: after a prolonged chase, in +which the inhabitants of the cage flew round so fast that it appeared to +be full of flying legs, tails, and fur, the large monkey seized the +female and, regardless of her attempts to liberate herself, he brushed +her from head to foot, to the great delight of a Swiss soldier, an +infantry corporal, who had entered the menagerie a few minutes before +the grand hunt commenced. + +'Ma voi!' said the Swiss, pronouncing French with a broad German accent, +'it would keef me krate bleshur to have dat pig monkey in my gombany. He +would mak' virst rait brivate.' + +The keeper, who was still polishing away with sand-paper at the +elephant's tusks, and who evidently regarded the soldier with great +contempt, said to him: + +'He would have been there long since--only he knows too much.' + +'_Ma voi_! that's the reason you're draining him vor a Vrench gavalry +gombany. Vell, I likes dat.' + +'Oh! no,' said the keeper, 'his principles an't going to allow him to +enter our army.' + +'Vell, what are his brincibles?' + +'To serve those who pay best!' quoth the Frenchman, who, in the firm +faith that he had said a good thing, called Pierre to help him adorn the +lion, and turned his back on the Swiss, who, in revenge, amused himself +feeding the monkeys with an old button, a stump of a cigar, and various +wads of paper. + +The keeper then gave the lion a narcotic, and after this medicine, +combed out his mane and tail, waxed his mustache, and thus made his +toilette for the day. The tiger and leopards had their stripes and spots +touched up once a week with hair-dye, and as this was not the day +appointed, Caper missed this part of the exhibition. The hyenas +submitted to be brushed down; but showed strong symptoms of mutiny at +having their teeth rubbed with a toothbrush and their nails pared. + +In half an hour more, the keeper's labors were over, and Caper, giving +him a present for his inviting him to assist as spectator at _la +toilette bien béte_, or beastly dressing, walked off to breakfast, +evidently thinking that _Art_ was not dead in that menagerie, whatever +Rocjean might say of its state of health in the world at large. + +'To think,' soliloquized Caper, 'to think of what a bootless thing it +is, to shoe-black o'er an elephant!' + + + + +ROMAN MODELS. + + +The traveler visiting Rome notices in the Piazza di Spagna, along the +Spanish steps, and in the Condotti, Fratina and Sistina streets, either +sunning themselves or slowly sauntering along, many picturesquely-dressed +men, women, and children, who, as he soon learns, are the +professional models of the artists. For a fee of from fifty +cents to a dollar, they will give their professional services for a +sitting four hours in length, and those of them who are most in demand +find little difficulty during the 'business season,' say from the months +of November to May, in earning from one and a half to two dollars, and +even more, every day. Many of them, living frugally, manage to make what +is considered a fortune among the _contadini_ in a few years; and Hawks, +the English artist, who spent a summer at Saracenesca, found, to his +astonishment, that one of the leading men of the town, one who loaned +money at very large interest, owned property, and who was numbered among +the heavy wealthy, was no other than a certain Gaetano, he had more than +once used as model, at the price of fifty cents a sitting. + +The government prohibiting female models from posing nude in the +different life-schools, it consequently follows that they pose in +private studios, as they choose; this interdiction does not extend to +the male models; and when Caper was in Rome, he had full opportunities +offered him to draw from these in the English Academy, and in the +private schools of Gigi and Giacinti. Supported by the British +government, the English artist has, free of all expense, at this truly +National Academy, opportunities to sketch from life, as well as from +casts, and has, moreover, access to a well-chosen library of books. With +a generosity worthy of all praise, American artists are admitted to the +English Academy, with full permission to share with Englishmen the +advantages of the life-school, free of all cost; a piece of liberality +that well might be copied by the French Academy, without at all +derogating from its high position--on the Pincian Hill. + +If Gigi's school is still kept up, (it was in a small street near the +Trevi fountain,) we would advise the traveler in search of the +picturesque by all means to visit it, particularly if it is in the same +location it was when Caper was there. It was over a stable, in the +second story of a tumble-down old house, frequented by dogs, cats, +fleas, and rats; in a room say fifty feet long by twenty wide. A +semi-circle of desks and wooden benches went round the platform where +stood the male models nude, or on other evenings, male and female models +in costumes, Roman or Neapolitan. Oil lamps gave enough light to enable +the artists who generally attended there to draw, and color in oils or +water-colors, the costumes. The price of admittance for the costume +class was one paul, (ten cents,) and as the model only posed about two +hours, the artists had to work very fast to get even a rough sketch +finished in that short time. Americans, Danes, Germans, Spaniards, +French, Italians, English, Russians, were numbered among the attendants, +and more than once, a sedate-looking English-woman or two would come in +quietly, make a sketch, and go away unmolested and almost unnoticed. + +More than three-quarters of the sketches made by Caper at Gigi's +costume-class were taken from models in standing positions. At the end +of the first hour, they had from ten to fifteen minutes allowed them to +rest; but these minutes were seldom wasted by the artist, who improved +them to finish the lines of his drawing, or dash in color. The powers of +endurance of the female models were better than those of the men; and +they would strike a position and keep it for an hour, almost immovable. +Noticeable among these women, was one named Minacucci, who, though over +seventy years old, had all the animation and spirit of one not half her +age; and would keep her position with the steadiness of a statue. She +had, in her younger days, been a model for Canova; had outlived two +generations; and was now posing for a third. If you have ever seen many +figure-paintings executed in Rome, your chance is good to have seen +Minacucci's portrait over and over again. Caper affirms that of any +painting made in Rome from the years 1856 to 1860, introducing an +Italian head, whether a Madonna or sausage-seller, he can tell you the +name of the model it was painted from nine times out of ten! The fact +is, they do want a new model for the Madonna badly in Rome, for Giacinta +is growing old and fat, and Stella, since she married that cobbler, has +lost her angelic expression. The small boy who used to pose for angels +has smoked himself too yellow, and the man who stood for Charity has +gone out of business. + +'I have,' said Caper to me the other day, 'too much respect for the +public to tell them who the man with red hair and beard used to pose +for; but he has taken to drinking, and it's all up with him.' + +Spite of fleas, rats, squalling cats, dog-fights, squealing of horses, +and braying of donkeys, lamp-smoke, and heat or cold, the hours passed +by Caper in Gigi's old barracks were among the pleasantest of his Roman +life. There was such novelty, variety, and brilliancy in the costumes to +be sketched, that every evening was a surprise; save those nights when +Stella posed, and these were known and looked forward to in advance. She +always insured a full class, and when she first appeared, was the beauty +of all the models. + +Caper was sitting one afternoon in Rocjean's studio, when there was a +tap at the door. + +'_Entrate_!' shouted Rocjean, and in came a female model, called Rita. +It was the month of May, business was dull; she wanted employment. +Rocjean asked her to walk in and rest herself. + +'Well, Rita, you haven't any thing to do, now that the English have all +fled from Rome before the malaria?' + +'Very little. Some of the Russians are left up there in the Fratina; but +since the Signore Giovanni sold all his paintings to that rich Russian +banker, _diavolo_! he has done nothing but drink champagne, and he don't +want any more models.' + +'What is the Signore Giovanni's last name?' asked Caper. + +'Who knows, Signore Giacomo? I don't. We others (_noi altri_) never can +pronounce your queer names, so we find out the Italian for your first +names, and call you by that. Signore Arturo, the French artist, told me +once that the English and Russians and Germans had such hard names they +often broke their front-teeth out trying to speak them; but he was +joking. _I_ know the real, true reason for it.' + +'Come, let us have it,' said Rocjean. + +'_Accidente_! I won't tell you; you will be angry.' + +'No we won't,' spoke Caper, 'and what is more, I will give you two pauls +if you will tell us. I am very curious to know this reason.' + +'_Bene_, now the _prete_ came round to see me the other day; it was when +he purified the house with holy water, and he asked me a great many +questions, which I answered so artlessly, yes, so artlessly! whew! [here +Miss Rita smiled artfully.] Then he asked me all about you heretics, and +he told me you were all going to--be burned up, as soon as you died; for +the Inquisition couldn't do it for you in these degenerate days. After a +great deal more twaddle like this, I asked him why you heretics all had +such hard names, that we others never could speak them? Then he looked +mysterious, so! [here Miss Rita diabolically winked one eye,] and said +he: 'I will tell you, _per Bacco_! hush, it's because they are so +abominably wicked, never give any thing to OUR Church, never have no +holy water in their houses, never go to no confession, and are such +monsters generally, that their police are all the time busy trying to +catch them; but their names are so hard to speak that when the police go +and ask for them, nobody knows them, and so they get off; otherwise, +their country would have jails in it as large as St. Peter's, and they +would be full all the time!' + +'H'm!' said Rocjean, 'I suppose you would be afraid to go to such +horrible countries, among such people?' + +'Not I,' spoke Rita,'didn't Ida go to Paris, and didn't she come back to +Rome with such a magnificent silk dress, and gold watch, and such a +bonnet! all full of flowers, and lace, and ribbons? Oh! they don't eat +'nothing but maccaroni' there! And they don't have priests all the time +sneaking round to keep a poor girl from earning a little money honestly, +and haul her up before the police if her _carta di soggiorno_ [permit to +remain in Rome] runs out. I wish [here Rita stamped her foot and her +eyes flashed] Garibaldi would come here! Then you would see these black +crows flying, _Iddio giusto_! Then we would have no more of these +_arciprete_ making us pay them for every mouthful of bread we eat, or +wine we drink, or wood we burn.' + +'Why,' said Caper, 'they don't keep the baker-shops, and wine-shops, and +wood-yards, do they?' + +'No,' answered Rita, 'but they speculate in them, and Fra 'Tonelli makes +his cousins and so on inspectors; and they regulate the prices to suit +themselves, and make oh! such tremen-di-ous fortunes. [Here Rita opened +her eyes, and spread her hands, as if beholding the elephant.] Don't I +remember, some time ago, how, when the Pope went out riding, he found +both sides of the way from the Vatican to San Angelo crowded with people +on their knees, groaning and calling to him. Said he to Fra 'Tonelli: + +''What are these poor people about?' + +''Praying for your blessed holiness,' said he, while his eyes sparkled. + +''But,' said the Pope, 'they are moaning and groaning.' + +''It's a way the _poblaccio_ have,' answered 'Tonelli, 'when they pray.' + +'The Pope knew he was lying, so, when he went home to the Vatican, he +sent for one of his faithful servants, and said he: + +''Santi, you run out and see what all this shindy is about?' + +'So Santi came back and told him 'Tonelli had put up the price of bread, +and the people were starving. So the Pope took out a big purse with a +little money in it, and said he: + +''Here, Santi, you go and buy me ten pounds of bread, and get a bill +for it, and have it receipted!' + +'So Santi came back with bread, and bill all receipted, and laid it down +on a table, and threw a cloth over it. By and by, in comes 'Tonelli. +Then the Pope says to him, kindly and smiling: + +''I am confident I heard the people crying about bread to-day; now, tell +me truly, what is it selling for?' + +'Then 'Toneli told him such a lie. [Up went Rita's hands and eyes.] + +'Then the Pope says, while he looked so [knitting her brows]: + +''Oblige me, if you please, by lifting up that cloth.' + +'And'Tonelli did. + +'Bread went down six _baiocchi_ next morning!' + +'By the way, Rita,' asked Rocjean, 'where is your little brother, +Beppo?' + +'Oh! he's home,' she answered, 'but I wish you would ask your friend +Enrico, the German sculptor, if he won't have him again, for his model.' + +'Why, I thought he was using him for his new statue?' + +'He was; but oh! so unfortunately, last Sunday, father went out to see +his cousin John, who lives near Ponte Mole, and has a garden there, and +Beppo went with him; but the dear little fellow is so fond of fruit, +that he ate a pint of raw horse-beans!' + +'Of all the fruit!' shouted Caper. + +'_Si, signore_, it's splendid; but it gave Beppo the colic next day, and +when he went to Signore Enrico's studio to pose for Cupid, he twisted +and wrenched around so with pain, that Signore Enrico told him he looked +more like a little devil than a small love; and when Beppo told him what +fruit he had been eating, Signore Enrico bid him clear out for a savage +that he was, and told him to go and learn to eat them boiled before he +came back again.' + +'I will speak to the Signore Enrico, and have him employ him again,' +said Rocjean. + +'Oh! I wish you would, for the Signore Enrico was very good to Beppo; +besides, his studio is a perfect palace for cigar-stumps, which Beppo +used to pick up and sell--that is, all those he and father didn't smoke +in their pipes.' + +'Make a sketch, Caper,' said Rocjean, 'of Cupid filling up his quiver +with cigar-stumps, while he holds one between his teeth. There's a model +love for you! Now, give Rita those two pauls you promised her, and let +her go. _Adio_!' + + + + + GIULIA DI SEGNI. + + + (_Lines found written on the back of a sketch + in Caper's portfolio._) + + By Roman watch-tower, on the mountaintop, + We stood, at sunset, gazing like the eagles + From their cloud-eyrie, o'er the broad Campagna, + To the Albanian hills, which boldly rose, + Bathed in a flood of red and pearly light. + Far off, and fading in the coming night, + Lay the Abruzzi, where the pale, white walls + Of towns gleamed faintly on their purple sides. + + The evening air was tremulous with sounds: + The thrilling chirp of insects, twittering birds, + Barking of shepherds' fierce, white, Roman dogs; + While from the narrow path, far down below, + We heard a mournful rondinella ring, + Sung by a home-returning mountaineer. + + Then, as the daylight slowly climbed the hills, + And the soft wind breathed music to their steps, + O'er the old Roman watch-tower marched the stars, + In their bright legions--conquerors of night-- + Shedding from silver armor shining light; + As once the Roman legions, ages past, + Marched on to conquest o'er the Latin way, + Gleaming, white-stoned, so far beneath our gaze. + + GIULIA DI SEGNI, 'mid the Volscians born, + Streamed in thy veins that fiery, Roman blood, + Curled thy proud lip, and fired thy eagle eyes. + Faultless in beauty, as the noble forms + Painted on rare Etrurian vase of old; + How life, ennobled by thy love, swept on, + Serene, above the mean and pitiful! + + Stars! that still sparkle o'er old Segni's walls, + Oh! mirror back to me one glance from eyes + That yet may watch you from that Roman tower. + + + + +MR. BROWN BUYS A PAINTING. + + +Caper's uncle, from St. Louis, Mr. William Browne, one day astonished +several artists who were dining with him: + +'My young men,' said he, 'there is one thing pleases me very much about +you all, and that is, you never mention the word Art; don't seem to care +any thing more about the old masters than I would about a lot of old +worn-out broom-sticks; and if I didn't know I was with artists in Rome, +the crib--no, what d' ye call it?' + +'The manger?' suggested Rocjean. + +'Yes,' continued Uncle Bill, 'the manger of art, I should think I was +among a lot of smart merchants, who had gone into the painting business +determined to do a right good trade.' + +'Cash on delivery,' added Caper. + +'Yes, be sure of that. Well, I like it; I feel at home with you; and as +I always make it a point to encourage young business men, I am going to +do my duty by one of you, at any rate. I shan't show favor to my nephew, +Jim, any more than I do to the rest. And this is my plan: I want a +painting five feet by two, to fill up a place in my house in St. Louis; +it's an odd shape, and that is so much in my favor, because you haven't +any of you a painting that size under way, and can all start even. I'll +leave the subject to each one of you, and I'll pay five hundred dollars +to the man who paints the best picture, who has his done within seven +days, _and puts the most work on it_! Do you all understand?' + +They replied affirmatively. + +'But what the thunder,' asked Caper, 'are those of us who don't win the +prize, going to do with paintings of such a size, left on our hands? +Nobody, unless a steamboat captain, who wants to ornament his berths, +just that size, and relieve the tedium of his passengers, would ever +think of buying them.' + +'Well,' replied Uncle Bill, 'I don't want smart young men like you all, +to lose your time and money, so I'll buy the balance of the paintings +for what the canvas and paints cost, and give two dollars a day for the +seven days employed on each painting. Isn't that liberal?' + +'Like Cosmo de Medici,' answered Rocjean; 'and I agree to the terms in +every particular, especially as to putting the most work on it! There +are four competitors--put down their names. Légume, you will come in, +won't you?' + +'Certainly I will, by Jing!' answered the French artist, who prided +himself on his knowledge of English, especially the interjections. + +'Then,' continued Rocjean, 'Caper, Bagswell, Légume, and I, will try for +your five hundred dollar prize. When shall we commence?' + +'To-day is Tuesday,' replied Uncle Bill; 'say next Monday--that will +give you plenty of time to get your frames and canvases. So that ends +all particulars. There are two friends of mine here from the United +States, one, Mr. Van Brick, of New York, and the other, Mr. Pinchfip, of +Philadelphia, whom I think you all met here last week.' + +'The thin gentleman with hair very much brushed, be Gad?' asked Légume. + +'I don't remember as to his hair,' answered Uncle Bill, 'but that's the +man. Well, these two I know will act as vampires, and I am sure you will +be pleased with their verdict. Monday after next, therefore, we will all +call, so be ready.' + + * * * * * + +The four artists took the whole thing as a joke, but determined to paint +the pictures; and at Caper's suggestion, each one agreed, as there was a +play of words in the clause, 'most work on it,' to puzzle Uncle Bill, +and have the laugh on him. + +On the day appointed to decide the prize, Uncle Bill, accompanied by +Messrs. Van Brick and Pinchfip, called first at Légume's studio; they +found him in the Via Margutta, (in English, Malicious street,) in a +light, airy room, furnished with a striking attention to effect. On his +easel was a painting of the required size, representing Louis XV. at +Versailles, surrounded by his lady friends. By making the figures of the +ladies small, and crowding them, Légume managed to get a hundred or two +on the canvas. A period in their history to which Frenchmen refer with +so much pleasure, and with which they are so conversant, was treated by +the artist with professional zeal. The merits of the painting were +carefully canvassed by the two judges. Mr. Pinchfip found it exceedingly +graceful, neat, and pretty. Mr. Van Brick admired the females, remarking +that he should like to be in old Louis's place. To which Légume bowed, +asserting that he was sure he was in every way qualified to fill it. Mr. +Van Brick determined in his mind to give the artist a dinner, at +Spillman's, for that speech. + +Mr. Pinchfip took notes in a book; Mr. Van Brick asked for a light to a +cigar. The former congratulated the artist; the latter at once asked him +to come and dine with him. Mr. Pinchfip wished to know if he was related +to the Count Légume whom he had met at Paris. Mr. Van Brick told him he +would bring his friend Livingston round to buy a painting. Mr. Pinchfip +said that it would afford him pleasure to call again. Mr. Van Brick gave +the artist his card, and shook hands with him:...and the judges were +passing out, when Légume asked them to take one final look at the +painting to see if it had not the _most work_ on it. Mr. Van Brick +instantly turned toward it, and running over it with his eye, burst into +an uncontrollable fit of laughter. + +'If the others beat that, I am mistaken,' said he. 'Look at there!' +calling the attention of Uncle Bill and Mr. Pinchfip to a fold of a +curtain on which was painted, in small letters, + +'MOST WORK.' + +'I say, Browne,' continued Mr. Van Brick, 'he is too many for you; and +if the one who puts 'most work' on his painting is to win the five +hundred dollars, Légume's chance is good.' + +'Very ingenious,' said Mr. Pinchfip, 'very; it is a legitimate play upon +words. But legally, I can not affirm that I am aware of any precedent +for awarding Mr. Browne's money to Monsieur Légume on this score.' + +'We will have to make a precedent, then,' spoke Van Brick, 'and do it +illegally, if we find that he deserves the money. But time flies, and we +have the other artists to visit.' + +They next went to Bagswell's studio, in the Viccolo dei Greci, and found +him in a large room, well furnished, and having a solidly comfortable +look; the walls ornamented with paintings, sketches, costumes, armor; +while in a good light under its one large window, was his painting. They +found he had left his beaten track of historical subjects, and in the +_genre_ school had an interior of an Italian country inn--a +kitchen-scene. It represented a stout, handsome country girl, in +Ciociara costume, kneading a large trough of dough, while another girl +was filling pans with that which was already kneaded, and two or three +other females were carrying them to an oven, tended by a man who was +piling brush-wood on the fire. The painting was very life-like, and for +the short time employed on it, well finished. It wanted the fire and +dash of Légume's painting, but its truthfulness to life evidently made a +deep impression on Uncle Bill. Stuck on with a sketching-tack to one +corner was a piece of paper, on which was marked the number of hours +employed each day on the work; it summed up fifty-four hours, or an +average each day of nearly eight hours' work on it. + +Mr. Pinchfip's note-book was again called into play. Mr. Van Brick had +another cigar to smoke, remarking that the artist had triple work in his +picture--head, bread, and prize-work: his picture representing working +in, over, and for bread! + +They next went to see Rocjean, in the Corso; they found him in a +bournouse, with a fez on his head, a long chibouk in his mouth, smoking +away, extended at full length on a settee, which he insisted was a +divan. There was a glass bottle holding half a gallon of red wine on a +table near him, also a bottle of Marsala, and half a dozen glasses. +There was a roaring wood-fire in his stove--for it was December, and the +day was overcast and cool. + +'This is the most out and out comfortable old nest I've seen in Rome,' +said Mr. Van Brick, as they entered; 'and as for curiosities and +plunder, you beat Barnum. _Will I take a glass of wine_? I am there!' + +Rocjean filled up glasses. Mr. Pinchfip declining, as he never drank +before dinner, neither did he smoke before dinner. He told them that the +late Doctor Phyzgig, who had always been their (the Pinchfips') family +physician, had absolutely forbidden it. + +No one made any remark to this, unless Mr. Van Brick's expressive face +could be translated as observing, in a quiet manner, that the late +Doctor was possibly dyspeptic, and probably nervous. + +Rocjean's painting represented a view of the Claudian aqueduct, +mountains in the distance; bold foreground, shepherd with flocks, a +wayside shrine, peasants kneeling in front of it. Over all, bold cloud +effects. A very ponderous volume balanced on top of the picture, and +leaning against the easel, invited Uncle Bill's attention, and he asked +Rocjean why he had put it there? The artist answered that it was a folio +copy of _Josephus_, his works, and, as he was anxious to comply with the +terms of Mr. Browne, he had placed it there in order to put the _most +work_ on it. + +Mr. Pinchfip having asked Rocjean why, in placing that book there, he +was like a passenger paying his fare to the driver of an omnibus? + +The latter at once answered: + +'I give it up.' + +'So you do,' replied Pinchfip. 'You are quick, sir, at answering +conundrums.' + +Mr. Brick saw it. Finally Uncle Bill was made to comprehend. + +'Very excellent, sir; very ingenious! Philadelphians may well be proud +of the high position they have as punsters, utterers of _bon mots_ and +conundrums,' said Rocjean; 'I have had the comfort of living in your +city, and thoroughly appreciating your--markets.' + +After Rocjean's the judges and Uncle Bill went to Caper's studio. As +they entered his room they found that ingenious youth walking, in his +shirt-sleeves, in as large a circle as the room would permit, bearing on +his head a large canvas, while a quite pretty female model, named +Stella, sat on a sofa, marking down something on a piece of paper, using +the sole of her shoe for a writing-desk. + +'We-ell!' said Uncle Bill. + +'One more round,' quoth Caper, with unmoved countenance, 'and I will be +with you. That will make four hundred and fifty, won't it, Stella?' + +'_Eh, Gia_, one more is all you want.' And making an extra scratch with +a pencil, the female model surveyed the new-comers with a triumphant +air, plainly saying: 'See there! I can write, but I am not proud.' + +'What are you about, Jim?' + +'Look at that painting!' answered Caper. 'The Blessing of the Donkeys, +Horses, etc.; it is one of the most imposing ceremonies of the Church. +As my specialty is animal, I have chosen it for my painting; and not +contented with laboring faithfully on it, I have determined, in order to +put the thing beyond a doubt as to my gaining the prize, to put the +_most work_ on it of any of my rivals; so I have actually, as Stella +will tell you, carried it bodily four hundred and fifty times round this +studio.' + +'Instead of a painting, I should think you would have made a panting of +it,' spoke Mr. Van Brick. + +'The idea seems to me artful,' added Mr. Pinchfip, 'but after all, this +pedestrian work was not on the painting, but under it; therefore, +according to Blackstone on contracts, this comes under the head of a +consideration _do, ut facias_, see vol. ii. page 360. How far moral +obligation is a legal consideration, see note, vol. iii. p. 249 +Bossanquet and Puller's Reports. The principle _servus facit, ut herus +det_, as laid down by....' + +'Jove!' exclaimed Uncle Bill, 'couldn't you stop off the torrent for one +minute? I'm drowning--I give up--do with me as you see fit.' + + * * * * * + +'And now,' said Mr. Van Brick, 'that we have seen the four paintings, +let us, Mr. Pinchfip, proceed calmly to discover who has won the five +hundred dollars. Duly, deliberately, and gravely, let us put the four +names on four slips of paper, stir them up in a hat. Mr. Browne shall +then draw out a name, the owner of that name shall be the winner.' + +It was drawn, and by good fortune for him, Bagswell won the five hundred +dollars. Thus Uncle Bill Browne bought one painting for a good round +sum, and three others at the stipulated price. Which one of the four had +the _most work_ on it, is, however, an unsettled question among three of +the artists, to this day. + + + + + FOR THE HOUR OF TRIUMPH. + + + Victory comes with a palm in her hand, + With laurel upon her brow; + Cypress is clinging about her feet, + But its dark blossoms are red and sweet, + And the weeping mourners bow. + + It is well. Through her tears, the widow smiles + To the child upon her knee; + 'Thou'rt fatherless, darling; but he fell + Gallantly fighting, and long and well, + For the banner of the free!' + + Then, weeping: 'Alas! for my lost, lost love; + Alas! for my own weak heart; + I know, when the storm shall pass away, + My boy, in manhood, would blush to say: + 'My blood had therein no part." + + The maiden her lover weeps, unconsoled, + So desolate is her gloom; + But a voice falls softly through the air, + Whispering comfort to her despair, + 'Love _here_ hath fadeless bloom.' + + The father laments for his boy, who fell + By Cumberland's river-side; + The sister, her brother loved the best, + Whose blood, in the dark and troubled West, + The father of waters dyed. + + The mother--oh! silence your Spartan tales-- + Says bravely, hushing a moan: + 'I have yet _one_ left. My boy! go on; + Rear freedom's banner high in the sun!' + Then sits in the house alone. + + To die for one's country is sweet, indeed! + To fight for the right is brave; + But there are brave hearts who vainly wait + Till triumph shall find them desolate, + Their hopes in a far-off grave. + + O mourners! be patient; the end shall come; + The beautiful years of peace. + Remember! though hearts rebel the while + You hide your tears with a mournful smile, + That tyranny soon shall cease. + + For victory comes, a palm in her hand, + Fresh garlands about her brow; + But the cypress trailing under her feet, + With crimson blossoms, by tears made sweet, + Shall wreathe with the laurel now. + + + + + IN TRANSITU. + + + When the acid meets the alkali, + How they sputter, snap, and fly! + Such a crackling, such a pattering! + Such a hissing, such a spattering! + + All in foaming discord tossed, + One would swear that all is lost. + Yet the equivalents soon blend, + All comes right at last i' the end. + + Country mine!--'tis so with thee. + Wait--and all will quiet be! + Men, while working out a mission, + Must not fear the fierce transition. + + + + +AMONG THE PINES. + + +I sauntered out, after the events recorded in the last paper, to inhale +the fresh air of the morning. A slight rain had fallen during the night, +and it still moistened the dead leaves which carpeted the woods, making +an extended walk out of the question; so, seating myself on the trunk of +a fallen tree, in the vicinity of the house, I awaited the hour for +breakfast. I had not remained there long before I heard the voices of my +host and Madam P---- on the front piazza: + +'I tell you, Alice, I can not--must not do it. If I overlook this, the +discipline of the plantation is at an end.' + +'Do what you please with him when you return,' replied the lady, 'but do +not chain him up, and leave me, at such a time, alone. You know Jim is +the only one I can depend on.' + +'Well, have your own way. You know, my darling, I would not cause you a +moment's uneasiness, but I must follow up this d----d Moye.' + +I was seated where I could hear, though I could not see the speakers, +but it was evident from the tone of the last remark, that an action +accompanied it quite as tender as the words. Being unwilling to overhear +more of a private conversation, I rose and approached them. + +'Ah! my dear fellow,' said the Colonel, on perceiving me, 'are you +stirring so early? I was about to send to your room to ask if you'll go +with me up the country. My d----d overseer has got away, and I must +follow him at once.' + +'I'll go with pleasure,' I replied. 'Which way do you think Moye has +gone?' + +'The shortest cut to the railroad, probably; but old Cæsar will track +him.' + +A servant then announced breakfast--an early one having been prepared. +We hurried through the meal with all speed, and the other preparations +being soon over, were in twenty minutes in our saddles, and ready for +the journey. The mulatto coachman, with a third horse, was at the door, +ready to accompany us, and as we mounted, the Colonel said to him: + +'Go and call Sam, the driver.' + +The darky soon returned with the heavy, ugly-visaged black who had been +whipped, by Madam P----'s order, the day before. + +'Sam,' said his master, 'I shall be gone some days, and I leave the +field-work in your hands. Let me have a good account of you when I +return.' + +'Yas, massa, you shill dat,' replied the negro. + +'Put Jule--Sam's Jule--into the field, and see that she does full +tasks,' continued the Colonel. + +'Hain't she wanted 'mong de nusses, massa?' + +'Put some one else there--give her field-work; she needs it.' + +I will here explain that on large plantations the young children of the +field-women are left with them only at night, being herded together +during the day in a separate cabin, in charge of nurses. These nurses +are feeble, sickly women, or recent mothers; and the fact of Jule's +being employed in that capacity was evidence that she was unfit for +out-door labor. + +Madam P----, who was waiting on the piazza to see us off, seemed about +to remonstrate against this arrangement, but she hesitated a moment, and +in that moment we had bidden her 'Good-by,' and galloped away. + +We were soon at the cabin of the negro-hunter, and the coachman +dismounting, called him out. + +'Hurry up, hurry up,' said the Colonel, as Sandy appeared, 'we haven't a +moment to spare.' + +'Jest so, jest so, Cunnel; I'll jine ye in a jiffin,' replied he of the +reddish extremities. + +Emerging from the shanty with provoking deliberation--the impatience of +my host had infected me--the clay-eater slowly proceeded to mount the +horse of the negro, his dirt-bedraggled wife, and clay-incrusted +children, following close at his heels, and the younger ones huddling +around for the tokens of paternal affection usual at parting. Whether it +was the noise they made, or their frightful aspect, I know not, but the +horse, a spirited animal, took fright on their appearance, and nearly +broke away from the negro, who was holding him. Seeing this, the Colonel +said: + +'Clear out, you young scarecrows. Into the house with you.' + +'They hain't no more scarecrows than yourn, Cunnel J----,' said the +mother, in a decidedly belligerent tone. 'You may 'buse my old man--he +kin stand it--but ye shan't blackguard my young 'uns!' + +The Colonel laughed, and was about to make a good-natured reply, when +Sandy yelled out: + +'Gwo enter the house and shet up, ye ---- ----.' + +With this affectionate farewell, he turned his horse and led the way up +the road. + +The dog, who was a short distance in advance, soon gave a piercing howl, +and started off at the speed of a reindeer. He had struck the trail, and +urging our horses to their fastest speed, we followed. + +We were all well mounted, but the mare the Colonel had given me was a +magnificent animal, as fleet as the wind, and with a gait so easy that +her back seemed a rocking-chair. Saddle-horses at the South are trained +to the gallop--Southern riders deeming it unnecessary that one's +breakfast should be churned into a Dutch cheese by a trotting nag, in +order that one may pass for a good horseman. + +We had ridden on at a perfect break-neck pace for half an hour, when the +Colonel shouted to our companion: + +'Sandy, call the dog in; the horses won't last ten miles at this +gait--we've a long ride before us.' + +The dirt-eater did as he was bidden, and we soon settled into a gentle +gallop. + +We had passed through a dense forest of pines, but were emerging into a +'bottom country,' where some of the finest deciduous trees, then brown +and leafless, but bearing promise of the opening beauty of spring, +reared, along with the unfading evergreen, their tall stems in the air. +The live-oak, the sycamore, the Spanish mulberry, the mimosa, and the +persimmon, gayly festooned with wreaths of the white and yellow +jessamine, the woodbine and the cypress-moss, and bearing here and there +a bouquet of the mistletoe, with its deep green and glossy leaves +upturned to the sun--flung their broad arms over the road, forming an +archway grander and more beautiful than any the hand of man ever wove +for the greatest heroes the world has worshiped. + +The woods were free from underbrush, but a coarse, wiry grass, unfit for +fodder, and scattered through them in detached patches, was the only +vegetation visible. The ground was mainly covered with the leaves and +burs of the pine. + +We passed great numbers of swine, feeding on these burs, and now and +then a horned animal browsing on the cypress-moss where it hung low on +the trees. I observed that nearly all the swine were marked, though they +seemed too wild to have ever seen an owner, or a human habitation. They +were a long, lean, slab-sided race, with legs and shoulders like a deer, +and bearing no sort of resemblance to the ordinary hog except in the +snout, and that feature was so much longer and sharper than the nose of +the Northern swine, that I doubt if Agassiz would class the two as one +species. However, they have their uses--they make excellent bacon, and +are 'death on snakes;' Ireland itself is not more free from the +serpentine race than are the districts frequented by these long-nosed +quadrupeds. + +'We call them Carolina race-horses,' said the Colonel, as he finished an +account of their peculiarities. + +'Race-horses! Why, are they fleet of foot?' + +'Fleet as deer. I'd match one against an ordinary horse at any time.' + +'Come, my friend, you're practicing on my ignorance of natural history.' + +'Not a bit of it. See! there's a good specimen yonder. If we can get him +into the road, and fairly started, I'll bet you a dollar he'll beat +Sandy's mare on a half-mile stretch--Sandy to hold the stakes and have +the winnings.' + +'Well, agreed,' I said, laughing, 'and I'll give the pig ten rods the +start.' + +'No,' replied the Colonel, 'you can't afford it. He'll _have_ to start +ahead, but you'll need that in the count. Come, Sandy, will you go in +for the pile?' + +I'm not sure that the native would not have run a race with Old Nicholas +himself, for the sake of so much money. To him it was a vast sum; and as +he thought of it, his eyes struck small sparks, and his enormous beard +and mustachio vibrated with something that faintly resembled a laugh. +Replying to the question, he said: + +'Kinder reckon I wull, Cunnel; howsomdever, I keeps the stakes, anyhow?' + +'Of course,' said the planter, 'but be honest--win if you can.' + +Sandy halted his horse in the road, while the planter and I took to the +woods on either side of the way. The Colonel soon maneuvered to separate +the selected animal from the rest of the herd, and, without much +difficulty, got him into the road, where, by closing down on each flank, +we kept him till he and Sandy were fairly under way. + +'He'll keep to the road when once started,' said the Colonel, laughing, +'and he'll show you some of the tallest running you ever saw in your +life.' + +Away they went. At first the pig seemed not exactly to comprehend the +programme, for he cantered off at a leisurely pace, though he held his +own. Soon, however, he cast an eye behind him--halted a moment to +collect his thoughts and reconnoiter--and then, lowering his head and +elevating his tail, put forth all his speed. And such speed! Talk of a +deer, the wind, or a steam-engine--their gait is not to be compared with +it. Nothing in nature I have ever seen run--except, it may be, a +Southern tornado, or a Sixth Ward politician--could hope to distance +that pig. He gained on the horse at every pace, and I soon saw that my +dollar was gone! + +'In for a shilling in for a pound,' is the adage, so turning to the +Colonel, I said, as intelligibly as my horse's rapid steps, and my own +excited risibilities would allow: + +'I see I've lost, but I'll go you another dollar that you can't beat the +pig!' + +'No--sir!' the Colonel got out in the breaks of his laughing explosions; +'you can't hedge on me in that manner. I'll go a dollar that _you_ can't +do it, and your mare is the fastest on the road. She won me a thousand +not a month ago.' + +'Well, I'll do it; Sandy to have the stakes.' + +'Agreed,' said the Colonel, and away we went. + +The swinish racer was about a hundred yards ahead when I gave the mare +the reins, and told her to go. And she did go. She flew against the wind +with a motion so rapid that my face, as it clove the air, felt as if +cutting its way through a solid body, and the trees, as we passed, +seemed taken with a panic, and running for dear life in the opposite +direction. + +For a few moments I thought the mare was gaining, and I turned to the +Colonel with an exultant look. + +'Don't shout till you win, my boy,' he called out from the distance +where I was fast leaving him and Sandy. + +_I did not shout_, for spite of all my efforts the space between me and +the pig seemed to widen. Yet I kept on, determined to win, till, at the +end of a short half-mile, we reached the Waccamaw--the swine still a +hundred yards ahead! There his pig-ship halted, turned coolly around, +eyed me for a moment, then quietly and deliberately trotted off into the +woods. + +A bend in the road kept my companions out of sight for a few moments, +and when they came up I had somewhat recovered my breath, though the +mare was blowing hard, and reeking with foam. + +'Well,' said the Colonel, 'what do you think of our bacon 'as it runs'?' + +'I think the Southern article can't be beat, whether raw or cooked, +standing or running.' + +At this moment the hound, who had been leisurely jogging along in the +rear, disdaining to join in the race in which his dog of a master and I +had engaged, came up, and dashing quickly on to the river's edge, set up +a most dismal howling. The Colonel dismounted, and clambering down the +bank, which was there twenty feet high, and very steep, shouted out: + +'The d--d Yankee has swum the stream!' + +'Why so?' Tasked. + +'To cover his tracks and delay pursuit; but he has overshot the mark. +There is no other road within ten miles, and he must have taken to this +one again beyond here. He's lost twenty minutes by that maneuver. Come, +Sandy, call on the dog, we'll push on a little faster.' + +'But he tuk to t'other bank, Cunnel. Shan't we trail him thar?' asked +Sandy. + +'And suppose he found a boat here,' I suggested, 'and made the shore +some ways down?' + +'He couldn't get Firefly into a boat--we should only waste time in +scouring the other bank. The swamp this side the next run has forced him +into the road within five miles. The trick is transparent. He took me +for a fool,' replied the Colonel, answering both questions at once. + +I had reined my horse out of the road, and when my companions turned to +go, was standing at the edge of the bank, overlooking the river. +Suddenly I saw, on one of the abutments of the bridge, what seemed a +long, black log--strange to say, _in motion!_ + +'Colonel,' I shouted, 'see there! a living log, as I'm a white man!' + +'Lord bless you,' cried the planter, taking an observation, 'it's an +alligator!' + +I said no more, but pressing on after the hound, soon left my companions +out of sight. For long afterward, the Colonel, in a doleful way, would +allude to my lamentable deficiency in natural history--particularly in +such branches as bacon and 'living logs.' + +I had ridden about five miles, keeping well up with the hound, and had +reached the edge of the swamp, when suddenly the dog darted to the side +of the road, and began to yelp in the most frantic manner. Dismounting, +and leading my horse to the spot, I made out plainly the print of +Firefly's feet in the sand. There was no mistaking it--that round shoe +on the off fore-foot. (The horse had, when a colt, a cracked hoof, and +though the wound was outgrown, the foot was still tender.) These prints +were dry, while the tracks we had seen at the river were filled with +water, thus proving that the rain ceased while the overseer was passing +between the two places. He was then not far off. + +The Colonel and Sandy soon rode up. + +'Caught a living log! eh, my good fellow?' asked my host, with a laugh. + +'No; but here's the overseer as plain as daylight; and his tracks not +wet!' + +Quickly dismounting, he examined the ground, and then exclaimed: + +'The d--l! it's a fact--here not four hours ago! He has doubled on his +tracks since, I'll wager, and not made twenty miles--we'll have him +before night, sure! Come, mount--quick.' + +We sprang into our saddles, and again pressed rapidly on after the dog, +who followed the scent at the top of his speed. + +Some three miles more of wet, miry road took us to the run of which the +Colonel had spoken. Arrived there, we found the hound standing on the +bank, wet to the skin, and looking decidedly chop-fallen. + +'Death and d--n!' shouted the Colonel; 'the dog has swum the run, and +lost the trail on the other side! The d--d scoundrel has taken to the +water, and balked us after all! Take up the dog, Sandy, and try him +again over there.' + +The native spoke to Cæsar, who bounded on to the horse's back in front +of his master. They then crossed the stream, which there was about fifty +yards wide, and so shallow that in the deepest part the water only +touched the horse's breast, but it was so roiled by the recent rain that +we could not distinguish the foot-prints of the horse beneath the +surface. + +The dog ranged up and down on the opposite bank, but all to no purpose: +the overseer had not been there. He had gone either up or down the +stream--in which direction, was now the question. Calling Sandy back to +our side of the run, the Colonel proceeded to hold a 'council of war.' +Each one gave his opinion, which was canvassed by the others, with as +much solemnity as if the fate of the Union hung on the decision. + +The native proposed we should separate--one go up, another down the +stream, and the third, with the dog, follow the road; to which he +thought Moye had finally returned. Those who should explore the run +would easily detect the horse's tracks where he had left it, and then +taking a straight course to the road, we could all meet some five miles +further on, at a place indicated. + +I gave in my adhesion to Sandy's plan, but the Colonel overruled it on +the ground of the waste of time to be incurred in thus recovering the +overseer's trail. + +'Why not,' he said, 'strike at once for the end of his route? Why follow +the slow steps he took in order to throw us off the track? He has not +come back to this road. Six miles below there is another one leading +also to the railway. He has taken that. We might as well send Sandy and +the dog back at once, and go on by ourselves.' + +'But if bound for the Station, why should he wade through the creek +here, sis miles out of his way? Why not go straight on by the road?' I +asked. + +'Because he knew the dog would track him, and he hoped by taking to the +run to make me think he had crossed the country instead of striking for +the railroad.' + +I felt sure the Colonel was wrong, but knowing him to be tenacious of +his own opinions, I made no further objection. + +Directing Sandy to call on Madam P---- and acquaint her with our +progress, he then dismissed the negro-hunter, and we once more turned +our horses up the road. + +The next twenty miles, like our previous route, lay through an unbroken +forest, but as we left the water-courses, we saw nothing but the gloomy +pines, which there--the region being remote from the means of +transportation--were seldom tapped, and presented few of the openings +that invite the weary traveler to the dwelling of the hospitable +planter. + +After a time the sky, which had been bright and cloudless all the +morning, grew overcast and gave out tokens of a coming storm. A black +cloud gathered in the west, and random flashes darted from it far off in +the distance; then gradually it neared us; low mutterings sounded in the +air, and the tops of the tall pines a few miles away, were lit up now +and then with a fitful blaze, all the brighter for the deeper gloom that +succeeded. Then a terrific flash and peal broke directly over us, and a +great tree, struck by a red-hot bolt, fell with a deafening crash, +half-way across our path. Peal after peal followed, and then the +rain--not filtered into drops as it falls from our colder sky, but in +broad, blinding sheets, poured full and heavy on our shelterless heads. + +'Ah! there it comes!' shouted the Colonel. 'God have mercy upon us!' + +Suddenly a crashing, crackling, thundering roar rose above the storm, +filling the air, and shaking the solid earth till it trembled beneath +our horses' feet, as if upheaved by a volcano. Nearer and nearer the +sound came, till it seemed that all the legions of darkness were +unloosed in the forest, and were mowing down the great pines as the +mower mows the grass with big scythe. Then an awful, sweeping crash +thundered directly at our backs, and turning round, as if to face a +foe, my horse, who had borne the roar and the blinding flash till then, +unmoved, paralyzed with dread, and panting for breath, sunk to the +ground; while close at my side the Colonel, standing erect in his +stirrups, his head uncovered to the pouring sky, cried out: + +'THANK GOD, WE ARE SAVED!' + +There--not three hundred yards in our rear, had passed the +TORNADO--uprooting trees, prostrating dwellings, and sending many a soul +to its last account, but sparing us for another day! For thirty miles +through the forest it had mowed a swath of two hundred feet, then moved +on to stir the ocean to its briny depths. + +With a full heart, I remounted, and turning my horse, pressed on in the +rain. We said not a word till a friendly opening pointed the way to a +planter's dwelling. Then calling to me to follow, the Colonel dashed up +the by-path which led to the mansion, and in five minutes we were +warming our chilled limbs before the cheerful fire that roared and +crackled on its broad hearth-stone. + +The house was a large, old-fashioned frame building, square as a +packing-box, and surrounded, as all country dwellings at the South are, +by a broad, open piazza. Our summons was answered by its owner, a +well-to-do, substantial, middle-aged planter, wearing the ordinary +homespun of the district, but evidently of a station in life much above +the common 'corn-crackers' I had seen at the country meeting-house. The +Colonel was an acquaintance, and greeting us with great cordiality, our +host led the way directly to the sitting-room. There we found a bright, +blazing fire, and a pair of bright, blazing eyes, the latter belonging +to a blithesome young woman of about twenty, with a cheery face, and a +half-rustic, half-cultivated air, whom our new friend introduced to us +as his wife. + +'I regret not having had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. S---- before, but +am very happy to meet her now,' said the Colonel, with all the +well-bred, gentlemanly ease that distinguished him. + +'The pleasure is mutual, Colonel J----,' replied the lady, 'but thirty +miles in this wild country should not have made a neighbor so distant as +you have been.' + +'Business, madam, is at fault, as your husband knows. I have much to do; +and besides, all my connections are in the other direction--with +Charleston.' + +'It's a fact, Sally, the Colonel is the d----st busy man in these parts. +Not content with a big plantation and three hundred niggers, he looks +after all South-Carolina, and the rest of creation to boot,' said our +host. + +'Tom will have his joke, madam, but he's not far from the truth.' + +Seeing we were dripping wet, the lady offered us a change of clothing, +and retiring to a chamber, we each appropriated a suit belonging to our +host, giving our own to a servant to be dried. + +Arrayed in the fresh apparel, we soon rejoined our friends in the +sitting-room. The new garments fitted the Colonel tolerably well, but +though none too long, they were a world too wide for me, and, as my wet +hair hung in smooth, flat folds down my cheeks, and my limp shirt-collar +fell over my linsey coat, I looked for all the world like a cross +between a theatrical Aminadab Sleek and Sir John Falstaff, with the +stuffing omitted. When our hostess caught sight of me in this new garb, +she rubbed her hands together in great glee, and, springing to her feet, +gave vent to a perfect storm of laughter--jerking out between the +explosions: + +'Why--you--you--look jest like--a scare-crow.' + +There was no mistaking that hearty, hoidenish manner; and seizing both +of her hands in mine, I shouted: 'I've found you out--you're a +'country-woman' of mine--a clear-blooded Yankee!' + +'What! _you_ a Yankee!' she exclaimed, still laughing, 'and here with +this horrid 'seceshener,' as they call him.' + +'True as preachin', ma'am,' I replied, adopting the drawl--'all the way +from Down East, and Union, tu, stiff as buckram.' + +'Du tell!' she exclaimed, swinging my hands together as she held them in +hers. 'If I warn't hitched to this ere feller, I'd give ye a smack right +on the spot. I'm _so_ glad to see ye.' + +'Do it, Sally--never mind _me_,' cried her husband, joining heartily in +the merriment. + +Seizing the collar of my coat with both hands, she drew my face down +till my lips almost touched hers, (I was preparing to blush, and the +Colonel shouted, 'Come, come, I shall tell his wife,') but then, turning +quickly on her heel, she threw herself into a chair, exclaiming, 'I +wouldn't mind, but the _old man would be jealous;_' and adding to the +Colonel, 'You needn't be troubled, sir; no Yankee girl will kiss _you_ +till you change your politics.' + +'Give me that inducement, and I'll change them on the spot,' said the +Colonel. + +'No, no, Dave, 'twouldn't do,' replied the planter, 'the conversion +wouldn't be genuwine--besides, such things arn't proper, except with +blood-relations--and all the Yankees, you know, are first-cousins.' + +The conversation then subsided into a more placid mood, but lost none of +its genial good-humor. Refreshments were soon set before us, and while +partaking of them I gathered from our hostess that she was a Vermont +country-girl, who, some three years before, had been induced by liberal +pay, to come South as a teacher. A sister accompanied her, who, about a +year after their arrival, had married a neighboring planter. Wishing to +be near the sister, our hostess had also married and settled down for +life in that wild region. 'I like the country very well,' she added; +'it's a great sight easier living here than in Vermont; but I do hate +these lazy, shiftless, good-for-nothing niggers; they are _so_ slow, and +_so_ careless, and _so_ dirty, that I sometimes think they will worry +the very life out of me. I du believe I'm the hardest mistress in all +the district.' + +I learned from her that a majority of the teachers at the South are from +the North, and principally, too, from New-England. Teaching is a very +laborious employment there, far more so than with us, for the +Southerners have no methods like ours, and the same teacher usually has +to hear lessons in branches all the way from Greek and Latin to the +simple A B C. The South has no system of public instruction; no common +schools; no means of placing within the reach of the sons and daughters +of the poor even the elements of knowledge. While the children of the +wealthy are most carefully educated, it is the policy of the ruling +class to keep the great mass of the people in ignorance; and so long as +this policy continues, so long will that section be as far behind the +North as it now is in all that constitutes the elements of prosperity +and true greatness. + +The afternoon wore rapidly and pleasantly away in the genial society of +our wayside friends. Politics were discussed, (our host was a Union +man,) the prospects of the turpentine crop talked over, the recent news +canvassed, the usual neighborly topics touched upon, and--I hesitate to +confess it--a considerable quantity of corn-whisky disposed of, before +the Colonel discovered, all at once, that it was six o'clock, and we +were still seventeen miles from the railway station. Arraying ourselves +again in our dried garments, we bade a hasty but regretful 'good-by' to +our hospitable entertainers, and once more took to the road. + +The storm had cleared away, but the ground was heavy with the recent +rain, and our horses were sadly jaded with the ride of the morning. We +therefore gave them the reins, and as they jogged on at their leisure, +it was ten o'clock at night before we reached the little hamlet of +W----Station, in the State of North-Carolina. + +A large hotel, or station-house, and about a dozen log-shanties made up +the village. Two of these structures were negro-cabins; two were small +groceries, in which the vilest alcoholic compounds were sold at a bit +(ten cents) a glass; one was a lawyer's office, in which was the +post-office, and a justice's court, where, once a month, the small +offenders of the vicinity 'settled up their accounts;' one was a +tailoring and clothing establishment, where breeches were patched at a +dime a stitch, and payment taken in tar and turpentine; and the rest +were private dwellings of one apartment, occupied by the grocers, the +tailor, the switch-tender, the post-master, and the negro _attachés_ of +the railroad. The church and the school-house--the first buildings to go +up in a Northern village, I have omitted to enumerate, because--they +were not there. + +One of the natives told me that the lawyer was a 'stuck-up critter;' 'he +don't live; he don't--he puts-up at th' hotel.' And the hotel! Would +Shakspeare, had he known of it, have written of taking one's _ease_ at +his inn? It was a long, framed building, two stories in hight, with a +piazza extending across its side, and a front door crowded as closely +into one corner as the width of the joist would permit. Under the +piazza, ranged along the wall, was a low bench, occupied by about forty +tin wash-basins and water-pails, with coarse, dirty crash towels +suspended on rollers above them. By the side of each of these towels +hung a comb and a brush, to which a lock of every body's hair was +clinging, forming in the total a stock sufficient to establish any +barber in the wig business. + +It was, as I have said, ten o'clock when we reached the station. +Throwing the bridles of our horses over the hitching-posts at the door, +we at once made our way to the bar-room. That apartment, which was in +the rear of the building, and communicated with by a long, narrow +passage, was filled almost to suffocation, when we entered, by a cloud +of tobacco-smoke, the fumes of bad whisky, and a crowd of drunken +chivalry, through whom the Colonel with great difficulty elbowed his way +to the counter, where 'mine host' and two assistants were dispensing +'liquid death,' at the rate of ten cents a glass, and of ten glasses a +minute. + +'Hello, Colonel! how ar' ye?' cried the red-faced liquor-vender, as he +caught sight of my companion, and--relinquishing his lucrative +employment for a moment--took the Colonel's hand. + +'Quite well, thank you, Miles,' said the Colonel, with a certain +patronizing air, 'have you seen my man Moye?' + +'Moye, no! What's up with him?' + +'He's run away with my horse, Firefly--I thought he would have made for +this station. At what time does the next train go up?' + +'Wal, it's due half arter 'leven, but 'taint gin'rally 'long till nigh +one.' + +The Colonel was turning to join me at the door, when a well-dressed +young man of very unsteady movements, who was filling a glass at the +counter, and staring at him with a sort of dreamy amazement, stammered +out: 'Moye--run--run a--way, zir! that--k--kant be--by G--d. I +know--him, zir--he's a--a friend of mine, and--I'm--I'm d--d if he an't +hon--honest.' + +'About as honest as the Yankees run,' replied the Colonel: 'he's a d--d +thief, sir!' + +'Look here--here, zir--don't--don't you--you zay any--thing 'gainst--the +Yankees. D--d if--if I an't--one of 'em mezelf--zir,' said the fellow +staggering toward the Colonel. + +'_I_ don't care _what_, you are; you're drunk.' + +'You lie--you--you d--d 'ris--'ristocrat--take that,' was the reply, and +the inebriated gentleman aimed a blow, with all his unsteady might, at +the Colonel's face. + +The South-Carolinian stepped quickly aside, and dexterously threw his +foot before the other, who--his blow not meeting the expected +resistance--was unable to recover himself, and fell headlong to the +floor. The Colonel turned on his heel, and was walking quietly away, +when the sharp report of a pistol sounded through the apartment, and a +ball tore through the top of his boot, and lodged in the wall within +two feet of where I was standing. With a spring, quick and sure as the +tiger's, the Colonel was on the drunken man. Wrenching away the weapon, +he seized the fellow by the necktie, and drawing him up to nearly his +full hight, dashed him at one throw to the other side of the room. Then +raising the revolver he coolly leveled it to fire. + +But a dozen strong men were on him. The pistol was out of his hand, and +his arms were pinioned in an instant; while cries of 'Fair play, sir!' +'He's drunk!' 'Don't hit a man when he's down,' and other like +exclamations, came from all sides. + +'Give _me_ fair play, you d--d North-Carolina hounds,' cried the +Colonel, struggling violently to get away, 'and I'll fight the whole +posse of you.' + +'One's 'nuff for _you_, ye d--d fire-eatin' 'ristocrat,' said a long, +lean, bushy-haired, be-whiskered individual who was standing near the +counter: 'ef ye wan't ter fight, _I'll_ 'tend to yer case to onst. Let +him go, boys,' he continued as he stepped toward the Colonel, and parted +the crowd that had gathered around him: 'give him the shootin'-iron, and +let's see ef he'll take a man thet's sober.' + +I saw serious trouble was impending, and stepping forward, I said to the +last speaker: 'My friend, you have no quarrel with this gentleman. He +has treated that man only as you would have done.' + +'P'raps thet's so; but he's a d--d hound of a Seseshener thet's draggin' +us all to h--l; it'll do th' cuntry good to git quit of one on 'em.' + +'Whatever his politics are, he's a gentleman, sir, and has done you no +harm--let me beg of you to let him alone.' + +'Don't beg any thing for me, Mr. K----' growled the Colonel through his +barred teeth, 'I'll fight the d--d corn-cracker, and his whole race, at +once.' + +'No you won't, my friend. For the sake of those at home you won't,' I +said, as I took him by the arm, and partly led, partly forced, him +toward the door. + +'And who in h--l ar ye?' asked the 'corn-cracker,' planting himself +squarely in my way. + +'I'm on the same side of politics with you, Union to the core!' I +replied. + +'Ye ar! Union! Then giv us yer fist,' said he, grasping me by the hand, +'by----it does a feller good to see a man dressed in yer cloes thet +haint 'fraid ter say he's Union, so close to South-Car'lina, tu, as this +ar! Come, hev a drink: come, boys--all round--let's liquor!' + +'Excuse me now, my dear fellow--some other time I'll be glad to join +you.' + +'Jest as ye say, but thar's my fist, enyhow.' + +He gave me another hearty shake of the hand, and the crowd parting, I +made my way with the Colonel out of the room. We were followed by Miles, +the landlord, who, when we had reached the front of the entrance-way, +said: 'I'm right sorry for this row, gentlemen; but th' boys will hev a +time when they git together.' + +'Oh! never mind,' said the Colonel, who had recovered his coolness; 'but +why are all these people here?' + +'Thar's a barbecue cumin' off to-morrer on the camp-ground, and the +house is cram full.' + +'Is that so?' said the Colonel, then turning to me he added, 'Moye has +taken the railroad somewhere else; I must get to a telegraph-office at +once, to head him off. The nearest one is Wilmington. With all these +rowdies here, it will not do to leave the horses alone--will you stay +and keep an eye on them over to-morrow?' + +'Yes, I will, cheerfully.' + +'Thar's a mighty hard set round har now, Cunnel,' said the landlord; +'and the most peaceable git inter scrapes ef they han't no friends. +Hadn't ye better show the gentleman some of your'n, 'fore you go?' + +'Yes, yes, I didn't think of that. Who is here?' + +'Wal, thar's Cunnel Taylor, Bill Barnes, Sam Heddleson, Jo' Shackelford. +Andy Jones, Rob Brown, and lots of others.' + +'Where's Andy Jones?' + +'Reckon he's turned in; I'll see.' As the landlord opened a door which +led from the hall, the Colonel said to me: 'Andy is a Union man, but +he'd fight to the death for me.' + +'Sal!' called out the hotel-keeper. + +'Yas, massa, I'se har,' was the answer from a slatternly woman, awfully +black in the face, who soon thrust her head from the door. + +'Is Andy Jones har?' asked Miles. + +'Yas, massa, he'm turned in up thar on de table.' + +We followed the landlord into the apartment. It was the dining-room of +the hotel, and by the dim light which came from a smoky fire on the +hearth, I saw it contained about a hundred people, who, wrapped in +blankets, bed-quilts and traveling-shawls, and disposed in all +conceivable attitudes, were scattered about on the hard floor and +tables, sleeping soundly. The room was a long, low apartment--extending +across the whole front of the house--and had a wretched, squalid look. +The fire, which was tended by the negro-woman, (she had spread a blanket +on the floor, and was keeping a drowsy watch over it for the night,) had +been recently replenished with green wood, and was throwing out thick +volumes of black smoke, which, mixing with the effluvia from the lungs +of a hundred sleepers made up an atmosphere next to impossible to +breathe. Not a window was open, and not an aperture for ventilation +could be seen! + +Carefully avoiding the arms and legs of the recumbent chivalry, we +picked our way, guided by the negro-girl, to the corner of the room +where the Unionist was sleeping. Shaking him briskly by the shoulder, +the Colonel called out: 'Andy! Andy! wake up!' + +'What--what the d----l is the matter?' stammered out the sleeper, +gradually opening his eyes, and raising himself on one elbow, 'Lord +bless you, Cunnel, is thet you? what in----brought _you_ har?' + +'Business, Andy. Come, get up, I want to see you, and I can't talk +here.' + +The North-Carolinian slowly rose, and throwing his blanket over his +shoulders, followed us from the room. When we had reached the open air +the Colonel introduced me to his friend, who expressed surprise, and a +great deal of pleasure, at meeting a Northern Union man in the Colonel's +company. + +'Look after our horses, now, Miles; Andy and I want to talk,' said the +planter to the landlord, with about as little ceremony as he would have +shown to a negro. + +I thought the white man did not exactly relish the Colonel's manner, but +saying: 'All right, all right, sir,' he took himself away. + +The night was raw and cold, but as all the rooms of the hotel were +occupied, either by sleepers or carousers, we had no other alternative +than to hold our conference in the open-air. Near the railway-track a +light-wood fire was blazing, and, obeying the promptings of the frosty +atmosphere, we made our way to it. Lying on the ground around it, +divested of all clothing except a pair of linsey trowsers and a flannel +shirt, and with their naked feet close to its blaze--roasting at one +extremity, and freezing at the other--were several blacks, the +switch-tenders and woodmen of the station--fast asleep. How human beings +could sleep in such circumstances seemed a marvel, but further +observation convinced me that the Southern negro has a natural aptitude +for that exercise, and will, indeed, bear more exposure than any other +living thing. Nature in giving him such powers of endurance, seems to +have specially fitted him for the life of hardship and privation to +which he is born. + +The fire-light enabled me to scan the appearance of my new acquaintance. +He was rather above the medium height, squarely and somewhat stoutly +built, and had an easy and self-possessed, though rough and unpolished +manner. His face, or so much of it as was visible from underneath a +thick mass of reddish gray hair, denoted a firm, decided character; but +there was a manly, open, honest expression about it that won your +confidence in a moment. He wore a slouched hat and a suit of the +ordinary 'sheep's-gray,' cut in the 'sack' fashion, and hanging loosely +about him. He seemed a man who had made his own way in the world, and I +subsequently learned that appearances did not belie him. The son of a +'poor white' man, with scarcely the first rudiments of book-education, +he had, by sterling worth, natural ability, and great force of +character, accumulated a handsome property, and acquired a leading +position in his adopted district. Though on 'the wrong side of +politics,' his personal popularity was so great that for several +successive years he had been elected to represent his county in the +State Legislature. The Colonel, though opposed to him in politics--and +party feeling at the South runs so high that political opponents are +seldom personal friends--had, in the early part of his career, aided him +by his indorsements; and Andy had not forgotten the service. It was easy +to see that while two men could not be more unlike in character and +appearance than my host and the North-Carolinian, they were warm and +intimate friends. + +'So, Moye has been raisin h--l gin'rally, Cunnel,' said my new +acquaintance after a time. 'I'm not surprised. I never did b'lieve in +Yankee nigger-drivers--sumhow it's agin natur for a Northern man to go +Southern principles quite so strong as Moye did.' + +'Which route do you think he has taken?' asked the Colonel. + +'Wal, I reckon arter he tuk to the run, he made fur the mountings. He +know'd you'd head him on the traveled routes; so he's put, I think, fur +the Missusippe, where he'll sell the horse and make North.' + +'I'll follow him,' said the Colonel, 'to the ends of the earth. If it +costs me five thousand dollars, I'll see him hung.' + +'Wal,' replied Andy, laughing, 'if he's gone North, you'll need a +extradition treaty to kotch him. South-Car'lina, I b'lieve, has set up +fur a furrin country.' + +'That's true,' said the Colonel, also laughing, 'she's 'furrin' to the +Yankees, but not to the old North State.' + +'D----d if she han't,' replied the North-Carolinian, 'and now she's got +out on our company, I swear she must keep out. We'd as soon think of +goin' to h--l in summer time, as of joining partnership with her. +Cunnel, you're the only decent man in the State--d----d if you +han't--and your politics are a'most bad 'nuff to spile a township. It +allers seemed sort o' queer to me, thet a man with such a mighty good +heart as your'n could be so short in the way of brains.' + +'Well, you're complimentary,' replied the Colonel, with the utmost good +nature, 'but let's drop politics; we never could agree, you know. What +shall I do about Moye?' + +'Go to Wilmington, and telegraph all creation: wait a day to har, then +if you don't har, go home, hire a native overseer, and let Moye go to +the d---l. Ef it'll du you any good, I'll go to Wilmington with you, +though I did mean to give you secesheners a little h--l here to-morrer.' + +'No, Andy, I'll go alone. 'Twouldn't be patriotic to take you away from +the barbecue. You'd 'spile' if you couldn't let off some gas soon.' + +'I du b'lieve I shud. Howsumdever, thar's nary a thing I wouldn't do for +you--you knows thet?' + +'Yes, I do, and I wish you'd keep an eye on my Yankee friend here, and +see he don't get into trouble with any of the boys--there'll be a hard +set 'round, I reckon.' + +'Wal, I will,' said Andy, 'but all he's to du is--keep mouth shet.' + +'That seems easy enough,' I replied, laughing. + +A desultory conversation followed for about an hour, when the +steam-whistle sounded, and the up-train arrived. The Colonel got on +board, and bidding us 'good-night,' went on to Wilmington. Andy then +proposed we should look up sleeping accommodations. It was useless to +seek quarters at the hotel, but an empty car was on the turn-out, and +bribing one of the negroes, we got access to it, and were soon stretched +at full length on two of its hard-bottomed seats. + + * * * * * + +The camp-ground was about a mile from the station, and pleasantly +situated in a grove, near a stream of water. It was in frequent use by +the camp-meetings of the Methodist denomination, which sect, at the +South, is partial to these rural religious gatherings. Scattered over +it, with an effort at regularity, were about forty small but neat log +cottages, thatched with the long leaves of the turpentine-pine, and +chinked with branches of the same tree. Each of these houses was floored +with leaves or straw, and large enough to afford sleeping accommodations +for about ten person, provided they spread their bedding on the ground, +and lay tolerably close together. Interspersed among the cabins were +about a dozen canvas tents, which evidently had been erected for this +especial occasion. + +Nearly in the centre of the group of huts, a rude sort of scaffold, four +or five feet high, and surrounded by a rustic railing, served for the +speaker's stand. It would seat about a dozen persons, and was protected +by a roof of pine-boughs, interlaced together so as to keep off the sun, +without affording protection from the rain. In the rear of this stand +were two long tables, made of rough boards, and supported on stout +joists, crossed on each other in the form of the letter X. A canopy of +green boughs shaded the grounds, and the whole grove, which was +perfectly free from underbrush, was carpeted with the soft, brown leaves +of the pine. + +Being fatigued with the ride of the previous day, I did not awake till +the morning was well advanced, and it was nearly ten o'clock when Andy +and I took our way to the camp-ground. Avoiding the usual route, we +walked on through the forest. It was mid-winter, and vegetation lay dead +all around us, awaiting the time when spring should breathe into it the +breath of life and make it a living thing. There was silence and rest in +the deep wood. The birds were away on their winter wanderings; the +leaves hung motionless on the tall trees, and nature seemed resting from +her ceaseless labor, and listening to the soft music of the little +stream which sung a cheerful song as it rambled on over the roots and +fallen branches that blocked its way. But soon a distant murmur arose, +and we had not proceeded far before as many sounds as were heard at +Babel made a strange concert about our ears. The lowing of the ox, the +neighing of the horse, and the deep braying of another animal, mingled +with a thousand human voices, came through the woods. But above and over +all rose the stentorian tones of the stump speaker, + + 'As he trod the shaky platform, + With the sweat upon his brow.' + +About a thousand persons were already assembled on the ground, and a +more motley gathering I never beheld. All sorts of costumes and all +classes of people were there; but the genuine back-woods corn-crackers +composed the majority of the assemblage. As might be expected, much the +larger portion of the audience were men; still I saw some women and not +a few children, many of the country people having taken advantage of the +occasion to give their families a holiday. Some occupied benches in +front of the stand, though a larger number were seated around in groups, +within hearing of the speaker, but paying very little attention to what +he was saying. A few were whittling, a few pitching quoits, or playing +leap-frog, and quite a number were having a quiet game of whist, euchre, +or 'seven-up.' + +The speaker was a well-dressed, gentlemanly-looking man, and a tolerably +good orator. He seemed accustomed to addressing a jury, for he displayed +all the adroitness in handling his subject, and in appealing to the +prejudices of his hearers, that we see in successful special pleaders. +But he overshot his mark. To nine out of ten of his audience, his words +and similes, though correct and sometimes beautiful, were as +unintelligible as the dead languages. He advocated immediate, +unconditional secession; and I thought from the applause which met his +remarks, whenever he seemed to make himself understood, that the large +majority of those present were of the same way of thinking. + +He was succeeded by a heavy-browed, middle-aged man, slightly bent, and +with hair a little turned to gray, but still hale, athletic, and in the +prime and vigor of manhood. His pantaloons and waistcoat were of the +common home-spun, and he used, now and then, a word of the country +dialect; but as a stump-speaker, he was infinitely superior to the more +polished orator who had preceded him. + +He, too, advocated secession as a right and a duty--separation, now and +forever from the dirt-eating, money-loving Yankees, who, he was ashamed +to say, had the same ancestry, and worshiped the same God as himself. He +took the bold ground that slavery is a curse to both the black and the +white, but that it was forced upon this generation before it was born, +by these same greedy, grasping Yankees, who would sell not only the +bones and sinews of their fellowmen, but--worse than that--their own +souls, for gold. It was forced upon them without their consent, and now +that it had become interwoven with all their social life, and was a +necessity of their very existence, the hypocritical Yankees would take +it from them, because, forsooth, it was a sin and a wrong--as if _they_ +had to bear its responsibility, or the South could not settle its own +account with its Maker! + +'Slavery is now,' he continued, 'indispensable to us. Without it, +cotton, rice, and sugar will cease to grow, and the South will starve. +What if it works abuses? What if the black, at times, is overburdened, +and his wife and daughters debauched? Man is not perfect any +where--there are wrongs in every society. It is for each one to give his +account, in such matters, to his God. But in this are we worse than +they? Are there not abuses in society at the North? Are not their +laborers overworked? While sin here hides itself under cover of the +night, does it not there stalk abroad at noonday? If the wives and +daughters of blacks are debauched here, are not the wives and daughters +of whites debauched there? and will not a Yankee barter away the +chastity of his own mother for a dirty dollar? Who fill our brothels? +Yankee women! Who load our penitentiaries, crowd our whipping-posts, +debauch our slaves, and cheat and defraud us all? Yankee men! And I say +unto you, fellow-citizens,' and here the speaker's form seemed to dilate +with the wild enthusiasm which possessed him, ''come out from among +them; be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing,' and thus saith +the Lord God of hosts, who will guide you, and lead you, if need be, to +battle and to victory!' + +A perfect storm of applause followed. The assemblage rose, and one long +wild shout rent the old woods, and made the great trees tremble. It was +some minutes before the uproar subsided; when it did, a voice near the +speaker's stand called out: 'Andy Jones!' The call was at once echoed by +another voice, and soon a general shout for 'Andy!' 'Union Andy!' 'Bully +Andy!' went up from the same crowd which a moment before had so wildly +applauded the secession speaker. + +Andy rose from where he was seated beside me, and quietly ascended the +steps of the platform. Removing his hat, and passing to his mouth a huge +quid of tobacco, from a tin box in his pantaloons-pocket, he made +several rapid strides up and down the speaker's stand, and then turned +squarely to the audience. + +The reader has noticed a tiger pacing up and down in his cage, with his +eyes riveted on the human faces before him. He has observed how he will +single out some individual, and finally stopping short in his rounds, +turn on him with a look of such intense ferocity as makes a man's blood +stand still, and his very breath come thick and hard, as he momentarily +expects the beast will tear away the bars of his cage and leap forth on +the obnoxious person. Now, Andy's fine, open, manly face had nothing of +the tiger in it, but for a moment, I could not divest myself of the +impression, as he halted in his walk up and down the stage, and turned +full and square on the previous speaker--who had taken a seat among the +audience near me--that he was about to spring upon him. Riveting his eye +on the man's face, he at last slowly said: + +'A man stands har and quotes Scriptur agin his feller-man, and forgets +thet 'God made of one blood all nations thet dwell on the face of the +'arth.' A man stands har and calls his brother a thief, and his mother a +harlot, and axes us to go his doctrines! I don't mean his brother in the +Scriptur' sense, nor his mother in a fig'rative sense, but I mean the +brother of his own blood, and the mother that bore him; for HE, +gentlemen, (and he pointed his finger directly at the recent speaker, +while his words came slow and heavy with intense scorn,) HE is a Yankee! +And now, I say, gentlemen, d--n sech doctrins; d--n sech principles; and +d--n the man thet's got a soul so black as to utter 'em!' + +A breathless silence fell on the assemblage, as the person alluded to +sprang to his feet, his face on fire, and his voice thick and broken +with intense rage, and yelled out: 'Andy Jones, by ----, you shall +answer for this!' + +'Sartin', said Andy, coolly inserting his thumbs in the armholes of his +waistcoat; 'eny whar you likes--har--now--ef 'greeable to you.' + +'I've no weapon here, sir, but I'll give you a chance mighty sudden,' +was the fierce reply. + +'Suit yourself' said Andy, with perfect imperturbability; 'but as you +han't jest ready, s'pose you set down and har me tell 'bout your +relation: they're a right decent set--them as I knows--and I'll swar +they're 'shamed of you.' + +A buzz went through the crowd, and a dozen voices called out, 'Be civil, +Andy'--'Let him blow'--'Shet up'--'Go in, Jones'--with other like +elegant exclamations. + +A few of his friends took the aggrieved gentleman aside, and, soon +quieting him, restored order. + +'Wal, gentlemen,' resumed Andy, 'all on you know whar I was raised--over +thar in South-Car'lina. I'm sorry to say it, but it's true. And you all +know my father was a pore man, who couldn't give his boys no chance--and +ef he could, thar warn't no schules in the district--so we couldn't hev +got no book-larning ef we'd been a minded to. Wal, the next plantation +to whar we lived was old Cunnel J----'s, the father of this Cunnel. He +was a d--d old nullifier, jest like his son--but not half so decent a +man. Wal, on his plantation was an old nigger called Uncle Pomp, who'd +sumhow larned to read. He was a mighty good nigger, and he'd hev been in +heaven long afore now ef the Lord hadn't a had sum good use for him down +har--but he'll be thar yet a d--d sight sooner than sum on us white +folks--that's sartin. Wal, as I was saying, Pomp could read, and when I +was 'bout sixteen, and had never seed the inside of a book, the old +darkey said to me one day--he was old then, and thet was thirty years +ago--wal, he said to me: 'Andy, chile, ye orter larn to read--'twould be +ob use to ye when you're grow'd up, and it moight make you a good and +'spected man. Now, come to ole Pomp's cabin, and he'll larn you, Andy, +chile.' I reckon I went. He hadn't nothin' but a Bible and Watts' Hymns; +yet we used to stay thar all the long winter evenings, and by the light +of the fire--we war both so durned pore we couldn't raise a candle +atween us--wal, by the light of the fire he larned me, and 'fore long I +could spell right smart. + +'Now, jest think on thet, gentlemen! I, a white boy, and, 'cordin' to +the Declaration of Independence, jest as good blood as the old Cunnel, +bein' larned to read by an old slave, and that old slave a'most worked +to death, and takin' his nights, when he orter hev been a restin' his +old bones, to larn me! I'm d--d if he don't get to heaven for that one +thing, if for nothin' else. + +'Wal, you all know the rest--how, when I'd grow'd up, I settled har, in +the old North State, and how the young Cunnel backed my paper and set +me a runnin' at turpentinin'. P'r'aps you don't think this has much to +do with the Yankees, but it has a durned sight, as ye'll see raather +sudden. Wal, arter a while, when I'd got a little 'forehanded, I begun +shippin' my truck to York and Bosting; and at last my Yankee factor, he +come out har, inter the backwoods, to see me, and says he: 'Jones, come +North and take a look at us.' I'd sort o' took to him. I'd had lots to +do with him afore ever I seed him, and I allers found him as straight as +a shingle. Wal, I went North, and he took me round, and showed me how +the Yankees does things. Afore I knowed him, I allers thought--as +p'r'aps most on ye do--that the Yankee war a sort o' cross atween the +devil and a Jew; but how do you s'pose I found 'em? I found that they +_sent the pore man's children to schule_. FREE--and that the +schulehouses war a d--d sight thicker than the bugs in Miles Privett's +beds! and thet's saying a heap, for ef eny on you kin sleep in his +house, excep' he takes to the soft side of the floor, I'm d--d. Yas, the +pore man's children are larned thar FREE!--all on 'em--and they've jest +so good a chance as the sons of the rich man! Now, arter that, do you +think that I--as got all my schulin' from an old slave, by the light of +a borrored pine-knot--der you think that _I_ kin say any thing agin the +Yankees? P'r'aps they _do_ steal--though I don't know it--p'r'aps they +_do_ debauch thar wives and darters, and sell thar mothers' vartue for +dollers--but ef they do, I'm d--d ef they don't send pore children ter +schule--and that's more'n we do--and let me tell you, until we do, we +must count on thar bein' cuter and smarter nor we are. + +'This gentleman, too, my friends, who's been a givin' sech a hard +settin' down ter his own relation, arter they've broughten him up and +givin' him sech a good schulein' for nothin', he says the Yankees want +to interfere with our niggers. Now, thet han't so, and they couldn't ef +they would, 'cause it's agin the Constitution--and they stand on the +Constitution a durned sight solider nor we do. Didn't thar big +gun--Daniel Webster--didn't he make mince-meat o' South-Carolina Hayne +on that ar subject? But I tell you they han't a mind to meddle with our +niggers; they're a goin' ter let us go ter h--l our own way--and we're +goin' thar mighty fast, or I hevn't read the last census.' + +'P'r'aps you han't heerd on th' Ab'lisheners, Andy?' cried a voice from +among the audience. + +'Wal, I reckon I hev,' responded the orator. 'I've heerd on 'em, and +seed 'em, too. When I was North I went ter one on thar conventions, and +I'll tell you how they look. They've all long, wimmin's hair, and thin, +shet lips, with big, bawlin' mouths, and long, lean, tommerhawk +faces--'bout as white as vargin dip--and they all talk through the nose, +[giving a specimen,] and they look for all the world jest like the +South-Car'lina fire-eaters--and they _are_ as near like 'em as two peas, +excep' they don't swar quite so bad, but they make up for that in +prayin'--and prayin' too much, I reckon, when a man's a d--d hippercrit, +is 'bout as bad as swearin'. But I tell you, the decent folks up North +han't ab'lisheners. They look on 'em jest as we do on mad dogs, the +itch, or the nigger-traders. + +'Now, 'bout this secession bis'ness--though tan't no use ter talk on +thet, 'cause this State never'll secede--South-Car'lina has done it, and +I'm raather glad she has, for though I was born thar, I say she orter +hev gone to h--l long ago, and now she's got thar--_let her stay!_ But, +'bout thet bis'ness, I'll tell you a story. + +'I know'd an old gentleman once by the name o' Uncle Sam, and he'd a +heap o' sons. They war all likely boys--and strange ter tell, though +they'd all the same mother, and she a white woman, 'bout half on 'em war +colored--not black, but sorter half-and-half. Now, the white sons war +well-behaved, industrious, hard-workin' boys, who got 'long well, +edicated that children, and allers treated the old man decently; but the +mulatter fellers war a pesky set--though some on 'em war better nor +others. They wouldn't work, but set up for airystocrocy--rode in +kerriges, kept fast hosses, bet high, and chawed tobaccer like the +devil. Wal, the result was, _they_ got out at the elbows, and 'cause +they warn't gettin' 'long quite so fast as the white 'uns--though that +war all thar own fault--they got jealous, and one, on 'em, who was +blacker nor all the rest--a little feller, but terrible big on +braggin'--he packed up his truck one night, and left the old man's +house, and swore he'd never come back. He tried ter make the other +mulatters go 'long too, but they put thar fingers ter thar nose, and +says they: 'No you don't!' _I_ was in favor o' lettin' on him stay out +in the cold, but the old man was a bernevolent old critter--so _he_ +says: 'Now, sonny, you jest come back and behave yourself, and I'll +forgive you all on your old pranks, and treat you jest as I allers used +ter; but, ef you won't, why, I'll make you--that's all!' + +'Now, gentlemen, that querrelsome, oneasy, ongrateful, tobaccer-chawin', +high-bettin', hoss-racin', big-braggin', nigger-stealin', +wimmin-whippin', yaller son of the devil, is South-Car'lina; and ef she +don't come back and behave herself in futur', I'm d--d ef she won't be +ploughed with fire, and sowed with salt, and--Andy Jones will help ter +do it.' + +The speaker was frequently interrupted in the course of his remarks by +uproarious applause--but as he closed and descended from the platform, +the crowd sent up cheer after cheer, and a dozen strong men, making a +seat of their arms, lifted him from the ground, and bore him to the head +of the table, where dinner was in waiting. + +The whole of the large assemblage then fell to eating. The dinner was +made up of the barbecued beef and the usual mixture of viands found on a +planter's table, with water from the little brook hard by, and a +plentiful supply of corn-whisky. (The latter beverage, I thought, had +been subjected to the rite of immersion, for it tasted wonderfully like +water.) + +Songs and speeches were intermingled with the masticating exercises, and +the whole company were soon in the best of humor. + +During the meal I was introduced by Andy to a large number of the +'natives,' he taking special pains to tell each one that I was a Yankee, +and a Union man, but always adding, as if to conciliate all parties, +that I was also a guest and a friend of _his_ very particular friend, +'that d--d seceshener, Cunnel J----.' + +Before we left the table, the secession orator happening near, Andy rose +from his seat, and extended his hand to him, saying: + +'Tom, you think I 'sulted you--p'r'aps I did--but you 'sulted my Yankee +friend har, and your own relation, and I hed to take it up, jest for the +looks o' the thing. Come, thar's my hand; I'll fight you ef you want +ter, or we'll say no more 'bout it--jest as you like.' + +'Say no more about it, Andy,' said the gentleman, very cordially; 'let's +drink and be friends.' + +They drank a glass of whisky together, and then leaving the table, +proceeded to where the ox had been barbecued, to show me how cooking on +a large scale is done at the South. + +In a pit about eight feet deep, twenty feet long, and ten feet wide, +laid up on the side with stones, a fire of hickory had been made, over +which, after the wood had burned down to coals, a whole ox, divested of +its hide and entrails, had been suspended on an enormous spit. Being +turned often in the process of cooking, the beef had finally been 'done +brown.' It was then cut up and served on the table, and I must say, for +the credit of Southern cookery, that it made as delicious eating as any +meat I ever tasted. + +I had then been away from my charge--the Colonel's horses--as long as +seemed to be prudent. I said as much to Andy, when he proposed to +return with me, and turning good-humoredly to his reconciled friend, he +said: + +'Now, Tom, no secession talk while I'm off.' + +'Nary a word,' said Tom, and we left. + +The horses had been well fed by the negro who had them in charge, but +had not been groomed. Andy, seeing that, stripped off his coat, and, +setting the black at work on one, with a handful of straw and +pine-leaves commenced operations on the other, and the horse's coat was +soon as smooth and glossy as if recently rubbed by an English groom. + +The remainder of the day passed without incident till eleven at night, +when the Colonel returned from Wilmington. + +Moye had not been seen or heard of, and the Colonel's trip was +fruitless. While at Wilmington, he sent telegrams, directing the +overseer's arrest, to the various large cities of the South, and then +decided to return, make some arrangements preliminary to a protracted +absence from the plantation, and proceed at once to Charleston, where he +would await replies to his dispatches. Andy agreed with him in the +opinion that Moye, in his weak state of health, would not undertake an +overland journey to the free States, but would endeavor to reach some +town on the Mississippi, where he could dispose of the horse, and secure +a passage up the river. + +As no time was to be lost, it was decided that we should return to the +plantation on the following morning. Accordingly, with the first streak +of day, we bade 'good-by' to our Union friend, and started homeward. + +No incident worthy of mention occurred on the way, till about ten +o'clock, when we arrived at the home of the Yankee schoolmistress, where +we had been so hospitably entertained two days before. The lady received +us with great cordiality, forced upon us a lunch to serve our hunger on +the road, and when we parted, enjoined on me to leave the South at the +earliest possible moment. She was satisfied it would not for a much +longer time be safe quarters for a man professing Union sentiments. +Notwithstanding the strong manifestations of loyalty I had observed +among the people, I was convinced that the advice of my pretty +'countrywoman' was judicious, and I determined to be governed by it. + +Our horses, unaccustomed to lengthy journeys, had not entirely recovered +from the fatigues of their previous travel, and we did not reach our +destination till an hour after dark. We were most cordially welcomed by +Madam P----, who soon set before us a hot supper, which, as we were +jaded by the long ride, and had fasted for twelve hours on bacon +sandwiches and cold hoe-cake, was the one thing needful for us. + +While seated at the table, the Colonel asked: + +'Has every thing gone right, Alice, since we left home?' + +'Every thing,' replied the lady, 'except,' and she hesitated as if she +dreaded the effect of the news; 'except--that Juley and her child have +gone.' + +'Gone!' exclaimed my host, 'gone where?' + +'I don't know. We have searched every where, but have found no clue to +them. The morning you left, Sam set Juley at work among the pines; she +tried hard, but could not do a full task, and at night was taken to the +cabin to be whipped. I heard of it, and forbade Sam's doing it. It did +not seem to me to be right to punish her for not doing what she had not +strength to do. When she was released from the cabin, she came to thank +me for having interfered for her, and talked with me awhile. She cried +and took on fearfully about Sam, and was afraid you would punish her on +your return. I promised you would not, and when she left me, she seemed +more cheerful. I supposed she would go directly home, after getting her +child from the nurse's quarters; but it appears she then went to +Pompey's, where she staid till after ten o'clock. Neither she nor the +child have since been seen.' + +'Did you get no trace of her in the morning?' + +'Yes, but soon lost it. When she did not appear at work, Sam went to her +cabin to learn the cause, and found the door open, and her bed +undisturbed. She had not slept there. Knowing that Sandy had returned, I +sent for him, and with Jim and his dog, he commenced a search. The hound +tracked her directly from Pompey's cabin to the run near the lower +still. There all trace of her disappeared. We dragged the stream, but +discovered nothing. Jim and Sandy then scoured the woods for miles in +all directions, but the hound could not recover the trail. I hope +otherwise, but I fear some evil has befallen her.' + +'Oh! no, there's no fear of that,' said the Colonel; 'she is smart--she +waded up the run far enough to baffle the dog, and then made for the +swamp. That is why you lost her tracks at the stream. Rely upon it, I am +right; but she shall not escape me.' + +We shortly afterward adjourned to the library. After being seated there +a while, the Colonel, rising quickly, as if a sudden thought had struck +him, sent for the old preacher. + +The old negro soon appeared, hat in hand, and taking a stand near the +door, made a respectful bow to each one of us. + +'Take a chair, Pompey,' said Madam P---- kindly. + +The black meekly seated himself, when the Colonel asked: 'Well, Pomp, +what do you know about Jule's going off?' + +'Nuffin', massa; I 'shures you, nuffin'. De pore chile say nuffin' to +ole Pomp 'bout dat.' + +'What did she say?' + +'Wal, you see, massa, de night arter you gwo 'way, and arter she'd +worked hard in de brush all de day, and been a strung up in de ole cabin +for to be whipped, she come to me wid her baby in her arms, all a-faint +and a-tired, and her pore heart clean broke, and she say dat she'm jess +ready to drop down and die. Den I tries to comfut her, massa; I takes +her up from de floor, and I say to har dat de good Lord he pity her--dat +he doan't bruise de broken reed, and woan't put no more on har dan she +kin b'ar--dat he'd touch you' heart, massa--and I toled har you's a +good, kine heart at de bottom--and I knows it, 'case I toted you 'fore +you could gwo, and when you's a bery little chile, not no great sight +bigger'n her'n, you'd put your little arms round ole Pomp's neck, and +say dat when you war grow'd up, you'd be bery kine to de pore brack +folks, and not leff 'em be 'bused like dey war in dem days.' + +'Never mind what _you_ said,' interrupted the Colonel, a little +impatiently, but showing no displeasure; 'what did _she_ say?' + +'Wal, massa, she took on bery hard 'bout Sam, and axed me ef I raily +reckoned de Lord had forgib'n him, and took'n him to heseff, and gib'n +him one of dem hous'n up dar in de sky. I toled har dat I _know'd_ it; +but she say it didn't 'pear so to har, 'case Sam had a been wid har out +dar in de woods, all fru de day; dat she'd a _seed_ him, massa, and +dough he hadn't a said nuffin', he'd looked at har wid sech a sorry, +grebed look, dat it went clean fru har heart, till she'd no strength +leff, and fell down on de ground a'most dead. Den she say big Sam come +'long and fine har dar, and struck har great, heaby blows wid de big +whip!' + +'The brute!' exclaimed the Colonel, rising from his chair, and pacing +rapidly up and down the room. + +'But p'raps he warn't so much ter blame, massa,' continued the old +negro, in a deprecatory tone; 'may be he s'pose she war shirking de +work. Wal, den she say, she know'd nuffin' more, till byme-by, when she +come to, and fine big Sam dar, and he struck har agin, and make her gwo +to de work; and she did gwo, but she feel like as ef she'd die. I toled +her de good ma'am wudn't leff big Sam 'buse har no more 'fore you cum +hum, and dat you'd hab 'passion on har, and not leff har out in de +woods, but put har 'mong de nusses, like as she war afore. + +'Den she say it 'twarn't de work dat trubble har--dat she orter work, +and orter be 'bused, 'case she'd been bad, bery bad. All she axed was +dat Sam would forgib har, and cum to har in de oder worle, and tell har +so. Den she cried, and took on awful; but de good Lord, massa, dat am so +bery kine to de bery wuss sinners, he put de words inter my mouf, and I +tink dey gabe har comfut, fur she say it sort o' 'peared to har den dat +Sam _would_ forgib har, and take har inter his house up dar, and she +warn't afeard ter die no more. + +'Den she takes up de chile and gwoes 'way, 'pearin' sort o' happy, and +more cheerful like dan I'd a seed har eber sense pore Sam war shot.' + +My host was sensibly affected by the old man's simple tale, but +continued pacing up and down the room, and said nothing. + +'It's plain to me, Colonel,' I remarked, as Pompey concluded, 'she has +drowned herself and the child--the dog lost the scent at the creek.' + +'Oh! no,' he replied, 'I think not. I never heard of a negro committing +suicide--they've not the courage to do it.' + +'I fear she _has_, David,' said the lady. 'The thought of going to Sam +has led her to it; yet we dragged the run, and found nothing. What do +you think about it, Pompey?' + +'I dunno, ma'am; but I'se afeard ob dat. And now dat I tinks on it, I'se +afeard dat what I tole har put har up to it,' replied the old preacher, +bursting into tears. 'She 'peared so happy like, when I say she'd be +'long wid Sam in de oder worle, dat I'se afeard she's a gone and done it +wid har own hands. I tole har, too, dat de good Lord oberlooked many +tings dat pore sinners does when dey can't help 'emseffs, and it make +har do it, oh! it make har do it!' and the old black buried his face in +his hands, and wept bitterly. + +'Don't feel so, Pomp,' said his master _very_ kindly. 'You did the best +you could; no one blames you.' + +'I knows _you_ doan't, massa--I knows you doan't, and you's bery good +notter; but oh!' and his body swayed to and fro with the great grief; 'I +fears de Lord do, massa, for I'se sent har to him wid har own blood and +de blood of dat pore, innercent chile on har hands. Oh! I fears de Lord +neber'll forgib me--neber'll forgib me fur _dat_.' + +'He will, my good Pomp, he will!' said the Colonel, laying his hand +tenderly on the old man's shoulder. 'The Lord will forgive you, for the +sake of the Christian example you've set your master, if for nothing +else;' and then the proud, strong man's feelings overpowering him, his +tears fell in great drops on the breast of the old slave, as they had +fallen there when he was a child. + +Such scenes are not for the eye of a stranger, and turning away, I left +the room. + +The family met at the breakfast-table at the customary hour on the +following morning; but I noticed that Jim was not in his accustomed +place behind the Colonel's chair. That gentleman exhibited his usual +good spirits, but Madam P---- looked sad and anxious, and I had not +forgotten the scene of the previous evening. + +While we were seated at the meal, the negro Junius hastily entered the +room, and in an excited manner exclaimed: + +'O massa, massa! you muss cum ter de cabin--Jim hab draw'd his knife, +and he swar he'll kill de fuss un dat touch him!' + +'He does, does he!' said his master, springing from his seat, and +abruptly leaving the apartment. + +Remembering the fierce burst of passion I had seen in the negro, and +fearing there was danger a-foot, I rose to follow, saying as I did so: + +'Madam, can not you prevent this?' + +'I can not, sir; I have already done all I can. Go and try to pacify the +Colonel. Jim will die before he'll be whipped.' + +Jim was standing at the farther end of the old cabin, with his back to +the wall, and the large spring-knife in his hand. Some half-dozen +negroes were in the centre of the room, apparently cowed by his fierce +and desperate looks, and his master stood within a few feet of him. + +'I tell you, Cunnel,' cried the negro, as I entered, 'you touch me at +your peril.' + +'You d--d nigger, do you dare to speak so to me?' said his master, +taking a step toward him. + +The knife rose in the air, and the black, in a cool, sneering tone, +replied: 'Say your prayers 'fore you come ony nigher, for, so help me +God, you're a dead man!' + +I laid my hand on the Colonel's arm, to draw him back, saying as I did +so: 'There's danger in him! I _know_ it Let him go, and he shall ask +your pardon.' + +'I shan't ax his pardon,' cried the black, 'leff him and me be, sar; +we'll fix dis ourselfs.' + +'Don't interfere, Mr. K----,' said my host, with perfect coolness, but +with a face pallid with rage. 'Let me govern my own plantation.' + +'As you say, sir,' I replied, stepping back a few paces; 'but I warn +you--there is danger in him!' + +Taking no notice of my remark, the Colonel turned to the trembling +negroes, and said: 'One of you go to the house and bring my pistols.' + +'You kin shoot me, ef you likes,' said Jim, with a fierce, grim smile; +'but I'll take you to h--l wid me, _shore_. You knows WE won't stand a +blow!' + +The Colonel, at the allusion to their relationship, started as if shot, +and turning furiously on the negro, yelled out: 'I'll shoot you for +that, you d--d nigger, by----.' + +'It 'pears ter me, Cunnel, ye've hed 'bout nuff shootin' 'round har, +lately; better stop thet sort o' bis'ness; it moight give ye a sore +throat,' said the long, lean, loose-jointed stump-speaker of the +previous Sunday, as he entered the cabin and strode directly up to my +host. + +'What brought you here, you d--d insolent hound?' cried the Colonel, +turning fiercely on the new-comer. + +'Wal, I cum to du ye a naboorly turn--I've kotched two on yer niggers +down ter my still, an' I want ye ter take 'em 'way,' returned the +corn-cracker, with the utmost coolness. + +'Two of my niggers!' exclaimed the Colonel, perceptibly moderating his +tone, 'which ones?' + +'A yaller gal, and a child.' + +'I thank you, Barnes; excuse my hard words--I was excited.' + +'All right, Cunnel; say no more 'bout thet. Will ye send fur 'em? I'd +hev fotched 'em 'long, but my waggin's off jest now.' + +'Yes, I'll send at once. Have you got them safe?' + +'Safe? I reckon so! Kotched 'em las' night, arter dark, and they've kept +right still ever sense, I 'sure ye--but th' gal holes on ter th' young +'un ter kill--we couldn't get it 'way no how.' + +'How did you catch them?' + +'The' got 'gainst my turpentime raft--th' current driv 'em down, I +s'pose.' + +'What! are they dead?' exclaimed the Colonel. + +'Dead? Deader'n drownded rats!' was the native's reply. + + + + +WAS HE SUCCESSFUL? + + '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 III. + + The people are anxious for the _detail_ of sentiments, not for + general results.'--_Lamartine._ + + +Hiram exhibited almost from his boyhood a fondness for female society. +Even when at the district-school, he preferred spending 'noon-time' +among the girls to racing around with the boys, pitching quoits, +wrestling at 'arm's-end,' 'back-hold,' or playing base-ball and goal. +His mother was careful to encourage Hiram's predilections. She remarked +that nothing was so well calculated to keep a young man from going +astray as for him to frequent the society of virtuous females. + +Before Hiram had got into his teens, he appeared to be smitten with at +least half a score of little girls of his own age. As he grew older, his +fondness for the sex increased. I do not record this, as any thing +extraordinary, except that in his case a characteristic selfishness +seemed to be at the bottom even of these manifestations. Hiram was not +influenced by those natural emotions and impulses which belong to youth, +and which, unless kept under proper restraint, are apt frequently to +lead to indiscretions. For there ran a vein of calculation through all +he did, whose prudent office it was to minister to his safety. + +After Hiram joined the church he was regular in his attendance on the +evening meetings. He always went to these meetings with some young girl, +whom, of course, he accompanied home after the services were over. As I +have said, he was a handsome fellow, and bestowed particular care on his +dress and his appearance generally. He was good-natured and obliging, +and withal sensible, so that the young men who envied him and might be +inclined to call him a fop or a dandy, could not prefix 'brainless' to +these epithets and thus ridicule on him. The fact is, he was shrewder +than any of them, and he knew it. They soon discovered it, and so did +the girls, to the utter discomfiture of his rivals. + +At all the village gatherings, including the sewing-societies, and the +lectures, the prayer-meetings, and meetings of Sunday-school teachers, +and so forth, Hiram was not only a favorite, but _the_ favorite with the +other sex. He had a winning, confidential manner, when addressing a +young lady even for the first time, which said very plainly, 'We know +all about and appreciate each other,' and which was very taking. He +assumed various little privileges, such as calling the girls by their +first name, giving notice that a curl was about to fall, and offering to +fix it properly, picking up a bow which had been brushed off, and +pinning it securely on again, holding the hand with a kind and amiable +smile for a brief space after he had shaken it, and sometimes, when he +had occasion to see one of his friends home, keeping her hand in his all +the way after it was placed within his arm. + +You may ask why such liberties were permitted. Simply because they were +so very equally distributed they had come to be regarded as a matter of +course. In fact, Hiram was a privileged person. He was so polite, so +attentive, so considerate, what if he did have his peculiarities--how +ridiculous to make a fuss about such trifles! So the 'trifles' were +acquiesced in. Besides, I am inclined to think each fair one supposed +she was the especial object of Hiram's regard, and that his attentions +to others were mere civilities. I do not say Hiram so announced it. I +know he did not; for he was not a person, even when a youth, to commit +himself foolishly. Yet if they _would_ mistake general politeness for +particular attentions, surely it was not his fault--oh! no. + +There were those who refused to give their adherence to Hiram's almost +unlimited sway. And as parties generally proceed to extremes, the girls +who formed the opposition generally declared him to be a pusillanimous, +mean-spirited fellow; they detested the very sight of his smooth, +hypocritical face; he had better not come fooling around them--no, +indeed! Let him attempt it once, they would soon teach him manners. It +is to be observed that these remarks did not emanate from the prettiest +or most attractive girls of the village--all of whom were decidedly and +emphatically on Hiram's side. They seemed to enjoy the excitement under +which their adversaries were laboring, and retorted by exclaiming, 'Sour +grapes!' asserting that those who so shamefully vilified Hiram, would be +glad enough to accept his attentions if--they only had the opportunity. + +Hiram, meantime, pursued the even tenor of his way, secure in his +position, enjoying to the full extent of his selfish nature all his +'blessings and privileges,' for which he thanked God twice daily, +wondering how men could be so blind and misguided as to turn their backs +on religion when there was such happiness and peace in giving up all to +God! + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +Mr. Bennett was correct in his surmise that there were two stores in the +little village of Hampton. Of one of these Thaddeus Smith was +proprietor. He was one of the solid men of the place, and had 'kept +store' there for the last forty years, succeeding his father, who was +one of the early settlers in the town. He had continued on with his +customers in the good old fashion, extending liberal credits and +charging a regular, undeviating profit of thirty-three and a third per +cent. About five years previous to Hiram Meeker's leaving school, Mr. +Smith's peace was greatly disturbed by the advent of a rival, in the +person of Benjamin Jessup, who took possession of an advantageous +locality, and after a week's bustle with teams and workmen transporting, +unpacking, and arranging, displayed his name, one fine morning, in large +gilt letters to the wondering inhabitants of Hampton, and under it the +cabalistic words: 'CHEAP CASH STORE.' A large number of handbills were +posted about the village, informing the good people of the opening of +the aforesaid 'cash store,' and that the proprietor was prepared to sell +every variety of goods and merchandise 'cheap for cash or ready pay,' by +which last expression was meant acceptable barter. Of course, the whole +town flocked to inspect Mr. Jessup's stock and price his goods. The +cunning fellow had valued them only at about cost, while he declared he +was making a living profit at the rates charged, and a living profit was +all he wanted. Furthermore, he allowed the highest prices for the +commodities brought in by the farmers, and gave them great bargains in +return. He was especially accommodating to the ladies, permitting them +to tumble his whole stock of dry goods for the sake of selecting a +pretty pattern for an apron, or finding a remnant which they were +'welcome to.' + +Mr. Smith was sadly grieved. Although some very old-fashioned people +stuck sternly to him, refusing to be allured by the bait of great +bargains, and so forth and so forth, yet his store was nearly deserted. +Thaddeus Smith was a perfectly upright man. It is true, he charged a +large profit on his goods--this was because it had always been his +habit, and that of his father before him. But he was accommodating in +his credit and lenient to debtors in default. His word could be relied +on implicitly, and his dealings were marked by scrupulous honesty. + +On this trying occasion he called his son, who was supposed to be his +partner, into consultation, and asked him what he thought of the state +of things. + +'I think this, father,' was the reply, 'that we can not expect to go on +longer in the old style. We must reduce our profits one half, and to do +this, we must be more particular in our credits, and buy with more care +and of different people. In this way I will engage--by pursuing a +straightforward, energetic course, we shall hold our own against the +cash-man over the way.' + +It was some time before Mr. Smith, Senior, could be persuaded. It was +not just the thing, taking advice from a 'boy,' although the boy was +past thirty, and had a family of his own. He yielded, however, and +Thaddeus, Junior, was permitted to carry out his plan. He made a trip to +New-York and purchased goods, instead of sending an order for them as +had been their habit, where he could find the best bargains at least ten +per cent cheaper than his father was in the habit of buying, came home, +got out handbills in his turn, requesting the people to call at the 'old +stand,' look at the fresh stock, selected personally with great care, +and bought cheap _for_ cash, but which would be sold as usual on +approved credit. This gave the tide a turn in the old direction, and Mr. +Jessup had to set to work anew. He was not a bad man in his way, but +neither was he a good one. He was not over-scrupulous nor severely +honest. His prices varied, so the folks discovered, and he, or rather +his clerks, sometimes made mistakes in the quality of articles sold. +After a while the cash system sensibly relaxed, and at last both +establishments settled down into a severe and uncompromising opposition. +There was a pretty large back country which received its supplies from +Hampton, and so both stores managed to do a thriving trade. The Smiths +retaining as customers the large portion of the staid and respectable +population, while Mr. Jessup's business depended more on his dealings +with the people from the surrounding country. There was a very different +atmosphere around the stores of these two village merchants. The Smiths +were religious people, father and son, not merely so in name, but in +reality. A child could have purchased half their stock on as favorable +terms as the shrewdest man in the place. Mr. Jessup, on the contrary, +varied as he could light of chaps, that is, according to circumstances. +He was, however, an off-hand, free-and-easy fellow, with many generous +qualities, which made him popular with most who knew him. He did not +hesitate to declare that his views on religious subjects were liberal--a +bold announcement for a man to make in Hampton. Indeed, his enemies put +him down for a Universalist, or at best a Unitarian, for which they +claimed to have some reason, since he seldom went to church, although +his wife was a communicant, and very regular in her attendance. + +I have been thus particular in describing the two rival establishments +because Hiram Meeker is to enter one of them. The reader will naturally +suppose there can be little doubt which, and he has a right to exhibit +surprise on learning that Hiram decided in favor of Mr. Jessup. I say +HIRAM decided. His father preferred that he should go with the Smiths. +His mother was of the same opinion, but she permitted her son, who now +was very capable of acting for himself, to persuade her that Jessup's +was the place for him: 'More going on--greater variety of business--much +more enterprise,' and consequently more to be learned. It would be +difficult to follow closely the train of reasoning which led Hiram to +insist so perseveringly in favor of Mr. Jessup. For the reasons he gave +were on the surface, while those which really decided him were keen and +subtle, based on a shrewd appreciation of the position of the two +merchants, and his probable relation to one or the other. With the +Smiths, Hiram saw no room for any fresh exhibition of talent or +enterprise; in the other place he saw a great deal. + +Once decided on, he was speedily settled in his new abode, where he +formed a part of the household of the proprietor, together with the +head-clerk, a 'cute fellow of five and twenty, who was reported to be as +'keen as a razor.' It was evident Mr. Jessup valued him highly, from the +respect he always paid to his advice and from his giving up so much of +the management of the business to him. Besides, it was rumored he was +engaged to Mr. Jessup's oldest daughter, a handsome, black-eyed girl of +eighteen, a little too old for the 'meridian' of Hiram; but who, with +her mother, was on excellent terms with the Meeker family. The name of +the head-clerk was Pease--Jonathan Pease; but he always wrote his name +J. Pease. There was also a boy, fourteen years old, called Charley, who +boarded at home. This, with Mr. Benjamin Jessup, constituted the force +at the 'cash store.' + +Hiram had taken the place of a pale, milk-and-water-looking youth, with +weak lungs, who had been obliged to quit on account of poor health. This +youth had been entirely under the control of Pease, so much so that he +dared not venture an opinion about his own soul or body till he was +satisfied Pease thought just so. All this helped add to the importance +of the head-clerk, so that even Mr. Jessup unconsciously felt rather +nervous about differing with him. Indeed, Pease was fast becoming master +of the establishment. This Hiram Meeker knew perfectly well before he +entered it. + +When Pease ascertained that Hiram was about to come there as clerk, +without his advice being asked, he regarded it as an invasion of his +rights. He did not hesitate to speak his mind on the subject to Mr. +Jessup. He tried strongly to dissuade him from taking a gentleman-clerk, +and declared it would require an extra boy to wait on him and another to +correct his blunders. It was of no use; Mr. Jessup had not the slightest +idea of the peculiar qualities of Hiram, but he knew if he received him, +it would be the means of making an inroad into the conservative quarter, +and he should secure the trade and influence of the Meekers beside. He +went so far as to explain this to Pease, in the most confidential and +friendly manner; but the latter was not to be persuaded or mollified. As +he could not prevent the advent of Hiram, he resolved to make his +position just as uncomfortable as he possibly could. But he little knew +the stuff he had to deal with. + +The first morning after he had taken possession of his new quarters--his +sleeping-room was over the store--Hiram rose early, and was looking +carefully about the place, when Pease came in and asked him why he did +not sweep out. + +'I have not yet learned the regulations, Mr. Pease, but am ready to +begin any time,' was Hiram's quiet reply. + +Now, Pease had purposely sent Charley away on an early errand, so as to +be able to put this work on the new-comer. He simply replied, in an +arrogant tone, that it was his business every morning to sweep out the +store, and then sand the floors, adding, in order to preserve a +semblance of truth: 'When the boy happens to be here, he will help you.' + +Pease was a little astonished to see how readily Hiram set to work. The +store was not only carefully swept, and the floors sanded, but many +articles which were scattered about were put in their place, and +carefully arranged, so that after breakfast, when Mr. Jessup came in, he +remarked on the neat appearance of the store, without knowing to what it +was owing. Thus was the first attempt of J. Pease to annoy Hiram +completely foiled. Furthermore, Hiram kept on sweeping and sanding, +although Charley was present; indeed, he declined his assistance +altogether, and once, when Mr. Jessup remarked (he had observed to whom +the change in the appearance of the store was due) that it was quite +unnecessary for him to do the boy's work, Hiram quietly answered, that +he much preferred to do it to seeing the store look as it did when he +first came there. + +It took our hero but a short time to familiarize himself with the +minutiæ of Mr. Jessup's business. It was not long before Pease began to +feel that there was a person every way his superior who was fast +acquiring a more thorough insight into affairs than he had himself. He +began to fear that certain private transactions of his own would not +escape Hiram's observation. He felt magnetically that instead of +bullying and domineering over the new-comer, Hiram's eyes were on _him_ +whatever he did. This was insupportable; but how could he help it? The +more work he imposed on Hiram, the better the latter seemed to like it, +and the more he accomplished. + +'Damn him!' said Pease between his teeth; but cursing did not help the +matter, so Pease discovered. + +By degrees, several young ladies who were not in the habit of calling at +Jessup's began to drop in to look at the dry-goods. It was in vain Pease +stepped briskly forward to wait on them, with his most fascinating +smile; they wanted to see Mr. Meeker. Pease was bursting with rage, but +he was forced to restrain his passion. On one occasion, on seeing two +attractive-looking girls approaching, he sent Hiram to the cellar to +draw a gallon of molasses, and as the weather was cold, he calculated he +would have to wait at least a quarter of an hour for it to run. When the +young ladies entered, they inquired for Hiram; Pease reported Mr. Meeker +as particularly engaged, and offered his services in the most pathetic +manner. + +'Oh! we are in no hurry,' was the reply, 'we can wait.' + +And they did wait, greatly to Pease's disgust, and to Mr. Jessup's +delight, who happened to come in at that moment, for he knew Hiram would +be sure to make some handsome sales to them. At length came poor Pease's +crowning misfortune. Mary Jessup began to give token that she was not +slow to discover Hiram's agreeable qualities, and his superiority in +every respect over his rival. Now, if there is any one thing which the +sex admire in a man more than another, it is real ability. Mary Jessup +was a quick-witted girl herself, and she could not fail to perceive this +quality in Hiram. She had heretofore regarded him as a boy; but the boy +had grown up almost without her observing it, and now stood, with his +full stature of medium hight, admirably proportioned. It was not long +before she consented to accompany Hiram to the Thursday-evening lecture. +What a pleasant walk they had each way, and how gracefully he placed her +shawl across her shoulders. Pease was furious. 'How absurd you act,' +that was all Mary Jessup said in reply to his violent demonstrations, +and she laughed when she said it. What _could_ Pease do for revenge? He +thought, and cogitated, and dreamed over it; it was of no use. He began +to feel himself under the fascination of Hiram's calm, persevering, +determined manner, a manner distinguished by tokens of latent power. For +no one in praising him ever made the ordinary exclamations, 'Such a +smart, energetic fellow,' 'So active and efficient,' 'A driving business +chap.' No; on the contrary, one would set him down as quite the reverse, +for he was always very quiet, never in a hurry, and by no means rapid in +his motions. Yet he impressed you with an idea of his superiority, which +his peculiar repose of manner served to highten. It can easily be +guessed that Mary Jessup and J. Pease quarreled, at last seriously, and +the engagement, if there had been any, was broken. The next evening, on +her return from the sewing-society with Hiram, he ventured to retain her +hand in his, and from that time she felt that there was an +'understanding' between them. She would have found it difficult to say +why, for Hiram had never spoken sentimentally to her. His conversation +was on ordinary topics, yet always in a low, meaning, confidential tone. + +[Has the reader any desire that I should lay bare the innermost thoughts +and feelings of this youth not yet eighteen? Would you like to be told +how curiously he smiled to himself as he continued to sweep out and sand +that little village store? Would you care to know how he gloated over +the discomfiture of his rival? Shall I endeavor to depict his feelings +when he saw he had actually gained the affections of Mary Jessup, for +whom, beyond a sensuous enjoyment of her presence and her society, he +did not care a fig? Shall I explain how, while acting for his employer +quite as a good, honest man would act, his motive was to serve self and +self only? or shall I permit the reader gradually to acquire a knowledge +of Hiram's characteristics as the narrative proceeds?] + +This brings us to the end of Hiram's first year with Mr. Jessup. He had +accomplished nothing rapidly, but he had kept on accomplishing something +every day. He had not made a single false step. The consequence was, he +had not a single step to retrace. The end of the year found him already +very high in Mr. Jessup's esteem. Hiram had proved his value by +increasing his employer's business at least ten per cent in the village, +while he was daily becoming more popular with all who traded at the +store. To Pease this was an enigma, for Hiram never volunteered to wait +on a customer, when the former was present, and only stepped forward +when specially sought. Even with the young ladies who came to the place, +with whom he was on intimate terms of acquaintance, Hiram found no time +to laugh and talk, although he always managed to say an agreeable word +in a quiet, low tone. Toward Pease, Hiram's conduct was always the same, +perfectly respectful; as if never losing sight of the situation of the +one as head-clerk and of the other as subordinate. But by continually +making himself so useful in the establishment, he was gradually +undermining his comrade's position, and Pease felt his influence +dissolving, he hardly knew how or why; but he felt it all the more +forcibly for not knowing. + +Thus the commencement of the new year found the occupants of the cash +store. Hiram's situation had become very agreeable. He was putting into +practice the theories of his education. He was high in favor with his +employer, and whenever he entered the house, which was but a few steps +from the store, he was greeted by Mary Jessup with that peculiar welcome +so charming between those who love each other, yet which to him was +pleasing only because it gratified his animal nature and his self-love. + +Early in the second year, an incident occurred which served to bring out +Hiram's character, and change decidedly the state of affairs. One +morning, while he was engaged with a customer, Mrs. Esterbrook entered +the store. Now, that lady was the wife of Deacon Esterbrook, one of the +most substantial men of the town, and a strong supporter of the Smiths. +In fact, she had never set foot in Mr. Jessup's place before that +morning, but certain goods, lately ordered by the Smiths, were +unaccountably delayed, while Mr. Jessup's were fresh from the city and +just opened. The dress-maker had been engaged, and could not come again +for she did not know how long, and Ellen must have a nice school-dress +ready forthwith. So the lady determined for once to break over rule, and +step into the opposition store. No doubt the fact that so respectable +and pious a young man as Hiram was a clerk there had its influence in +the decision; it made the place itself more reputable, many said. And +now she came slowly in, a little distrustful, as if entering on +forbidden ground, and expecting to see some extraordinary difference +between the place of business of an ungodly person like Jessup and that +of the honest-minded Smith. Thanks, however, to Hiram's persevering +industry, it was a model of neatness and order, and Mrs. Esterbrook, who +was herself a pattern in that way, found her harsh judgment insensibly +relaxing, as she stepped to the counter where Pease stood, and asked +quite amiably to see some of the best calicoes, just in from New-York. +Pease, the narrow-minded idiot, thought this a good time to play off a +smart trick on one of Smith's regular customers. So he paraded a large +variety of goods before her, and took occasion to recommend a very +pretty article, for which he charged a monstrous price, because he said +it was a very scarce pattern, and it was with great difficulty they had +secured a single piece. As the lady herself could perceive, it had not +been opened before; not a soul in the village had even seen the outside +of it. Now, it must not be supposed that Mrs. Esterbrook was different +from the rest of her sex, and insensible to the pleasure of having the +first dress cut from the piece. Indeed, she determined, on this +occasion, to take two dresses instead of one; Emily was coming home, and +would want it. Just as Pease was about to measure off the desired +quantity, Mrs. Esterbrook exclaimed: + +'You are sure those colors are fast?' + +'Fast, ma'am! fast as the meeting-house round the corner. We will +warrant them not to run nor change. Why, for color, we have nothing like +it in the store.' + +All this time, Hiram had been serving his customer; but with both ears +and at least one eye attentive to what was going on near him. + +Again Pease commenced to measure, when Hiram stepped deliberately +forward and said: + +'Mr. Pease is mistaken, Mrs. Esterbrook, those colors are _not_ fast.' + +'What the----' hell do _you_ know about it? Pease was going to say; but +he stopped short at the second word, utterly abashed and confounded at +the extraordinary assumption of the junior clerk. Never before had Hiram +made such a demonstration. Now he stood calm and composed, firmly +fortified by the truth. He looked and acted precisely as if he were the +principal, and the objurgation of Pease died on his lips. He attempted +to cast on Hiram a contemptuous glance, as he managed to say: + +'Perhaps you know more about it than I do,' and turned away to attend to +a new-comer. + +'I am much obliged to you, Mr. Meeker, I declare,' said Mrs. Esterbrook. + +'On the contrary, it is I who should be obliged to you for looking in. +You must excuse the mistake. Mr. Pease is not so familiar with calicoes +as I am. But I will now wait on you myself. We have a box of goods in +the back-store, not yet open, and I am sure I can find in it just what +you want.' + +Any one who had seen Hiram's air, and heard him speak, would have taken +him for the proprietor. With what a low, respectful tone he addressed +the lady. How pleasantly it fell on the ear. An immense box of +merchandise to be opened and all the contents overhauled to please her! +Charley was summoned, hammer and hatchet freely used, and the goods +displayed. Hiram, who knew much better what Mrs. Esterbrook wanted than +she knew herself, selected something very acceptable. The price he put +at first cost. Not content with that, he actually sold the lady silk for +a dress, putting it at cost also, and no human being could have been in +better humor than she. + +'I am very sorry, Mrs. Esterbrook, for your disappointment about the +first calico you selected,' continued Hiram. 'I do hope you and other +members of your family will look in often, even if you do not purchase; +it sometimes helps one to form a judgment to look at different stocks. +But I must be perfectly frank with you. We profess to sell cheap, very +cheap, but I can never offer you similar articles at the price you have +these; they are given you precisely at cost, as a slight compensation +for your trouble in having to look a second time. Besides, it is a +matter of mere justice to those worthy people, the Smiths, to say we do +not sell our goods at these prices, and I beg you not to so report it.' + +'What an excellent young man you are,' said good Mrs. Esterbrook, in the +fullness of her heart. + +'My dear madam, really I can not see any special excellence in simply +doing my duty.' + +Hiram smiled one of his amiable, winning smiles, and bowed his new +customer politely out of the store. + +By this time the dinner-hour had arrived. Not a word had been spoken by +Pease to Hiram since the scene just recounted. Not a syllable did he +utter at table. Hiram, on the contrary, entered into familiar +conversation, placid as usual, and enjoyed his dinner quite as well as +he ever had done. When the meal was over, Pease asked Mr. Jessup if he +would step into the store a few minutes. Mr. Jessup accordingly walked +over. + +'I want to know, Mr. Jessup,' he demanded, when all were together, +including Charley, 'whether you are the owner in here or Hiram Meeker?' + +'Why do you put such a question, Pease?' + +Thereupon Pease told the whole circumstances very much as they occurred. +Mr. Jessup made no reply. He was taken aback himself. Hiram said not a +word. + +'It's so, an't it, Charley?' cried Pease. + +'I've nothing to say about it,' answered the boy. He liked Hiram, and +detested Pease, and was glad to see him humiliated. + +'It is so,' observed Hiram. + +Mr. Jessup was astounded. + +'I shall think the matter over seriously, young men, and make up my mind +about it this evening. Now let us attend to business.' + +Mr. Jessup had decided in his own mind that Hiram's conduct was very +reprehensible--not that he cared about Pease being snubbed, _that_ he +rather enjoyed than otherwise, but he thought what Hiram had done would +serve to cast discredit on the establishment. Before, however, deciding +to censure him in presence of his fellow-clerks, he determined to speak +with him privately. He took occasion without the knowledge of Pease, to +ask Hiram to step to the house, and once there, he requested him to give +his version of the affair. Hiram replied that Pease had stated it very +correctly. + +'What could be your object,' asked Mr. Jessup, 'in doing what would +throw disgrace on my store, for you know such an admission would +disgrace us?' + +'To serve your interests, as in duty bound,' replied Hiram. + +Mr. Jessup could not so understand it, and Hiram undertook calmly to +explain how dishonest it was for Pease to do as he did. It had very +little effect on Mr. Jessup. His nerves were too strong to be unsettled +by a moral appeal. He told Hiram he was to blame, and said he should be +obliged to so express himself, when they all met, and he must add a +caution for the future. + +'Fool!' exclaimed Hiram, startled out of his usual calm propriety, 'do +you not comprehend if that woman had gone out of your store with the +calico, that she not only would never enter it again, but she would +publish your name over town as a swindler and a cheat, and you never +would hear the end of it. Pease had charged her double prices, and the +goods would not stand a single washing. And you know whether or not you +are ready to pay off the mortgage Deacon Esterbrook holds on this +house.' + +Mr. Jessup colored deeply. When he purchased his house he left a pretty +large mortgage on it, which the owner had sold to Deacon Esterbrook, who +was a moneyed man, and who now held it quite content with his yearly six +per cent. + +'You seem to interest yourself in my private affairs,' said Mr. Jessup +in a sarcastic tone. + +'Why shouldn't I, sir, so long as I am in your employ,' answered Hiram, +without noticing the irony. + +'You're a devilish strange fellow, any how,' said Mr. Jessup, musingly, +'but I confess I never had a person about me half so useful.' + +'I could be of much more service to you if you would conduct your +business on strict mercantile principles.' + +'Why, what would you have me do different from what I am doing?' + +'I would have every thing done straight and HONEST, Mr. Jessup,' said +Hiram firmly. + +'Do you mean to say I am not honest?' + +'It is not necessary for me to say any thing on the subject. I am only +talking about the management of your business. You censure me for not +standing still and seeing one of your neighbors grossly cheated, by +which you would have lost some of the best customers in town, to say the +least. By taking the course I did, I saved the credit of the concern +instead of injuring it, and I even spoke of it as a mistake of Pease, +instead of a deception.' + +Mr. Jessup was already convinced, as indeed, his petulance proved, that +Hiram was right, but he had some pride in not appearing to yield too +soon. + +'I understand the matter better now, and really, Hiram, you did just +about the right thing, that's a fact. Honesty is the best policy, after +all. I shall tell Pease he did very wrong to attempt any of his tricks +on such a person as Mrs. Esterbrook, and in future--' + +'In future one of us must be an absentee from the premises,' said Hiram +coolly. + +'Why, what do you mean?' + +'Just this. Pease's year is up next week, and then one of us must +leave.' + +Mr. Jessup fell into a brown study. He reflected on the admirable manner +Hiram had performed his duties; he could not shut his eyes to the fact +that several excellent customers had been secured through his influence; +he considered the respectability of the Meeker family, and called to +mind how indifferent Mary had become to Pease, while she seemed +gratified when Hiram was near. Again, Pease, when measured by Hiram's +more comprehensive tact and shrewdness, seemed a booby, a nobody, and +Mr. Jessup wondered how he ever acquired such an influence over him, and +he was the more disgusted with himself the more he thought about it. + +'It is working right, after all,' he said to himself. 'I shall be well +rid of Pease, and Hiram shall take his place.' Then rising from his +seat, he observed: 'I will think the matter over carefully, and you +shall have my decision on the day. Now set to work as if nothing had +happened.' + +Hiram went back to the store as certain of the fate of Pease as if he +was himself to decide it. 'Check-mated'--something like that passed from +his lips. His countenance, however, gave no sign of triumph, nor, +indeed, of any feeling. + +In the evening Mr. Jessup announced that, after due consideration, he +was of opinion the conduct of Pease was so censurable that the +interference of Hiram was very proper, if not, indeed, praiseworthy. + +'Perhaps you would like to settle with me?' said Pease ferociously. + +'Just as you please,' replied Mr. Jessup. + +'Well, I guess I have staid about long enough in this place when I've +lived to see you coming the honest dodge so strong as that--darned if I +han't!' + +Next week Pease had quit, and Hiram Meeker was head-clerk. + +Great was the astonishment through the town when it was ascertained that +Pease had been 'discharged from Jessup's store for cheating'--so the +story went. Mr. Jessup was too shrewd not to make the most of the +circumstance. He declared, in his off-hand manner, that he never +professed to have the strait-laced habits of some people; he confessed +he did not like a fellow the less for his being 'cute in a trade, and +eyes open, but when it came to lying and cheating, then any of _his_ +folks must look out if he caught them at it, that's all. + +With most of the people this frank, open avowal was very convincing; but +there were certain obstinate persons such as are every where to be +found, and who are fond of going against the general opinion, who did +not hesitate to declare this was all gammon. They knew Jessup too well +to 'allow' he cared any thing about it, not he. Nothing but the fear of +that honest young Meeker led to the disgrace of Pease, who no doubt +would now be made the scape-grace for all Jessup's shortcomings in the +store-way. So it went. But in the balance of accounts Jessup was a great +gainer. Of course, numerous were the questions put to Hiram. He +preserved great discretion--would say little. It did not become him to +speak of Mr. Jessup's private matters. Good Mrs. Esterbrook was not +silent, however. The story was repeated and repeated. It reached the +parsonage; it found its way among the customers of the Smiths. Mrs. +Esterbrook felt herself a good deal raised in her own importance, that +the head-clerk of a store she was never in before should be summarily +dismissed for misconduct toward her. She began rather to like that Mr. +Jessup, (the calicoes and silk proved such bargains, and just what she +wanted,) a man to do as he did was not so very far out of the way, and +as for his wife, she was a charming woman, she always said so. Mary, +too, what a sweet girl! Well, she should at least divide her custom +between the two stores if the Deacon was willing--and the Deacon was +willing, for he wanted Jessup to do sufficiently well to keep up his +interest money prompt. Not only did Mrs. Esterbrook call frequently, but +so did many others of the Smith faction. I need not say that Hiram was +indefatigable. He secured the services of a nice, active young fellow, +whom he took great pains to teach, and every thing went on like +clock-work. Mr. Jessup was content, for he saw he was constantly gaining +custom, but, in fact, he was a good deal confused, and hardly felt at +home in his own place, so completely did Hiram bring it under his own +control. + +The first thing he undertook was an entire overhauling of the stock, and +a close examination of its value. Then he insisted, yes, insisted that +the prices should be marked in plain figures on the goods, so every body +could see for themselves. + +Jessup remonstrated: 'Thunder! what will become of us at this rate? I +tell you there are some it won't do to be frank with. Even old Smith +never undertook to expose his marks!' + +'The very reason why we should do so,' said Hiram. '_We_ are honest.' + +I wish you could have heard the tone in which Hiram said that, and have +seen the expression of his countenance. It made Jessup's flesh creep, he +did not know why. So Hiram, as usual, had his own way, and overhauled +every thing. Lots of old goods piled away out of sight, as unsalable, +were brought forward, carefully examined, and marked down, on an +average, to half cost. Then appeared hand-bills to the effect that Mr. +Jessup had determined, prior to getting in a complete new, fresh, +fashionable lot of dry goods, to dispose of the stock on hand at a +tremendous sacrifice. These were sent all over the country into the +adjoining villages, every where within twenty miles. How the people +rushed to buy, and when they came, and found really that great bargains +were to be had, they resolved to come again when the new goods should +arrive. + +Thus Hiram triumphed. In six months after J. Pease left, Benjamin +Jessup's store was _the_ store of Hampton, and Benjamin Jessup himself +on the road to prosperity and wealth. + +Hiram Meeker was sitting alone in his room over the store, late one +evening. He had been with Mr. Jessup a year and eleven months. Another +month, and the second year would be completed. + +'I believe,' so ran the current of his thoughts, 'I have learned pretty +much all there is to be found out here; have not done badly, either. +Cousin Bennett's advice to mother was right. I am not ready to go to +New-York yet. There is much country knowledge to be gained. Let me see, +I will drive over to Burnsville next week. Joel Burns is carrying every +thing before him, they say. All sorts of business. A first-class man; +neither a Smith nor a Jessup. I met Sarah Burns last week at a party +over at Croft's--lovely girl. I think Burnsville will suit me.' + +Thereupon Hiram Meeker took up his Bible, which lay on the table near +him, drew himself a little closer to the fire, moved the lamp into a +convenient position, and read one chapter in course; it was in +Deuteronomy. Then he kneeled in prayer for about five minutes. As soon +as he had finished, he went to bed, equally satisfied with his labors +and his devotions; complacently he laid his head on the pillow, and was +soon asleep, + + * * * * * + +'I _am_ sorry to go, Mr. Jessup, but I have my fortune to make yet, you +know, and I must look a little to my own interests.' + +'Yes, but confound it, Meeker, what is it you want? I expected to raise +your salary; in fact, it's no account what you charge me, you mustn't +go, that's settled.' + +'Indeed I must.' + +'Why, what is the matter? If you say so, I will take you into +partnership, though you are not one and twenty. Really, Hiram, don't +leave us in this way.' + +'I repeat, I am sorry to do so, but as I have no intention of living in +Hampton, it is now time I should quit.' + +'But what on earth am I to do without you?' + +'Persevere in the course you are now pursuing. Stick honestly to good +principles, Mr. Jessup, and you will continue to prosper.' + +'Damn it, I know better,' exclaimed Jessup pettishly; 'I mean--I swear I +don't know what I mean, [Hiram's cold blue eye was fixed calmly on him,] +cussed if I do; but I say 'tan't honesty which has done the thing for +me. No; old Smith is honest--so is his son; I respect both of them for +being so, yes I do. You are honest, too, Hiram; straight as a +shingle--have always found you so; but I can't tell why, yours seems +another sort of honesty from Smith's honesty, and that's a fact.' + +Benjamin Jessup had a dim perception of the truth, but the more he tried +to explain, the more he floundered, till Hiram came to his relief and to +his own also, for he did not greatly enjoy the comparison Jessup was +attempting to institute. + +'I think I understand you. The fact is, in the management of your +business, I have endeavored to combine what tact and shrewdness I am +master of with scrupulous fair dealing and integrity.' + +'That's it, Hiram, now you've hit it, but it's the shrewdness that's +done the work. Oh! I shall never get a man who can fill your place.' + + * * * * * + +In due course, Hiram left for Burnsville. The prayers and good wishes of +the village went with him. Mary Jessup was disconsolate; but why? Hiram +had never committed himself. All the girls said: 'What a fool she is to +think he was going to marry any body older than himself!' and they +laughed about Mary Jessup. + + + + +NEWBERN AS IT WAS AND IS. + + +That part of North-Carolina borders on the Sound, has within the past +six months became the theatre of events of the most exciting nature, in +which Newbern, its principal town, has borne a prominent part. + +It may be interesting to review its history. The earliest notice of it +dates back to the explorations of Raleigh's colony in 1584, when they +visited an Indian town named Newsiok, 'situated on a goodly river called +the Neus,' but the adventurers did not examine the river, and more than +a century elapsed before any further record of the visit of white men +occurred. The north-eastern counties had, however, been partially +settled by refugees from Virginia, where in the absence of law and +gospel they became as degraded a community as there was on the +continent. Their descendants have, to a considerable extent, overrun the +South to the Mississippi and on to Texas. + +But it was the good fortune of the counties on the Neuse to derive their +immigrants from and to have their institutions formed by a better class +than the inferior families of Virginia, further degraded by a residence +in Eastern North-Carolina, at that period known as the harbor for rogues +and pirates. + +The earliest settlers on the Neuse were French Huguenots, who first +located on the James River, in Virginia, but were afterwards induced by +the proprietors of Carolina to accept grants of land in what is now +known as Carteret County, to which place they removed in 1707. In 1710 +a colony from Switzerland and Germany, under the management of Baron de +Graffenreid and Louis Michell arrived, and were settled between the +Neuse and the Trent, and in the triangle formed by these rivers, laid +out a town with wide streets and convenient lots, which in remembrance +of the capital in the Old World, was called New-Bern. + +The settlers who already resided north of New-Bern soon rebelled against +their local government, and by continued depredations on the Indian +tribes in their vicinity at last brought on a fearful war, during which +a large part of both the white and red men were exterminated, so that +many of the poor Swiss and German Protestants found they had only +escaped their vindictive persecutors at home to find a bloody grave in +the forests of Carolina. + +After the surrender of their grant to the crown by the lords proprietors +of Carolina, in 1729, a better state of affairs succeeded, and a more +energetic government, with its blessings and prosperity was the result. +The country was then settled and Newbern gradually rose to be a place of +importance, and subsequently the capital of the province. + +The first printing-press in the province was established in 1764, and +the first periodical, _The North-Carolina Magazine_, issued the same +year, but it is doubtful if any book excepting the State laws was ever +published there. A public school was incorporated the same year, and +Newbern became the principal seat of education and social intelligence +in the province. As the seat of government and the residence of the +royal Governors, it attracted much wealth, and developed a degree of +culture which it has retained to a later day. + +Arthur Dobbs, for a long period the Colonial Governor, was at this time +closely identified with the history of Newbern. He was 'by birth an +Irishman, and by nature an aristocrat.' He died at an advanced age in +1764. + +In 1765, William Tryon succeeded Dobbs as Governor of North-Carolina. He +first resided at Brunswick, on the Cape Fear River, then a town of note, +but now a complete ruin, and where among its remains are still seen the +massive walls of St. Philip's Church, built by his request, at the +expense of the British government. + +As Newbern was a more central position, and possessed more social +advantages, Tryon took up his abode there, not, however, till he had +made himself odious by irritating the people of the western part of the +province into a rebellion, and had butchered many who were contending +only for justice and their rights. + +Tryon was aristocratic, tyrannical, and vindictive. To gratify his pride +he conceived the idea of erecting a magnificent palace, and to obtain an +appropriation from the Provincial Assembly he exhausted all his promises +and intrigues. In this effort on the legislators he was aided by the +blandishments of his lady and her sister, Miss Wake, relatives of Lord +Hillborough, and he was finally successful. The result was, that he +erected in Newbern, in 1770, the most elegant and expensive building on +the continent, the cost of which was far beyond the resources of the +province. The plans of it, which are still preserved, show that the old +descriptions of its splendor are not overwrought. Its foundations can +still be traced, and a part of one of the wings, though in a dilapidated +state, is yet in existence. + +A Provincial Congress was held at Newbern, in August, 1774, of which +John Harvey was President. In April, 1779, they elected delegates to the +famous Continental Congress which met at Philadelphia, and Newbern was +for some time the most important place in the province. + +During the Revolution, the State was twice invaded by the British, and +many towns suffered severely, but Newbern being remote from the seat of +war, did not particularly feel its effects. + +It is somewhat strange that in Newbern secession once found its +strongest opposition, and finally its death-blow. It will be +recollected that North-Carolina once extended to the Mississippi, and +included all of what is now the State of Tennessee, the whole of which +territory was ceded to the United States in 1784. It was then partially +settled, and before the general Government had accepted the grant, the +residents established a temporary government, and formally seceding from +North-Carolina, formed 'the State of Franklin.' + +On the 1st of June, 1785, the Legislature assembled at Newbern, when +Governor Martin addressed them on this subject. Declaring that 'by such +rash and irregular conduct a precedent is formed for every district and +even for every county in the State, to claim the right of separation and +independence for any supposed grievance as caprice, pride, and ambition +may dictate, thereby exhibiting to the world a melancholy instance of a +feeble or pusillanimous government, that is either unable or dares not +restrain the lawless designs of its citizens,' he advocated putting down +the movements by force if necessary. But the leaders were not to be +dissuaded from their ambitious purpose, and being joined by a few +adjoining counties in Virginia, they elected General Sevier, a hero of +the Revolution, as Governor, and the insurrection assumed a formidable +shape. But the old State met the trouble energetically, and after +exhausting all proper conciliatory measures, Sevier, with several of the +leaders, was arrested, their councils became divided, and the rebellion +was crushed. The leaders asked and obtained pardon, and an act of +amnesty was passed, so that in the subsequent political changes the +matter was forgotten. + +For a long period Newbern has been the residence of wealthy and +influential families. George Pollock, a descendant of one of the +original proprietors, who died some thirty years ago, dwelt there. He +owned immense tracts of the best land in the State, and over a thousand +slaves. + +There, too, was the home of Judge Gaston, a learned lawyer and a most +estimable man, who, though a Roman Catholic, was respected by all sects +and conditions, even in those days of fierce sectaries. John Stanly for +a long time gave celebrity to Newbern as a lawyer and legislator, his +oratorical powers being second to those of no man in the State. He was +the father of Edward Stanly, now appointed to act as military Governor +of the State. + +The country around Newbern was originally moderately fertile, but much +of it has become exhausted by reason of improper tillage. The forests +which were once a vast extent of stately pines, and from which great +quantities of turpentine and tar were for a century and a half exported, +are now little better than barren fields. Pine lumber and staves have +long been a large article of export, which with corn and cotton make up +nearly all the articles sent abroad. But the pines are now nearly +exhausted, the trade in naval stores and lumber lessened, and in +consequence a better state of agriculture has commenced. It is found +that by the aid of fertilizers good crops of cotton can be raised on the +pine lands and the fields kept in an improving condition. For the last +thirty years it can hardly be said that the town has improved; indeed, +as a whole it has hardly held its own. Still it is a place of wealth and +comfort. There is an air of respectability in its ancient and stately +buildings, its wide streets, and abundant shade-trees, and it is as +healthy as any Southern town can be. + +Some twenty years ago Newbern had what no other Southern town possessed, +a commerce of its own, that is, vessels built, owned, and sailed by its +own people. Many of these--then engaged in the West-India trade--were +partly manned by slaves who belonged to the proprietors of the vessel or +its captain, and at times, when other seamen could not be procured, +these slaves were allowed to make a voyage to a Northern port, but as +their value yearly augmented, and the risk of their suddenly +disappearing, not again to visit 'Dixie,' increased in a corresponding +ratio, they gradually retired to other duties where their services were +less precarious. + +And here I will relate an anecdote which an old salt once told me when I +was strolling along the wharves of this ancient town in his company. + +In consequence of a bar, or 'swash,' which stretches inside Ocracoke +Inlet, (at that time the only passage to the sea,) the vessels take in +but a part of their cargoes at Newbern, while lighters with the +remainder accompany them across the 'swash,' where the lading is +completed. Quite a number of small craft are thus constantly employed, +and they are generally manned and commanded by slaves. In this trade was +once engaged 'Jack Devereaux,' an intelligent black man who formerly +belonged to the Devereaux family--one of the F.F.s of Newbern--but who +had latterly become the property of H---- & C----, a mercantile firm +then doing a flourishing business there. He was captain of a famous +lighter, which for its enormous carrying capacity had received the +cognomen of 'Hunger and Thirst.' In due time the firm of H---- & +C----dissolved, and C---- 'moved West,' leaving an undivided half of +Captain Jack in the hands of his attorney. Jack had sailed the craft 'on +shares,' and compromised his services by monthly wages to his masters, +and so had gradually accumulated some hundreds of dollars. Not fancying +his new share-holder, he concluded to invest his hard-earned dollars in +his own bone and muscle, or in other words, buy half of himself. After +considerable higgling, he made the bargain, paying five hundred dollars +for the share. On the next trip to the bar, as the entrance to the sea +is usually called, there came up one of those sudden hurricanes known as +a Southeaster, whose force nothing can withstand. The small craft was +foundered, and Jack, after floating for a long time on a plank, finally +drifted on to a sand-spit, and was saved. + +Finding a passage home, he landed on the 'old County Wharf,' a +melancholy, disheartened, and depressed individual, and without +conferring with a single person, made his way to the attorney, from whom +he had so lately purchased himself, and by dint of persuasion succeeded +in having the trade canceled and his money returned. Jack was then +himself again. He recounted over and over his adventures by flood and +field to his wondering friends, and said no man, white or black, could +imagine the trouble he felt when floating on that plank, the waves +breaking over him every moment, when he considered he had just bought +half of 'dat nigger' that was now going to destruction, and paid all the +money he had for him. But he had 'traded back,' and then if he was +drowned, 'he wouldn't lose a cent by it.' It was long after this event +when he told me he would never again risk a cent in 'nigger' property, +it was too 'onsartin' entirely. Jack was a good deal of a wag, and told +this story with a gusto I can not describe.[A] But if Captain Jack is +still on this 'side of Jordan,' he has doubtless ere this found 'nigger' +property still more 'onsartin.' + +Let us, however, turn from the past to the present condition of affairs +in Newbern. Secession would never have originated there. When +South-Carolina passed its act of folly and madness, it met with a firm +opposition from the old Whig party, which still had here a vital +existence. Every exertion was made throughout the State to repel the +insidious influences of the demagogues of South-Carolina and Virginia, +and but for the Jesuitical management of the politicians at Richmond, +the 'Old North' would have remained loyal. But all the efforts of the +true Union men could not avail in warding off the storm that swept over +the South; and the Convention at Raleigh passed, or rather was forced to +assent to, the Act of Secession, on the twentieth of May, 1861. In +August the fortifications below Newbern were commenced, and continued +for some months, and well garrisoned, till they were supposed capable +of defending the town against any force that might be brought against +it. General Burnside, however, attacked them on the fourteenth of March, +1862, and after a sharp battle the rebels fled, and he occupied the old +place as a military conquest. All the wealthy and prominent citizens +fled, and have not returned. + +The present condition of things will not long continue; a more permanent +government, either civil or military, will soon be established, and with +it must come a new era which will settle for all time the destiny of +Newbern. + +Should the leading men of the town and all Eastern North-Carolina make +an effort and throw off the incubus that slavery has for a century +placed over it, a bright career of prosperity would open before them. A +new emigration, bringing energy and industry, would restore their +worn-out lands, drain their swamps, educate their youth, and make +Newbern echo with the hum of manufactures and commerce. The enterprise +of such a people would soon open a channel from the Neuse to Beaufort +harbor, and so avoid the shoals and dangers of Ocracoke and Hatteras, +and with the present railroads, make it the port of exchange for a wide +extent of country. The times are propitious; already the true men of the +State--and their name is legion--are anxiously awaiting the fall of +Richmond, when they will decide for the old flag and the Union, never +again to repudiate it. + + + * * * * * + + + + +OUR BRAVE TIMES. + + +I wonder if we, as a people, have any conception of the grandeur and +glory of the Times in which we are living; if we at all appreciate the +importance of the history which is being lived all around us; if we feel +the colossal magnitude of the every-day events which so crowd upon us +that we have hardly time to grasp them; if we are fully aware of the +infinite possibilities of what has been so well called this 'fearfully +glorious present'? I think not, and I do not know that it is possible +for us to do so. Only when we look back upon it from the hight of the +far-off future, shall we see the country through which we are journeying +in all its grand, sweeping outlines, its majestic proportions, and its +imperial tints of coloring. The days of peace and tranquillity in a +nation as in a life are robed in colors sweet and grateful to the +eye--softened hues of green and gold--but the days of war and +tribulation are days of scarlet and crimson, and all that can be seen in +heaven and earth is black and flame; but the days when Right achieves +great triumphs, even through bloodshed and desolation, are days of +imperial purple, hues royal in their magnificence. Thank Heaven that, +through the days of blood and black, we have at last reached the purple +days of life as a nation. A little more than a year of war, and now the +skies are brightening. Thank God! for they have been black, black, black +with horror and suffering and crime. And yet such a year as this, I am +almost persuaded, is worth a score of years of peace. It certainly has +achieved more for truth and humanity and God than the score of years +which preceded it. As a nation, we had become almost despicable. Such +supple, yielding slaves of 'Democratic' demagogues; such cringing, +fawning, knee-bending, hand-kissing agents of the diabolical, traitorous +Slave-Power; such apologists and supporters of Wrong; such +pusillanimous, weak-hearted advocates of the unpopular Right; such +slaves to Cotton and its threats, that we had almost lost the God-given +independence of American freemen, and seemed--thank God! events have +proved only _seemed_--to be entirely given up to money and mechanics, +to have become, indeed, a nation of peddlers. So much so, indeed, that +our prophets were stoned in their own lands, our apostles stricken down +in the national councils, and the few voices that were raised for God +and humanity, from out the miry slough of a trafficking age, were almost +unheard in the general din which went up from all the nations, and the +burden of whose song seemed to be: 'There is no God but Cotton, and we +are all his prophets.' But the moment the first gun was fired, how all +this changed! How regally the whole nation rose up! How magnificently +she threw off the garment of rags and filth which had hidden her fair +proportions, and donned the imperial toga of humanity, and wrapping the +rich folds of the gorgeous mantle around her, stood out before the world +in all the dignity of freedom and virtue--a form which made the whole +earth glad and the heavens clap their hands in exultation. What giant +leaps the nation made in manhood and heroism, strides following each +other thick and fast, until the most cynical of the doubters of humanity +began to open their eyes, and acknowledge that they would not have +thought her capable of such unexampled deeds. The national heroism which +the Northern people have displayed is indeed unparalleled. They have +risen up as one man to the support of the Government. They have offered +property and life and the most sacred treasures of the heart upon the +shrine of constitutional liberty. At the sound of the drum, they have +left the farm and the barn, the anvil and the mill, the church and the +forum, and formed into the grand army of invincibles which, at the word +of command, have marched forward, conquering and resistless. They have +borne patiently with delay and defeat, with blunders and crimes, with +humiliation and taxation, and have, in short, proved themselves +_Americans_ worthy of the name. Of course, national heroism has inspired +individual heroism, and to-day the country blazes from frontier to +metropolis with gallant records of daring deeds. Their number is +infinite; they can not be individually remembered, but only massed +together, one sublime mosaic by which the gallantry and heroism of the +free, untrammeled North is proved. We doubt not there is a leaf for each +hero in the heroic record of heaven, and the due share of hero-worship +paid to each by those angels who love to pore over the chronicles of +earth. And we mourn less over the coming of this war at the present time +than we should, did we not perceive that sooner or later it was +inevitable. It was written in the fate-book of God. Never before was war +so emphatically a war of principle. It mitigates the suffering much to +know this. It is something to know that all the brave men who have +fallen have fallen for the right; and when we believe so, we do firmly +believe that their death will give liberty and happiness to millions yet +to be. We can not think but that their lives are well spent. There are +some who are written upon God's muster-scroll as martyrs to liberty. Who +would not esteem it a happiness and a glory to belong to this Old Guard, +who from age to age have rallied and rallied and rallied to the support +of liberty, to the rescue of this holy sepulchre from the hands of +desolators and barbarians, who have ever fought where the fight was +thickest, have ever been the advance-guard of the world in its onward +progress, and been enshrined in the great heart of the world, there to +glow like the stars forever and ever? Is it a hardship to die that one +may live forever? Is it a hardship to die that millions who now live in +wailing and woe, in chains and degradation, may live in happiness and +freedom in all time to come? The voice of the great army of American +freemen rolls back the answer, like the majestic anthem of the sea, No! +a deep, continuous no, which echoes from the broad Atlantic to the +sunset-dyed Pacific, from the summits of Nevada to the great lakes of +the North. Yes, I tell you the whole people feel the depth and +sacredness of this war; they feel it to be, as Carlyle said of the +French Revolution, 'truth, though a truth clad in hell-fire.' + +Then forward, noble army of the brave and true! Rally and forward, and +forward again, until every Malakoff of Wrong is reduced, and every +suffering Lucknow of our country hears the slogan of deliverance. You +have glorious successes to cheer you now. You can think of Somerset and +Donelson, and all the glorious battles of the war--of forts taken, of +enemies driven, of towns evacuated, of the great cities of the enemy in +our hands, of all the stirring, glorious successes of our army and our +flag--and even had you none of these to think of, you could think of our +cause, and this would be enough. Then let the bugles sound, the trumpets +clang, the drums beat, the cannons roar, and we will march, and rally, +and forward, and charge and charge and charge, until victory or death +crown our labors; and if death to us, so let it be--it will be victory +to our successors. This is the spirit of our Northern army. Sing +plaudits to it, ye sons of song. Let your eloquence be inspired by it, +ye golden-mouthed men--ye Everetts and Sumners. Write of them, ye gifted +who would live in the coming time. Weave garlands for them, ye +white-handed and lily-browed. Write anthems and oratorios for them, ye +men of music. Pray for them, each and all of you, night and day, with +heart and voice. But we can not, if we would, overlook the desolation +which the war has brought and must bring upon our favored land. We can +not conceal from ourselves the fact that, end when it will, or how it +may, it must bring desolation to thousands of happy households, and +inflict never-healing wounds upon thousands of happy hearts. For every +man who falls in battle some one mourns. For every man who dies in +hospital-wards, and of whom no note is made, some one mourns. For the +humblest soldier shot on picket, and of whose humble exit from the stage +of life little is thought, some one mourns. Nor this alone. For every +soldier disabled; for every one who loses an arm or a leg, or who is +wounded or languishes in protracted suffering; for every one who has +'only camp-fever,' some heart bleeds, some tears are shed. In far-off +humble households, perhaps, sleepless nights and anxious days are +passed, of which the world never knows; and every wounded and crippled +soldier who returns to family and friends, brings a lasting pang with +him. Oh! how the mothers feel this war! If ever God is sad in heaven, it +seems to me it must be when he looks upon the hearts of mothers. We who +are young, think little of it, know nothing of it; neither, I think, do +the fathers or the brothers know much of it; but it is the poor mothers +and wives of the soldiers. God help them! But the theme is too sad--let +us leave it. And amid this wild rush of war, let us not forget our +individual duties and responsibilities. Carlyle truly says: 'Each of us +here, let the world go how it will, and be victorious or not victorious, +has he not a little life of his own to lead? One life--a little gleam of +life between two eternities--no second chance to us for evermore.' Let +us not forget the loves, the amenities and charities of social life. Let +us not forget that the education of the world must go on as ever, that +the great virtues of charity and self-denial must more than ever be +exercised, and that the discipline and perfection of our own characters +is as ever our grand life-work. Then let the angry waves of tumult dash +up and froth at our feet, let the skies blacken and the tempest roar, +God is over all. This one thing we are to remember, and be cheerful. +Browning says: + + 'God's in his heaven-- + All's right with the world.' + + + + +THE CRISIS AND THE PARTIES. + + +From two points of view, the great and preëminently _American_ nation +vibrates at present in a crisis of immense historical significance. The +first is, that of the war between the United and so-called Confederate +States, which is virtually a strife between Free Labor seeking to +enlarge its sphere and retain its power against agricultural aristocracy +maintained by slave labor. All the energies and theories of industrial +progress, of science, and of constant intellectual development; in a +word, all that is most characteristic of 'the spirit of the Nineteenth +Century,' is enlisted on the one side; all that is fading out and +wearing away, with all that characterizes the unwisest conservatism has +taken its last stand on the other. It is the old story of 'the +generation which comes and of that which goes,' reduced to the intense +form of a fierce fight. All of this--but little understood within a very +few years--has been of late made generally intelligible on this side of +the border, thanks, perhaps, as much to Mr. Hammond's word 'mudsill' as +to any other cause. In the short sentence which declared that there +should always exist, in every community, one ever-sunken and permanently +degraded class, the great point of difference between the South and +North was set forth in a form intelligible to the humblest capacity, and +it _was_ understood--how well has been shown in many a bloody field. + +The other crisis in which we are at present involved is domestic and +purely political. It is the growth of opposing political parties, and +its existence is undoubtedly to be regretted, if we take only a +_superficial_ view of the causes of its birth. We could all wish for +some time to come--perhaps forever--to see only a single Union-party, +with all men, looking neither to the right nor the left, pushing +steadily on to the great goal of unity, commercial development, and +social progress. But we forget that so surely as night follows day, even +so surely, in every community, will there be a conservative section and +a progressive; the 'extreme right' of the former consisting of frozen +conservatives, advocating the preservation of every antiquated evil, +because it has acquired in their eyes a halo of 'respectability,' while +on the 'extreme left' of their opponents will be found the radical +innovators, for whom no extravagance of reform is too great; so that as +each molecule or group of atoms has its positive and negative electrical +point, and as each atom in turn obeys the same law, so we see the +positive and negative poles of North and South again reflected in the +rapidly increasing divisions among us of Conservatives, who, by a +singular fatality, still indicate the plebeian origin which they would +now so gladly disown by the term Democrats; and, on the other hand, of +Republicans, nick-named at present Radicals--somewhat unjustly; since +the term is strictly applicable only to a very limited portion of their +number. + +There were men of high intelligence among the founders of the _old_ +Democratic party; men who understood in many respects the true interests +of humanity and its inevitable tendency, under the influences of free +labor, free schools, and science. But with the masses, it owed its +growth to the old assumed 'natural antagonism' of labor to capital, or +of 'the poor against the rich.' It was essentially the same party as +that which was played upon by low demagogues like Cleon in the old Greek +day; by men who stirred up the poor and ignorant against the privileged +and rich, for their own selfish advantage. Of late years, more +enlightened and intelligent views have prevailed in all parties, and the +Cleons of the present day have been compelled to adventure more and more +among the lowest and most ignorant for dupes. For the workman is +gradually learning with his employer that there is a harmony of +interests and a gradual adjustment of the prices allotted to the +relative values of time, labor, brains, and capital, and that the most +serious obstacle to this adjustment is, the keeping up of a constant +warfare between laborers and employers. It is the skilled _employé_ who +becomes himself the capitalist in due time, under a peaceable and +well-organized system, as labor and brains rise in value, and the +greatest impediment to his rise is a settled state of war between +himself and the employer. Education and political equality, the +competition of capital, and the ever-increasing appreciation of +intelligence, are constantly promoting this harmony and enabling labor +to secure its rights. + +It is easy to see how the ancient Democracy, or rather its leaders, +having for many years held political supremacy and shared the spoils, +actually took the place of their opponents, and, in their decline, +naturally enough, formed a coalition with the intensely aristocratic +South. Meanwhile, what became of the once aristocratic Opposition, with +its 'silk-stocking gentry,' as they were termed? Like the Democracy, it +died a natural death, so far as the active enforcement of its principles +was concerned, after those principles had no longer a foundation in the +social developments of the age. Here and there, an old and incurable +devotee to mere forms or party shibboleth, who could not comprehend the +new order of thought, went over to the 'Democratic' conservatives. Of +such were the old gentlemen who, in Philadelphia, voted for the white +waistcoat and immaculate snowy neck-tie of James Buchanan. They fled to +their ancient foes, that they might die happily in the holy odor of +respectability, quite ignorant that a new gospel of what may be termed +Respect Ability was being preached, and building up a higher and grander +order of nobility than they had ever dreamed of. + +Meanwhile, the arrogance of the South and its desperate struggle to +secure political preponderance, by extending slavery to the territories, +developed in the North a free-soil and free-labor party, which received, +most appropriately, the name of Republican. The doctrine of free-labor +being intimately allied to every other form of social freedom, and of +active thought and social science, had a natural affinity for +'intellect.' The old Opposition, which had boasted, or been taunted +with, possessing 'all the dignity,' including that of superior culture, +swelled the ranks of this new party with writers and thinkers of +eminence. So it grew in power, taking in, of course, many varied +elements, both good and bad. + +As might have been expected, the proper conduct of the war, and the +disposal of the enemy in case of victory, soon led to decided +differences between the Democracy, who could not--owing to ancient +custom--throw aside their love for the name, or their antipathy to the +new doctrines which threatened their power. The mass of them had grown +up in firm alliance with the South, and duped and cat's-pawed as they +had been--irritated as they were at the treachery of their old allies +and despite the noble service which many of them rendered, in fighting +the common foe--many have never been able to hate _ab imo pectore_ the +men of that false and foul feudal party which, when the rupture fairly +came, expressed for their old allies a scorn and contempt deeper even +than they felt for 'the Abolitionists.' In vain the South protested +fiercely that it meant disunion and nothing but disunion, and made its +words good by offering, both in Europe and in its own press, to +sacrifice, if need be, even slavery, rather than be longer bound to the +North; still, the remaining ultra Democracy could not, would not, even +now _will not_ believe that the South would or could be so unfriendly. +It was this hope of compromise and conciliation which lost us forts, and +ships, and millions of dollars in munitions of war; for it was said: +'The South is only boasting, and must not be driven to extremes.' With +eyes wide open to the thefts, the Democratic leaders smiled a languid, +cowardly assent, and let the enemy prepare for war. And war came. It +might have been prevented; it might, beyond all doubt, have been limited +and crushed; but the hand of the braggart South had been so long on the +throat of the doughfaces, that they dared not move, and the doughfaces +were in power. The country at large has had to pay dearly for that old +doughface love for the South; it is paying every day in lives and money. + +Even now, it is amazing to see how the leaders among the Democracy, +while pecking the South with the bill, continue to fondle it with the +wing. Again and again, since the war began, they have humiliated the +North and encouraged the desperate foe by efforts at peace-parties, +conciliations, outcries for amnesty, and entreaties not to 'exasperate' +the enemy. They have urged and advocated the maintenance of slavery, the +great cause of Southern arrogance and secession, with as much zeal as +any Southron of them all, and fiercely deprecated any allusion to a +subject which can no more he kept from consciousness than can a deadly +and madly irritating cancer. Every suggestion, even the mildest and most +equitable, for arranging this difficulty, has been stigmatized by them +as out of place and time, while their press has, without exception, as +we believe, given currency to statements denouncing directly as +swindlers and prostitutes the innocent and well-meaning men and women +who went South with the sole object of clothing, nursing, and teaching +the disorganized masses of blacks set free by our army. In all of this, +we have a melancholy illustration of the difficulty with which +unthinking men of the blind mass which rolls itself away into 'parties,' +and follows its leaders, embrace new truths or shake off old habits of +slavery. + +While the modern Democratic party firmly believed--as its majority still +seems to--that all this trouble was caused solely by the Abolitionists, +and simply for the sake of liberating some four millions of blacks, they +had at least some color for their iron conservatism. European humanity +did not agree with us; but we of America are more tropical in our +feelings, and so we made up our minds that it _was_ too bad to cut one +another's throats for the sake of benefiting certain 'fat and lazy +niggers,' who were probably rather better off as chattels than as free +men. But it is not from this point of view that the world is now +beginning to view the subject. Common-sense has ascertained clearly +enough that without the agitation of Abolition, the South would have +become intolerable and tyrannical--it was imperious, sectional, and +arrogant in the days of its weakness, while the Abolitionists scarcely +existed, and given to secession for any and every cause. The insolent, +individual independence which prompted the wearing of weapons, wild law +and wild life, free from mutual social obligations, contained within +itself the germs of withdrawal from a civilized and superior people and +a stable government. For such men, one pretense served as well as +another. They of South-Carolina employed Nullification long before they +dreamed of Anti-Abolition. + +Still more absurd is the 'Democratic' opposition, since Abolition for +the sake of the Negro has been changed into the cry of _Emancipation for +the sake of the White Man_. Before this cry, before the inevitable and +mighty demand of the free white labor of the future on the territories +of the South, all protestations against 'meddling' with emancipation +shrivel up into trifles and become contemptible. The prayer of the ant +petitioning against the removal of a mountain, where a nation was to +found its capital, was not more verily frivolous and inconsiderable than +are these timid ones of 'let it alone!' And _why_ let it alone? The +Emancipation-for-the-sake-of-the-white-man party, as represented by +President Lincoln's Message, commending remuneration, asks for no undue +haste, no violent or sudden aggressive measures. It is satisfied to let +the South free itself when it shall be disposed so to do; simply +offering it a kindly aid when this measure shall become popular and +expedient. More than this we have never asked for in these columns; yet +it would be hard to imagine a term of 'newspaper abuse,' which has not +been given us by the 'Democratic' press. Yes, at a time when ninety-nine +men in a hundred in the free States avow that they would like to see +slavery 'out of the way,' if only to avoid the endless war which its +continuance _must_ entail, all mention of it is tabooed by the men who +claim to head the party of the virtual majority! No matter how far off +the friends of Emancipation and of the Administration are willing to +postpone the practical execution of the measure, 'it must not be +mentioned.' For the greater part, these Northern friends of the South at +present still earnestly desire the perpetual establishment of slavery +'on a constitutional basis.' + +The contemptible efforts at Washington to build up a separate and +distinct Democratic party, when no party save that of the Union existed, +will condemn to everlasting opprobrium the Vallandighams, Carlisles, +Garret Davises, and other false friends of freedom, who at such a time +crowded together like hungry political cormorants, to hatch out the egg +of faction, and secure a prospective share of the spoils. Have these +'Conservatives' reflected on the disgraceful show which their names will +make _in history_, in after-years, when freedom shall have been +proclaimed throughout the land, and when those who opposed its progress +will appear like nothing else than traitors! Heaven help the men who, at +a time when others were gathering in full measure of glory in a holy +cause, were piling up naught but shame for their posterity. For it is +not more certain that God is just, than that the full measure of +iniquity will be heaped upon their names in the after-chronicles of +freedom. + +Even to the present moment, the 'Conservative' alias the +'Democratic'--or the Black, alias the White--party struggles with might +and main to defend and protect its old Southern whippers-in, even at the +risk of dividing and distracting the Union. To effect this, it +has--almost successfully--insolently thrust the Commander-in-chief +forward as _its_ centre, and broadly slandered the Secretary of War and +President in no measured terms, as having toiled to defeat McClellan and +prolong the war. Through all the glossy web of lies, the light of truth +shines or will shine to their disgrace. + +Chiefly and most unwisely is the conservative hand shown at present in +opposition to every proposition for confiscation or punishing the +rebels. After having hurried us by their cowardice and Southern +toad-eating into this war; after urging it by their contemptible +procrastination to its present tremendous proportions, they cry out +'humanity!' for the men who have murdered our relatives, and shake the +Constitution for protection over estates which have been directly used +to contribute to Southern war! While every mail from the South gives +fresh instances of desperation, and while we search in vain for a trace +of proof that there is the slightest hope of reconciliation, we are +still entreated to restore every thing in _statu quo ante bellum_, and +bear all the results of the war ourselves, as if forsooth we had been +after all in the wrong. And so the Vallandighams and Davises declare +that we were. 'Abolitionism caused it all,' they say, 'nothing but +Abolition.' + +Meanwhile, the question urges itself on us every day with more pressing +power, how we are really to settle the whole difficulty? We see but one +course--the 'Northing' of the South. We are content to waive for the +present all theory or project of confiscation, save so far as promoting +the settlement of those soldiers and emigrants who may wish to settle in +the South is concerned. _This_ question demands consideration, and must +have it. Whether the lands to be appropriated for this purpose come +from rebel estates which have ministered to the war, or whether they are +to be taken from State property, they must be had; for the settlement of +the South and the proper rewarding of the army are matters of paramount +importance. The South can no longer exist in its present social +condition. People who believe, to use the language of their most +respectable journal, the Richmond _Whig_, that: + + 'Yankees are the most contemptible and detestable of God's + creation; vile wretches, whose daily sustenance consists in the + refuse of all other people; for they eat nothing that any body else + will buy;... who have long very properly looked upon themselves as + our social inferiors, as our serfs:' + +People, we say, who believe this of us, must be taught to think +differently and truthfully. If they lived in China, it would be +otherwise; but linked to us as they are, we can no longer tolerate such +outrageous superciliousness as they manifest. Those among them who will +learn, may be taught; those who will not, must be supplanted by people +who are not too proud to work, who do not 'abominate the system of free +schools, because the schools are free,'[B] and revile free labor, +because it consists of 'greasy mechanics, filthy operatives, and +small-fisted farmers.' The task is great; but it must be accomplished. +The war is drawing to an end; but a greater and nobler task lies before +the soldiers and the free men of America--the extending of +_civilization_ into the South. Let us lift our minds above the narrow +limits of 'party,' and realize the mighty work which we have in hand. +Let the introduction of free labor to the South be in future the subject +to which every thinking American mind shall be devoted. Let them stream +in by millions!--the free laborers of all the world!--there is room for +them all; and the right of man to work never yet had such fair and just +opportunity to have justice done it. Agricultural aristocracy, supported +by involuntary servitude and unsupported by manufactures, has been +tried, and found worse than wanting. Let its place be filled as promptly +as possible by that truly higher aristocracy of industry and of culture +which is at present common to Europe and our own portion of America. The +turn of the North to rule has at length come. Let its reign be +inaugurated by great, noble, and philanthropic efforts to extend the +blessings of true civilization to all the continent. + + + + + + I WAIT. + + + I wait--watching and weary, I wait; + You wander from the way! + My heart lies open, however late, + However you delay! + + I wait--watching and weary, I wait; + But day must dawn at last! + Together, beyond the reach of fate, + Love shall redeem my past. + + I wait, ah! forever I can wait; + Forever? I am brave: + Time can not fathom a love so great-- + It waits beyond the grave! + + + + +TAKING THE CENSUS. + + +Moses Grant sat in his vine-grown arbor one fine afternoon in August. A +fine afternoon, I call it--a little sultry, to be sure, which made Moses +Grant's eyes heavy; but the hum of the bees that played around the white +clover-blossoms, and the sound of the leaves as they rustled in the warm +wind, and the richly colored clouds that floated around in the deep, +deep blue of the summer sky, and a thousand other things which I will +not pause to note, but which every observing reader has noted on many an +August day, made the afternoon I speak of as glorious as any afternoon +could be in all our glorious summer. + +Moses Grant's eyes were heavy--or eye-lids, if the reader should be a +critic. He had brought a book from his daughter's book-case. He +remembered the volume--it was called _A Book of a Thousand Stories_--as +the one his daughter Mary read aloud one evening, when the witty turns +of speech put all the company into the best of humor. But, somehow, the +wit had now lost its point--the joke had lost its zest--and let him try +as he would to collect his scattered thoughts, and let him set his eyes +on his book never so firmly, his fancy would go on long journeys into +the past, and come back again, wearied more and more with each journey, +till at last it had sunk to rest, and Moses Grant's eyes were closed. +The bees buzzed on, the leaves quivered as before, and the great world +moved in its wonted way, yet our hero did not heed it; the world moved +on just the same, O reader! as it will one day move--one long, long +day--when you and I will not heed it. + +Suddenly Moses Grant heard his name spoken. When aroused, he saw his +neighbor, Johnson, seated in the rustic chair that mated the one in +which he himself sat. + +'Good-day, neighbor Johnson,' said Moses Grant. 'What in the world are +you doing with that great book?' + +'I am taking the census.' And he began turning the leaves as if +searching for a lost place, remarking, laconically: 'Sultry.' + +'Yes, a very close afternoon. But is it ten years since the census was +taken? It seems but as many months. Oh! well, time flies!' + +And he looked at the beautiful sky and at the beautiful landscape, and +lingeringly at his own stately mansion, guarded by venerable trees that +his own hand had transplanted from the forest--and the great truth, +half-realized, yet almost as common as our daily life, that time was +sweeping all things into the dead past, day by day and year by year, +gave him a passing thought of how much he loved them. + +The name of Moses Grant was duly inscribed in the book. Then the +question was asked by neighbor Johnson: + +'When were you born?' + +'In the year 1800--sixty years ago the day before yesterday--though I +declare I forgot all about my birthday.' + +'Well, how much real estate shall I set down to you?' + +'I _have_ said that I owned about fifty thousand dollars in that kind of +property, perhaps a little more, but not half as much as some persons +estimate.' + +'Well, how much personal property?' + +'I guess about twenty thousand will not go far out of the way, reckoning +mortgages and all.' + +After a few minutes, which neighbor Johnson occupied by telling how Sime +Jones tried to get the appointment of census-taker by wriggling about in +an undignified way, and in talking about the prospects of his political +party, the visitor left the old man, (such we have a right to call him +since he has confessed his age,) and the old man (he would not thank us +for using the term so often, for he tries to think he is still +young--the old man, I must again repeat) fell a thinking. His eyes were +no longer closed, although his book _was_; he leaned forward in his +rustic chair, and commenced to talk aloud--which is said to be a growing +habit with most old men: + +'Sixty years of human life!' The words were uttered slowly, as though +their full meaning were felt in the speaker's heart. After a little +while they were repeated: 'Sixty years of human life!' There was a +mournfulness in his voice now; it had sunk to the low, tender tones +that, years before, when his faithful wife vanished from earth, revealed +to all his friends that there was sadness in his heart, while there +seemed cheerfulness in his words. 'Welladay!' he continued; 'I have, at +any rate, been a _successful_ man. My business has prospered beyond my +expectations, and I am what people call a rich man. There was a time +when I feared I should come to want; but now, if I could but think so, I +have enough. And mine has been an industrious life. When I was elected +to the State Senate wasn't my name held up in the newspapers as an +example for young men? Wasn't my reputation admitted to be spotless? +Yes, I _have_ been a successful man--more successful than nearly all who +started with me.' + +And he began to look more cheerful and contented. He again looked at his +mansion and broad fields, and again he opened his book. The jokes were +better now than a little while before. + +But the bees buzzed on; the trees sang their old soothing song; the air +remained warm; and soon Moses Grant began to nod assent to his book, +though the matters it contained were not of opinion, but of fancy. By +which I mean that he grew sleepy. + + * * * * * + +Sudden darkness fell upon the earth. The sun, after sending its rays to +glitter in the river so brightly that Moses Grant put his hand over his +eyes as he looked from his arbor-door, went out, and the blackness of +night wrapped itself about the world. The elms, that had rattled their +deep green leaves in the wind, and the birch, that had so gracefully +bowed its slender, yellowish head, were all colorless now. There was no +storm-cloud to veil the heavens, and yet the sad-faced moon came not out +to remind the world of their lost loves and deferred hopes--nor the +stars, to twinkle in their silence, as though there were a great Soul in +the skies that longed to speak to men, but had no utterance save a +thousand love-lit eyes. All was darkness--dense, universal. + +Yet Moses Grant had sat unmoved in his vine-grown arbor. His soul was +passionless, his face was calm. His book had fallen to the ground, and +his head rested on the back of his chair. + +Suddenly there came a visitor to the arbor. Moses raised his head and +saw a being--whether man or woman I can not tell--with a face, oh! so +bright and calm, with eyes that looked from the deepest soul, and a pure +forehead that spoke of unworldly rest--a face that shone in its own +vista of light when all around was dark. The Presence bore an open book +in its hands, and came and stood before Moses Grant and looked earnestly +into his face. + +'Who are you?' he cried, half in fear, before the calm look of his +visitor, and half in confidence, because of the look of love. + +'I am the census-taker.' + +'No, no; it was he who came a little while ago.' + +'He was one census-taker--he came to learn how much you _seemed_ to +possess; I come to learn your _real_ possessions. I am the real +census-taker.' + +Moses Grant knew not what it meant; he sat speechless, in wonder. He +would have fled, but he knew not where he could flee in the darkness; he +must remain with his strange visitor, as all men must one day stand +alone with an awakened Conscience. + +'When were you born?' asked the Presence. + +'Sixty years ago,' answered Moses. + +'You understand me not. I do not ask for the time when you were born +into your outward show of life, but when you commenced to live.' + +'Still I do not know your meaning,' said Moses. + +'Then you have not yet been born. You exist--you do not live. Say not +again that you have lived sixty years, for your being has not yet +expanded into life.' + +Oh! what great thoughts and dark memories came into the mind of Moses +Grant! Great thoughts of a nobler life of love than he had ever +known--of realities to which he was fast approaching--and a thousand +dark memories that he had often tried to obliterate from his mind. A +little while before, he thought he possessed a spotless reputation--and +so he did possess a spotless reputation when judged by human law. No man +ever knew him to steal; no man ever knew him to transgress any important +law. Nevertheless, he had had his own ends to gain, and he had gained +them. Yes--we might as well confess it--Moses Grant had lived a selfish +life. He knew how to take advantage of the technicalities of law, and he +knew how to be severe and unmerciful toward the poor. He remembered how, +years before, his son had longed for an education, and how the mother +had pleaded that he might go to school and to college, and how sternly +he said, 'No, I want him in my business;' and he remembered how he kept +him slaving at his uncongenial tasks, how he scolded because he still +pored over his books, until at last the mother had laid the poor boy in +the grave before he had attained to manhood. He remembered how the +mother grew paler day by day--she who had been such a help-meet in all +his selfish schemes of hoarding and saving; how she had talked more and +more about her 'dear lost boy,' till he, Moses Grant, commanded her +never to utter that name again in his presence; how the mother still +faded and faded, till at last she too, was laid in a quiet grave beside +her boy. All this came into the mind of Moses Grant. And then he +remembered how he had taken a poor widow's cottage, because his +mortgage-deed gave him the privilege--he never thought the _right_--to +take it; he remembered her sad face, that told of silent suffering, when +she moved with her children from the cottage her husband had built. +'How,' he asked, in the silence of his own mind, 'oh! how could they say +my reputation was unspotted?' Yet he had transgressed no outward law, +had forged no mortgage-deed. He only acted like a man who thought that +this world could only be enjoyed when he possessed a title-deed to it +all; like one who thought that above and beyond this world there was +nothing. + +All this time has the Presence stood before Moses Grant, looking into +his troubled face with its piercing eyes, and reading his every thought. + +'Answer me now,' it said, 'have you yet begun to live?' + +Then there was another and greater struggle in the mind of Moses. Pride +said to him: 'Send this intrusive visitor away, or flee yourself.' But +still the visitor stood there, waiting so calmly, and again Moses +realized that the great world had faded from his vision; so he could +neither send away the intruder, nor fly himself. Still those calm eyes +looked into his inmost soul. + +'Oh!' he cried at last, 'you have searched me through and through. No, I +have not lived--I have not been born, I have no life for you to record +in your book. Now, pray leave me--leave me in peace!' + +'That were impossible,' said the Presence, 'you know not peace. You +pride yourself on your possessions; but how can you have life or +possessions, if they are not recorded in my book? The earth, that you +love so well, has faded away. It will return to you for a brief moment, +and then it will fade forever. What you now possess is but a shadow, +like a sun-gilt cloud in a summer sky--changing and changing, and fading +and fading, till at last it disappears. You have, if God wills, a few +more years of mortal existence, and then, oh! then, you must exchange +shadows for realities.' + +'Leave me, oh! leave me!' cried Moses. + +'Not yet; my mission is not fulfilled. Here in this book your name was +written sixty years age, as one _to be_ born. Here your ledger has been +kept, though you knew it not. Read the pages with your soul, and see how +your account stands.' + +Oh! how dark the page. A line was drawn through the middle, from top to +bottom, and the good deeds were recorded on one side, in letters of +gold, and the bad deeds on the other side in letters of ink. As the +pages were turned, Moses looked eagerly for the bright letters, but they +were few--too few; while every page was almost filled with the black +records of selfish and sinful deeds. Every page made Moses Grant sicker +at heart, and he would gladly have withdrawn his eyes from the book, but +they were riveted, and he could not. + +'O poor man!' exclaimed the Presence, in pity; 'how poor do you find +yourself, you who were a little while ago so rich! But you must read no +more, lest you sink in despair.' + +And the book was closed. Moses Grant said not a word; his heart was too +full to speak--too full of grief--too empty of hope. + +'Despair not,' continued the strange Presence. 'Your record is not yet +completed. You may yet cancel all those black letters by writing golden +ones over them--which is to pray with your remaining strength and days +for forgiveness. You have been a hard, selfish man, for sixty years. +Men, for their own interests, have called you respectable; but before +God you have merited displeasure and disapprobation. In the little time +you have left, perhaps you may not be able to leave the world as pure as +you began it; but you may hope for wonderful mercy and forbearance from +God our Father. Have courage, and faith, and hope, and you will yet be +rich indeed--rich in love and joy and peace undefiled, that fadeth not +away.' + +Then the Presence vanished. Still Moses sat in his chair. But a hand was +laid on his forehead, and he awoke as he heard Mary say: 'Father, supper +is ready.' He drew his hand across his eyes, and arose from his chair. +He looked from his arbor-door. The world was all bathed in the light of +the declining sun. As he came out and looked on the landscape, he +thought that never before had he seen it so dreamy--never before had he +seen it so beautiful and so glorious, for never before had he so felt +the use of this world as a place in which to attain to the good and to +shun the evil, to overcome temptation and to aspire to life. + +His daughter wondered what caused his tone to be so tender that night; +the next day his neighbors wondered that he visited a certain poor, +struggling widow, and gave her the house her husband once owned; and in +the months that have since passed, many a poor family has wondered what +has turned their former oppressor into such a provident friend. + +_I_ only wonder that so old and selfish a man could have had so bright +and heavenly a dream. + + * * * * * + + A SENSIBLE EPITAPH. + + + 'Reader, pass on: ne'er waste your time + On bad biography or bitter rhyme: + For what I _am_, this cumbrous clay insures, + And what I _was_, is no affair of yours.' + + + + +THE PELOPONNESUS IN MARCH. + + 'Fair clime I where every season smiles. + + * * * * * + + There, mildly dimpling, Ocean's check + Reflects the tints of many a peak + Caught by the laughing tides that lave + These Edens of the Eastern wave. + And if, at times, a transient breeze + Break the blue crystal of the seas, + Or sweep one blossom from the trees, + How welcome is each gentle air + That wakes and wafts the odors there!' + + +It was with thoughts like these running in our heads, that we found +ourselves, at about half-past four o'clock, on a dark, cloudy, windy +morning, March fifteenth, 18--, rolling slowly along the uneven road +that leads from Athens to the Piraeus. Our guide was Dhemetri, of +course--who ever heard of a guide that was not named Dhemetri? An +excellent guide he was, too, never missing his way, answering correctly +all our questions to which he knew the answers, and fabricating answers +to the rest as near the truth as his moderate knowledge of antiquity +would permit; providing us sedulously with creature comforts, and +besieging our hearts daily with delicious omelettes and endless strings +of figs. Arrived at the Piraeus, we were transferred, with beds, cooking +apparatus, and baggage, to the Lloyd steamer, whose cloud of steam and +smoke was seen dimly in the gray morning. At a reasonable time after the +hour advertised, we sailed into the open bay, passed near enough the +island of Ægina to see the ruined temple on one of its hights--almost to +count its columns--then coasted along the rugged shores of Argolis, +which we eagerly studied with the aid of a map. Here was the peninsula +Methana, and half hiding it, the island Calauria, where Demosthenes put +an end to his life, once the seat of a famous Amphictyony. Then the bold +promontory which shuts in the fertile valley of Troezer, then the +territory of Hermione, stretching between the mountains and the sea. We +touched at Hydhra, famed in the history of the Greek Revolution, a +strange, rambling town, picturesquely situated on a cleft in a bare +island of gray rock, and shortly after at Spetzia, a town of much the +same character; then toward night sailed into the beautiful bay of +Napoli, or Nauplia, once the capital of Greece. + +It had been our intention to procure horses that night, and ride as far +as Mycenæ, but we were too late, so contented ourselves with a walk to +Tiryus, and a rapid examination of its ruins. The massive walls of this +venerable town--they were a wonder in the age of Pericles as in +ours--still stand in their whole circuit, and here and there apparently +in their whole hight. It is a small, steep, mound-like hill--you can +walk around it in fifteen minutes--and within the walls the terraced +slope, thickly sprinkled with fragments of ruins, is grown over with the +tall purple flowers of the asphodel--a fit monument to the perished +city. From the citadel of Tiryus the view over the wide plain of the +Inachus, the broad bay beyond, covered with sails, the bold headland of +Napoli crowned with the ruined castle, the noble citadel of Argos, and +the mountain ranges on every side, made a picture beautiful even under +the dull sky of that March evening. Our walk--quickened by the fear that +the city gates would be found closed--gave us a hearty appetite, and a +classic smack was imparted to our modest viands by the fact that Orestes +himself waited on our table. We slept well, notwithstanding the +uncomfortable reputation of the inn, and set off early the next morning +upon our wanderings. + +Traveling in Greece is no child's play. Roads there are none, except +between some large towns; indeed, the nature of the country hardly +allows of them, as it is made up chiefly of mountain ridges and ravines. +Neither would the poverty-stricken inhabitants be able at present to +make much use of them. When I expressed to Dhemetri the great benefits I +conceived that roads would confer upon the community, he asked +contemptuously: 'What good would roads be to them, when they have no +carriages?' Inns, too, there are none, or almost none; after leaving +Napoli we found none until we returned to Athens. In their stead, each +village has its _khan_, a house rather larger than ordinary, and +containing one large unfurnished room for guests. Here a fire is made on +the hearth, (the smoke escaping, or intended to escape, through a hole +in the roof, for chimneys do not exist,) and the traveler pitches his +tent metaphorically in this apartment. The beds, which he carries with +him, are spread on the floor, to do double duty as seats during the +evening and beds by night. Thus the accommodations are reduced to their +lowest terms--shelter and fire; to which add a lamb from the flock, eggs +in abundance, or sometimes a chicken, loaf of bread, or string of figs. +Wine, too, flavored with resin in true classic style, and tasting like +weak spirits of turpentine, is to be had every where. But for any +entertainment beyond this, the host is no-way responsible. If you do not +choose to sleep on the bare floor, you must bring beds and bedding with +you. If you wish the luxury of a knife and fork, you must furnish them +yourself. Kettles, plates, saucepans, cups, coffee, sugar, salt, +candles, all came from that mysterious basket which rode on the +pack-horse with the baggage. Were I visiting Greece again, I would +eschew all these vanities--carry nothing but a _Reisesack_, or +travel-bag, as the Germans are wont to call every variety of knapsack--a +shawl, and a copy of _Pausanias_, and live among the Greeks as the +Greeks do; but I was inexperienced then. + +So we set out with great pomp and circumstance, each on his +beast--_alogon_, the Unreasonable Thing, is the word for horse--while a +fifth, with two drivers, carried our goods. A ride of about three +hours--passing the silent and deserted Tiryus--brought us to the village +of Charváti, the modern representative of the 'rich Mycenae.' Here, +while Dehmetri prepared our breakfast, we followed a villager, who led +us by rapid strides up the rocky hill toward the angle formed by two +mountains. As we rose over one elevation after another, he plucked his +hands full of dry grass and brush, and then leading us into a hole in +the side of the hill, informed us in good classic Greek that it was the +tomb of Agamemnon. It is a large, round apartment, rising to the hight +of forty-nine feet, and of about the same width, the layers of masonry +gradually approaching one another until a single stone caps the whole; +not conical in shape, however, but like a beehive. A single monstrous +stone, twenty-seven feet long and twenty wide, is placed over the +doorway. The whole is buried with earth, and covered with a growth of +grass and shrubs, and a passage leads from it into a smaller chamber +hewn in the solid rock, in which our guide lighted the fuel he had +gathered. The gloomy walls were lighted up for a moment, then when the +fire died away, we returned to the open air. A little further on is the +famous gateway with two lionesses carved in relief above--the armorial +bearings, we may call it, of the city--and in every direction are seen +massive walls, foundation-stones, ruins of gates and of subterraneous +chambers like the first we visited, conical hillocks, probably +containing others in equally good preservation, and other marks of the +busy hand of man--'_Spuren ordnender Menschenhand unter dem Gesträuch_.' +Sidney Smith says: 'It is impossible to feel affection beyond +seventy-eight degrees or below twenty degrees of Fahrenheit.... Man only +lives to shiver or to perspire.' I think it is so with the sublime and +beautiful, and deeply as I felt in the abstract the privilege I enjoyed +in standing on the citadel of Agamemnon, and seeing the most venerable +ruins that Europe can boast, that keen March wind was too much for me, +and I was not sorry to return to the khan, where, sitting cross-legged +on the floor, we ate with our fingers a roast chicken dissected with the +one knife of the family, and drank a bumper of resinous wine. + +After dinner we remounted and rode back through the broad plain to +Argos, traversed its narrow, dirty streets, stared at by the Argive +youth, examined its grass-grown theatre, cast wistful eyes at the lofty +citadel of Larissa, which time forbade us to ascend, then wound along +the foot of the mountain-range, saw at a distance on the seashore a spot +of green, which we were told was Lerna, where Hercules slew the hydra, +and near the road an old ruined pyramid, which we afterward examined +more closely, then followed a mountain-path, catching now and then a +glimpse of the bay, following the crest of the ridge into the valley +beyond. On one of the undulations of the path we passed over the site of +an ancient city, evidenced only by that most sure sign, a soil thickly +covered with potsherds. No classic writer mentions it, no inscription +gives it a name; perhaps the careless traveler would pass without a +suspicion that he was treading on the street, or forum, or temple of a +once thriving town. Striking soon into the carriage-road from Napoli to +Tripolitza, and descending into a charming little valley with the +euphonious name of Achladhókamvo, we were not sorry to find a khan, and +take up our quarters for the night. We found the family sitting on the +floor around a fire blazing on a hearth in the middle of a room, and +here we placed ourselves, watching the women spinning and Dhemetri +making his preparations for supper. Out of the afore-mentioned basket +quickly came all the afore-mentioned articles. A lamb was killed, and +shortly an excellent supper was served up to us. Soon the guest-chamber +was announced to be ready for us, a large open room having a fire at one +end, and containing our beds, spread on the floor, a cricket three +inches high, that served as a table, two windows closed by shutters +instead of glass, and a large quantity of smoke. + +The next morning a steep and picturesque path over Mount Parthenion--the +same path, I suppose, on which Phidippides had his well-known interview +with the god Pan--brought us to Arcadia. And at the name of Arcadia let +not the fond mind revert to scenes of pastoral innocence and enjoyment, +such as poets and artists love to paint--a lawn of ever-fresh verdure +shaded by the sturdy oak and wide-spreading beech, watered by +never-failing springs, swains and maidens innocent as the sheep they +tend, dancing on the green sward to the music of the pipe, and snowy +mountains in the distance lending repose and majesty to the scene. +Nothing of this picture is realized by the Arcadia of to-day, but the +snowy mountains, and they, indeed, are all around and near. No, let your +dream of Arcadia he something like this: A bare, open plain, three +thousand feet above the level of the sea, fenced in on every side by +snow-topped mountains, and swept incessantly by cold winds, the sky +heavy with clouds, the ground sown with numberless stones, with here and +there a bunch of hungry-looking grass pushing itself feebly up among +them. Not a tree do you behold, hardly a shrub. You come to a river--it +is a broad, waterless bed of cobble-stones and gravel, only differing +from the dry land in being less mixed with dirt, and wholly, instead of +partly, destitute of vegetation. But your eye falls at last on a sheet +of water--there is surely a placid lake giving beauty and fertility to +its neighborhood. No, it is a _katavothron_, or chasm, in which the +accumulated waters of the plain disappear. For as these Arcadian valleys +are so shut in by mountains as to leave no natural egress to the water, +it gathers in the lowest spot it can reach, and there stagnates, unless +it can wear a passage for itself, or find a subterraneous channel +through the limestone mountain, and come to light again in a lower +valley. Such a reäppearance we saw near Argos, a broad, swift +stream--the Erasmus--rushing from under a mountain with such force as to +turn mills; it is believed to come from a _kalavothron_ in the northern +part of Arcadia. And not far from thence a fountain of fresh water +bubbles up in the sea a few yards from the shore; this is traced to a +similar source. In some parts of Greece the remains may still be seen of +the subterranean channels by which in ancient times the _katavothra_ +were kept clear, and thus prevented from overflowing. In this way much +land was artificially redeemed to agriculture. + +If, now, you seek for the dwellers in this paradise, behold them in yon +shepherd and his faithful dog--_Arcades ambo_--the shepherd muffled +against the searching wind in hood and cloak, under his arm a veritable +crook, while his sheep and goats are browsing about wherever a blade of +grass or a green leaf can be found. His invariable companion is--I was +about to say a tamed wolf; but in reality, an untamed animal of wolfish +aspect and disposition, always eager to make your acquaintance. These +creatures are the torment of the traveler throughout Greece, and most of +all in Arcadia. If on foot, he can pick up a stone, at sight of which +the enemy will beat a hasty retreat. Greece seems to have been +bountifully supplied with loose stones of the right size for this very +purpose, just as the rattlesnake-plant is said to grow wherever the +rattlesnake itself is found. If on horseback, he can easily escape, +although the animal will not scruple to hang to the horse's tail or bite +his heels. Such was Arcadia in March. No doubt, at another season it is +a delightful retreat from the overpowering heat of the Greek summer. It +may have a beauty of its own at that season; but there can be little of +that quiet rural landscape which we call Arcadian. + +After crossing this plain, visiting by the way the ruins of Tegea, which +consisted of a potato-field, sprinkled with bits of brick and marble, +and a medieval church, with some ancient marble built into its walls, we +came to a broad river, the Alpheus, whose water, when it has any, +empties in a _katavothron_ which we left on our right; followed it up in +a southerly direction until we came to a little water in its bed, then +crossing over some rolling land which divides the water-courses of +Arcadia from those of Laconia, we found ourselves in a country of a very +different character. The land was better, and was covered with a low +growth of wood; we could even see extensive forests on the sides of +Parnon. The scenery became highly picturesque, and the weather, although +still rigorous, was more comfortable than in the morning. Night came on +us long before we reached our journey's end, the wayside khan of +Krevatá. There was a little parleying at the door, and Dhemetri seemed +dissatisfied with what he saw, and disposed to carry us on to another +resting-place. But thoroughly benumbed as we were, the blaze of light +that fell upon us from the half-open door quite won our hearts, and we +felt willing to risk whatever discomforts the place might have rather +than go further. As we entered the door, the scene was striking. A large +fire was roaring in the middle of the room, filling it with smoke. On +cushions and scraps of carpet, disposed about the fire, were crouched +six or eight men and women, dressed in their national costume, very +dirty and equally picturesque. Two or three children were among them, or +lay stretched at random on the floor asleep. A large, swarthy man +opposite us held a child of two or three years, now nestling in its +father's arms, now climbing over to its mother, now gazing bashfully and +curiously at the strangers. Basil, ever ready on occasion, seized his +pencil and soon transferred the group to paper, to the admiration of +them all. They moved to right and left as we came in, and made room for +us on the side next the door, where our faces were scorched, Our backs +shivering, and our eyes smarting with the smoke. An old woman who sat +next me eyed us inquisitively, and would gladly have entered into +conversation; but almost our sole Greek phrase, 'It is cold,' (_eeny +krió_), we had exhausted immediately on entering the room. Basil +essayed Italian, having a vague idea that it would pass any where in +Greece, as French does in Italy, but with no success. Neither was our +conversation among ourselves brilliant. We were tired, cold, sleepy, and +hungry, and we thought despairingly on the long miles back that we had +last seen our baggage. At length a shout at the door gladdened our +hearts; our beds and that ever-welcome basket were handed in, and +Dhemetri was soon deeply engaged in preparing supper. Meanwhile, a fire +had been built in the upper room, and we went up by a ladder. But here +we were worse off than below. Roof, floor, walls, and (wooden) windows, +all were amply provided with cracks and knot-holes, through which the +wind roved at its will. A wretched fire was smoldering on the hearth, +and a candle was burning in a tin cup hanging by its handle on a nail in +the wall, which, set it where we would, flickered in the wind. And when +our supper came, fricassee, boiled chicken, roast hare, omelette, bread, +cheese, figs, and wine--for such a bill of fare had Dhemetri made ready +for us--we swallowed it hastily, huddled our beds about the fire, +wrapped ourselves in our blankets, and lay down at once. The inquisitive +old lady below, on seeing the extensive preparations for the supper of +three fellow-mortals, was struck with reverence for us, and expressed +her belief that those, who lived on such marvelous and unheard-of +delicacies would never die. We, indeed, had requested Dhemetri to cater +more simply for us; but his professional pride would not suffer it. + +We were right glad when morning came, and after a mug of thick coffee, a +bit of bread, and a handful of figs, we bid farewell to Krevatá with no +regrets. A short ride brought us to the brow of the range on which we +were traveling, and there lay the valley of Sparta at our feet, and +beyond it the Taygetus, if not the highest, the boldest and sharpest +mountain-range in Greece. Its white and jagged crest was still tipped +with clouds, and it appeared to rise from the valley of Sparta in an +almost unbroken ascent to its hight of seven thousand feet. This was the +finest single prospect of our journey; but we gladly left it, after a +short pause, to push on to the warmth and sunshine of the valley below. +The precipitous descent was soon accomplished; we forded the Eurotas, a +broad, clear, shallow stream, the only real river we saw in Greece, and +stood in Sparta, its site marked by a group of low hills and a few +unimportant ruins. The ground is good, and was then green with young +wheat; the valley was sheltered from the winds which had persecuted us +on the highlands, and for a few hours in the middle of the day, the +clouds were scattered, and we basked in the sun's rays. It seemed an +Elysium. A small and thrifty village has recently sprung up south of +this group of hills, still within the limits of the ancient city, and +here we dined in a café (_kapheterion_) kept by one Lycurgus, not on +black broth, but on roast lamb, omelette, figs, oranges, and wine. +Truly, if national character depended wholly on physical geography, we +should be inclined to look in the valley of the Eurotas for the rich and +luxurious Athens, and seek its stern and simple rival among the bleak +hills and sterile plains of Attica. We had a short ride that afternoon +up the valley of the Eurotas, with a keen north wind in our faces, and +were not sorry to reach Kalyvia at an early hour. + +Dhemetri had sent the pack-horse with our baggage across by a shorter +path, and now announced that we were to sleep to-night in a house +instead of a khan, that the mayor (_demarchos_) of Kalyvia had consented +to receive us. Great was our exultation at the prospect of spending a +night in this aristocratic mansion, and in truth we found the +accommodations here much the most comfortable--nay, we reckoned them +luxurious--which we had on our journey. We were first shown into a small +room with one glass window, with tight walls, and a chimney. A fire was +burning cheerfully on the hearth--that is to say, a stone platform +slightly elevated above the floor. The floor around the fire was spread +with mats, and in one corner the lady of the house was--what shall I +say?--squatted upon the floor, engaged in domestic work. Her daughter, a +pretty, blue-eyed maiden, of some fourteen years, named Athena, +glaykhôpis Hathhêna, was working by her side, and the demarch himself, +with his stalwart son, were similarly seated on the opposite side of the +hearth. Three rough, unpainted stools, an extra luxury for guests, were +brought in for us, and we at once plunged into conversation. + +'_Eeny kriho_!' said we. + +'_Mhalista, mhalista, eeny krio_!' was the prompt reply. + +Stimulated by our success, we made another attempt, and were overwhelmed +by a flood of Romaic, to which we could only nod our heads gratefully, +with 'Málista, málista, charí, charí,' (certainly, certainly, thank you, +thank you.) When we retired to our room, we found our beds laid on a +sort of shelf along the wall, instead of on the floor, and our supper +was served on a table instead of in our laps, as we were used. The +family shook hands with us cordially when we took leave, in the morning, +placing their hands on their hearts. + +This day we rode through a rolling country, quite well watered and +wooded, separating the waters of the Eurotas from those of the Alpheus, +Laconia from Arcadia. As we reached the highest point, and were about to +descend, Dhemetri pointed out a village, distinguished by a single tall, +slender cypress, with the words; 'There is Megalopolis.' This is the +city founded by Epaminondas, almost the only statesman of antiquity who +seems to have had a dim conception of the modern policy of the balance +of power, as a point of union for the jealous and disunited States of +Arcadia, and as a sentinel stationed at a chief entrance to Laconia. The +whole of his great project was not realized, and Megalopolis, instead of +becoming 'the great city' of Arcadia, was only a mate to Tegea and +Mantinea. Even thus, the work was by no means lost; a Spartan army, to +reach Messenia, whose independence was to be secured, must pass through +the territory of Megalopolis, and even a second-rate city would answer +as a guard. But not even Epaminondas could make of Arcadia a first-class +power, and a sufficient counterpoise to Sparta. Megalopolis is now +wholly deserted, and represented only by the little village of Sinanu, +half a mile distant, where we stopped at a khan kept by an old soldier +of Colocotroni, and ran, while dinner was preparing, to examine the +scanty ruins of the great city--interesting only from their association +with a great name. + +Reluctantly, we now turned our backs upon Messene, with its renowned +fortress of Ithome, the sacred Olympia, and the beautiful temple of +Phigalia, and began our homeward journey. Passing over a mountain from +which we had a wide and beautiful view, we rode through a barren and +uninteresting plain to the lonely khan of Frankovrysi, and early the +next day arrived at Tripolitza. We had had a clear sky at Megalopolis +and Frankovrysi, but here, in the high table-land of Arcadia, we found +the self-same leaden sky and bleak winds we left three days before. This +valley or table-land stretches from north to south, nearly divided in +two by the approach of the mountains from east and west. Thus the valley +takes the shape rudely of the figure eight; the southern part, through +one corner of which we had passed before, being occupied by Tegea, the +northern by Mantinea. Tripolitza, to the northwest of Tegea, represents +the ancient Pallantium, the birthplace of Evander. Here Dhemetri brought +us bad news. We had intended to go to Mantinea, thence north through +Orchomenus, Stymphalus, and Sicyon, to Corinth; but the passes, we +learned, were impracticable for the snow, and we must recross Mount +Parthenion, and revisit Achladhokamvo and Argos. First, however, we took +a rapid ride to Mantinea, about eight miles through a level, tolerably +well-cultivated country. At the narrow passage between the mountains, +there stood in ancient times a grove of cork-trees, called 'Pelagus,' +the sea. Epaminondas, warned by an oracle to beware of the 'Pelagus,' +had carefully avoided the sea. But it was just in this spot that he drew +up his troops for the great battle which cost him his life. When +mortally wounded, he was carried to a high place called +'Skope'--identified with the sharp spur of Mount Mænalus, which projects +just here into the plain, and from this he watched the battle, and here +he died, like Wolfe, at the moment of victory. The well-built walls of +Mantinea still stand in nearly their entire circuit, built in the fourth +century before Christ, after Agesipolis of Sparta had captured the city, +by washing away its walls of sun-burnt brick, and had dispersed the +inhabitants among the neighboring villages. The restoration of the city +was a part of the great system of humbling Sparta, set on foot by +Epaminondas after the battle of Leuctra. + +After spending the night at Achladhokamvo, where we visited the ruins of +Hysiæ close by, we went next day through Argos, passing within sight of +Mycenæ, to Nemea, where, in a beautiful little valley, three Doric +columns, still standing, testify to the former sanctity of the spot. +Then to Kurtissa, the ancient Cleonæ, to pass the night. When Dhemetri +pointed it out to us from the hill above, it looked like a New-England +farm-house, a neat white cottage peeping out from among the trees, and +we rejoiced at the prospect. But lo! the neat white cottage was a +guardhouse, and our khan was the rude, unpainted, windowless barn. It +was, nevertheless, very comfortable. There was a ceiling to the room, +and the board windows were tight. The floor, to be sure, gaped in wide +cracks; but as there was a blazing fire in the room beneath, the cracks +let in no cold air, nothing but smoke, a sort of compensation, as it +seemed, for our having a chimney, lest we should be puffed up with pride +and luxury. For we not only had a chimney, but a table and two stools, +one sitting on an inverted barrel spread with a horse-blanket. Here +Dhemetri concocted for our supper an Hellenic soup, of royal flavor, the +recollection of which is still grateful to my palate. And here a youth, +named Agamemnon, son of George, came and displayed to us his +school-books, a geography, beginning with Greece and ending with +America, where Bostônia as put down as capital of Massachoytia. Longing +to hear a Greek war-song, we requested him to sing, at which he warbled +Dehyte pahides tôn Hellhênôn to a tune which we strongly suspected he +composed for the occasion, following it up with others, with such +delight that we were fain at last to plead sleepiness and let him +depart. + +We were up betimes the following morning, for we had a long day's work +before us. We were approaching Corinth, and knew that from the +Acrocorinthus, a very high and steep hill over-hanging it, a prospect +was to be had inferior to none in Greece. The morning, though not +actually unpleasant, was chill and hazy, and Dhemetri tried to dissuade +us from wasting the time. But we were determined to see what there was +to be seen, and after a ride of two or three hours over a rough country, +we entered the fortifications of this chief citadel of Greece. It is now +guarded by a handful of soldiers, two or three neglected cannons thrust +their muzzles idly over the rampart, and shepherds with their flocks +roam at will within. A sharp wind was sweeping over the summit, and the +mountains and islands--Parnassus, Cyllene, Helicon, Pentclicon, Salamis, +Ægina--were veiled with a dull, opaque haze. While Basil, with stiff +fingers, was sketching the view from the top, I wandered about with my +other companion, picking spring flowers, reading the descriptions of +Pausanias, and studying the distant landscape. There is a thriving town +at the bottom of the hill, and hither we descended, asking for the inn +(Xenodhekeon) where Dhemetri had told us to meet him. But alas! modern +Corinth can not sustain an inn; and we were obliged to eat our dinner in +a grocery, stared at by all the youth of Corinth. Half a dozen Doric +columns, belonging to a very old temple, are the only considerable +relics of ancient Corinth. And as we had a long afternoon's work before +us, we set off before twelve. We galloped at good speed across the +Isthmus, about an hour's ride; Dhemetri, who understood the management +of Greek horses, driving us before him like a flock of sheep. We paused +a moment at the Isthmic sanctuary of Poseidon, passed through the +village of Kalamáki, whence steamers run to Athens, then continued along +the shore between Mount Geroneia and the sea, through a low, uneven +country, well grown with pine, heather, arbute, gorse in the full +splendor of its yellow blossoms, and sweet-smelling thyme. The afternoon +was warm and bright. Here and there were flocks of long-haired sheep and +sturdy black goats, cropping the grass and the shrubs, and it was well +in keeping with the scene when we passed a shepherd, with his cloak +thrown carelessly aside, leaning on his crook, and playing a few simple +notes--not a _tune_--on his flageolet to while away the time. We delayed +half an hour at the miserable hamlet of Kineta, to rest one of the +horses, exhausted with our fast riding, then began the ascent of our +last mountain-pass. A spur of Mount Geroneia runs boldly into the sea, +forming a wall between the territories of Corinth and Megara. It is +called 'Kake-Scala,' 'Bad Ladder,' an odd mixture of Greek and Italian. +Here, as the ancients fabled, dwelt the robber Skiron, plundering and +mutilating all wayfarers, and throwing them into the sea; but Theseus +subdued him and subjected him to a like treatment, and thereafter +traveling was secure. No doubt Theseus crowned his labors by building a +road, as we know one existed here in antiquity, but it has long since +disappeared, and King Otho was then imitating him, as we found, +presently, to our cost. The sun had already set, when the road became +impassable, and shouts from two men some distance above, informed us +that the building of the new road had rendered the old bridle-path +impracticable. We had to urge our horses down a steep, narrow path to +the water's edge, then as the beach was blocked up with huge rocks, to +ride a rod or two through the water, then climb up the steep rocks on +the other side, where one horse slipped and came near tumbling with his +rider into the sea below. Ten minutes later, and we must have returned +to Kineta, or waited an hour or two for the moon, for as soon as we were +over this dangerous spot it became quite dark; but the path was now safe +and easy to find. The full moon was up when we reached the top of the +cliff, and the valley of Megara, the mountains, the bay, and the islands +of Ægina and Salamis lay distinctly before us. We made all speed to +Megara, cheered by the fame of its khan as one of the best in Greece, +and by the certainty that there was now a good road all the way to +Athens. + +It was suggested that we should take a carriage the rest of the way, but +as our horses were hired to Athens, we decided not to incur the extra +expense. Soon after arriving, however, while Dhemetri was making us a +soup, and Diomedes was taking care of our horses, and Epaminondas was +roasting us a joint of lamb, while we were squatting half-asleep on +bolsters on the floor, hugging our knees, looking dreamily at the fire, +and longing for supper and bed, the driver of the carriage came in, and +addressed us in recommendation of his establishment in his choicest +Frank, "_Carrozza-very good-ye-e-e-s_!' then squatted down on the hearth +beside us, hugged his knees, and looked at the fire with infinite +self-satisfaction. Whether it was his eloquence that prevailed on our +attendants, I know not, but it was determined to provide us with a +carriage the next day, at no extra expense. The day was perfect, and the +luxury of an easy drive of four hours was very grateful to us after our +uncomfortable ride in the Peloponnesus. We dined at Eleusis, and reached +Athens early in the afternoon. + + + + + ADONIUM. + + + Far dimly back in distant days of eld, + There lived a pretty boy, as parchments tell, + As formed for love and life in lonely dell, + With mien as fair as never eyes beheld; + Because who saw, to love him was compelled + Straightway, so wizardly he wielded Beauty's spell. + + His name Adonis--sad of memory! + Whose life, though fair, his death was fairer still, + In dying for a cause, or good or ill; + For he heart-crazed the daughter of the sea, + Who loved him well, though wisely loved not she: + True hearts are never wise, as worldlings selfish will. + + Him Venus loved--Love's cherished creatures they! + And Venus wooed with perseverance sore, + Till weary was the lad, the wooing o'er; + And while he, hiding in the forest lay, + O'ershaded from the sun's unfriendly ray, + Ah me! there came to kill a maddened, foaming boar! + + Oh! see! from limbs too fair for touch of earth, + As tusk and tusk is savage through them drove, + While rain their dainty power 'fending strove, + The pure red liquid life all wasting forth! + All wasted, lost? Nay! thence, thence took its birth + ADONIUM, eternal bloom of martyred Love! + + Love's martyr is a-bleeding now again; + Sweet Liberty, beloved of earth, doth bleed: + The maddened, foaming boar hath come indeed, + And tears our life on many a gory plain; + But we--as bled the boy--bleed not in vain: + Our blood-drops--our sons--will be Adonium seed! + + Who die for Liberty--they never die! + Adonis, dead for Love, doth live anew! + They bloom blood-flowers in the tearful dew, + Forever falling on their memory! + In veins that are and veins that are not to be, + They ever coursing live, the right, the good, the true! + + Where sinks the martyr's blood within the sod, + A spirit-plant of universal root, + Divinely radiant, doth upward shoot, + Appealing from a wicked world to God! + And seen for once, down drops the tyrant's rod; + For men at last have tasted of a heavenly fruit. + + All good and beautiful of soul thus sprung + From blood, e'en as the Adonium I sing; + And where the blood is purest, thence doth spring + Such flowers as by heavenly bards are sung; + For since from Christ the fierce blood-sweat was wrung, + Have growths of nobler fruit on earth been ripening! + + + + +POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTES. + + +There is positively no class of writers entitled to higher praise, or +actuated by nobler motives, than those who are now distinguishing +themselves by their labors for Education. They have laid their hands on +what is to be the great social motive power of the future--the great +subject of the politics of days to come--and are working bravely in the +sacred cause. + +Yet it can hardly be denied that amid the vast mass of every practical +observation and suggestion contained in the educational works with which +we are familiar, or even among the really _scientific_ contributors to +it, there is very little founded on the great social wants and +tendencies of the age. Education is, at present, merely an _art_; it has +a right, in common with every conceivable department of knowledge, to be +raised to the rank of a _science_. This can only be done by putting it +on a progressive basis, and placing it in such a position as to aid in +supplying some great demand of the age. + +The great fact of the time is, the advance from mere art upward to +science, from the blossom to the fruit. Practical wants, 'the greatest +good for the greatest number,' the fullest development of free labor, +the increase of capital, the diminution of suffering, the harmony of +interests between capital and labor--all of these are the children of +Science and Facts. During the feudal age, nearly all the resources of +genius--all the capital of the day--was devoted to mere Art, for the +sake of setting off social position and 'idealisms.' As with the +nobility and royalty of England at the present day, society enormously +overpaid what is, or was, really the police--whose mission it was to +keep it in order. But from Friar Bacon to Lord Bacon, a movement was +silently progressing, which the present century has just begun to +realize. This movement was that of the development of all human ability +and natural resources, guided by science. It was a tendency toward the +practical, the positive, which is destined in time to bring forth its +own new art and literature, is breaking away from the trammels of the +old literary or imaginative sway. + +At the present day, up to the present hour, Education--especially the +higher education, destined to fit men for leading positions--is still +under the old literary regime. We laugh when we read of the two first +years of medical study at the school of Salerno being devoted to dry +logic, yet the four years' course at nearly all our modern Universities, +or, in fact, the course of almost any 'high-school,' is as little +adapted to the real wants of the practical leading men of this age as a +study of the Schoolmen would be. The 'literature' of the past still +rules the practical wants of the present. It is not that the study of +the thought of the past is not noble, nay, essential, to the highly +cultivated man; but it should be pursued on a large, scientific scale. +The study of Greek and Latin, as languages, is not so disciplining nor +so valuable as that of the science of language, as taught by Max +Müller; and if these languages must be learned, (and we do not deny that +they should,) they can better be studied in their relations to all +languages than simply by themselves. And as if to make bad worse, the +genial and strictly scientific use of literal translations, advocated by +Milton and Locke, and generally employed at the Revival of Letters, and +during the days when Europe boasted its greatest classic scholars, is +prohibited. 'A college education' suggests the employment of the best +years of life in studies of little practical use in themselves, and +seldom revived, save for pleasure, after graduation. And even where such +studies are exceptionally practical; nay, where science and a free +choice of languages and literature are left to the somewhat advanced +student, we still find the shadow of the past--of the old, formal, and +rapidly growing obsolete literature--overawing the more enlightened +effort. Deny it as we may, the University is still a feudal institution. +Within the memory of man, there existed in England positively no school +where the would-be engineer or manufacturer could be fitted for his +career and at the same time be 'well educated.' George Stephenson was +obliged to send his son to an 'University,' where some scraps of +practical science--scanty scraps they were--most insufficiently repaid +the expense of education. + +The great want of the age is the Polytechnic School, or more correctly +speaking, of the Technological Institute, in which the labors of the +Society of Arts, aided by the Museum and Library, may serve the two-fold +object of informing the public on all matters of science and industry +and of aiding the School of Industrial Science. Developed on its largest +scale, such an institute should be devoted to the acquisition and +dissemination of all knowledge, but under strictly scientific guidance +and influences. Literature should there be taught historically, in close +connection with mental philosophy, a system which, it may be observed, +results in interesting the pupil more in details than the old plan +devoted to a few mere details ever did. Art should there be taught, not +in rhapsodies over Raphael, Turner, and the favorite fancies of an +individual, but according to its unfoldings in human culture, based on +architecture as an illustrative medium. 'The lines of connection' +between these and the exact sciences should be ever kept in sight, so +that the student may never forget 'the countless connecting threads +woven into one indissoluble texture, forming that ever-enlarging web +which is the blended product of the world's scientific and industrial +activity.' + +The great aim of such an institute should be the aiding of industrial +progress, and the application of generous, intelligent culture to +practical pursuits--the whole to be based on exact science. When we look +into this community, and see the vast demand for talent in its +manufactures, and see how many thousands there are who would gladly be +'liberally educated' men, if the education could only be allied to +practically useful knowledge, we at once feel that the time has come for +the establishment of such institutes. The demand exists on every side; +the supply must come, and that speedily. England, France, and Germany +are rapidly improving their manufactures by scientifically educating +their master-workmen--the Conservatoire des Arts, and Ecole Centrale, of +Paris, the art-schools of the British capital and provinces, the many +museums devoted to scientic collection, are all keeping up their +factories--shall we be behind them? Let Capital consult its interests, +and answer. + +We have been induced to put the query, from a perusal of two pamphlets, +both directly bearing on this subject. The first is the _Ninth Annual +Announcement of the Polytechnic College of the State of Pennsylvania, +Session_ 1861-1862, _and Catalogue of the Officers and Students_; while +the second sets forth the Objects and Plan of an Institute of +Technology, including a Society of Arts, a Museum of Arts, and a School +of Industrial Science, proposed to be established in Boston.'[C] This +latter, it may be added, was prepared by direction of the Committee of +Associated Institutions of Science and Arts, and is addressed to +'manufacturers, merchants, agriculturists, and other friends of +enlightened industry in the commonwealth.' + +The Polytechnic College of Philadelphia, now in its ninth year, is a +truly excellent institution, the practical results of which are shown in +the fact that its students, immediately on graduating, have generally +received appointments as civil and mechanical engineers, or otherwise +stepped at once into active and remunerative employment. Its object, as +we are told, is to afford to the young civil, mining, or mechanical +engineer, chemist, architect, metallurgist, or student of applied +science, every facility whereby he may perfect himself in his destined +calling. It is, in fact, a collection of technical schools, or schools +of instruction in the several departments of learned industry. It +comprises the school of mines, for professional training in +mine-engineering, in the best methods of determining the value of +mineral lands and of analyzing and manufacturing mine products. Also the +schools of civil engineering, of practical chemistry, of mechanical +engineering, architecture, general science, and agriculture. To these is +added a military department, now under superintendence of a former +instructor in West-Point, with the use of the State armory near the +college, generously granted by the State, with a supply of arms. We are +glad to say that in all these schools the instruction is thorough, not +only in theory but in actual _practice_. The course of the school of +chemistry, for instance, comprehends the principles of the science and +their actual application to agriculture, to the arts, and to analysis; +to the examination and smelting of ores; to the alloying, refining, and +working of metals; to the arts of dyeing and pottery; to the starch, +lime, and glass manufacture; to the preparation and durability of +mortars and cements; to means of disinfecting, ventilating, heating, and +lighting. Its students are also practiced in manipulations, testing in +the arts qualitative and quantitative; in analysis of minerals and +soils, and in many other important practical matters. + +The students of geology and mining, of machinery and metallurgy, make, +with their professors, frequent visits to the many interesting +localities in Pennsylvania or New-Jersey, to the many large +machine-shops with which Philadelphia abounds, visit mines and furnaces, +and are in every way practically familiarized with their future +callings. Instruction in languages and literature, in drawing and in the +elements of practical law is, we believe, given in common to all. It is +the first, we may say, _unavoidable_, characteristic of a _scientific_ +school, that its work is always well done. Other schools may or may not +be specious contrivances, well or ill managed; but the very nature of +science is to _clear itself_ in whatever it touches, and be honest and +practical. Its tendency is to classify and select, to cast away the +obsolete and test and adopt the new and true. Such is by no means an +exaggerated statement of the real condition of the excellent college to +which we refer, which testifies, by its success, to the excellence of +its plan and the competency of its teachers, especially to the +administrative ability of its worthy President, Dr. Alfred L. Kennedy. + +It can not be denied, that for many years, radicals have inveighed +against 'Greek and Universities,' but it has been in a narrow, vulgar, +and simply destructive manner, with no provision to substitute any +thing better in their place. The growth of science, of the knowledge of +history, of culture in every branch, has, however, of late, so vastly +increased, that the proposition to reform the old system of study is +really one not to tear it down, but to build it up, to extend it and +develop it on a grand scale. Since, for example, the influence of +science has been felt in philology, how inconsiderable do the Bruncks +and Porsons of the old school, appear before the Bopps, Schlegels, +Burnoufs, and Müllers of the new! For as yet, even where here and there +in colleges a liberal and enlightened method is partially attempted, +still the old monkish spirit appears, driving away with something like a +'mystery' or 'guild' feeling the merely practical man, and interposing a +mass of 'dead vocables,' which must be learned by years of labor, +between him and the realization of an education. The young man who is to +be a miner, a cotton-spinner, an architect, or a merchant, may possibly +find here and there, at this or that college, lectures and instruction +which may aid him directly in his future career, but he soon realizes +that the general tendency and tone of the college is entirely in favor +of abstract studies quite useless out in the world, and apart from +preparation for one of 'the three professions.' He himself is as a +'marine' among the regular sailors, a surgeon among 'regular doctors,' +or as a dentist among surgeons. And this in an age when we may say that +what is not to be studied scientifically is not _worth_ studying. As our +principal object in writing these remarks has been to assert that the +Polytechnic Institute, in its either partial or entire form, should +exist entirely independent of all other influences, we might be held +excused from any mention of such scientific schools as are attached to +our Universities. That of Cambridge, Massachusetts, would, however, +deserve special mention, from the celebrity of its teachers. In this +institute, which has between seventy and eighty students, we have a +single school divided into the following departments: that of Chemistry, +under supervision of Professor Horseford, in which instruction is both +theoretical and practical; that of Zoölogy and Geology, in which the +teaching consists alternately of a course of lectures by Professor +Agassiz, on Zoology, embracing the fundamental principles of the +classification of animals as founded upon structure and embryonic +development, and illustrating their natural affinities, habits, +distribution, and the relations which exist between the living and +extinct races, and a course of geology, both theoretical and practical. +To this are added the departments of Engineering under Professor Eustis, +that of Botany, under Professor Gray, that of Comparative Anatomy and +Physiology, under Professor J. Wyman, that of Mathematics, under +Professor Peirce, and that of Mineralogy, under Professor Cooke. It is +needless to speak in praise of a school boasting men of such world-wide +names as teachers, or to commend it as affording facilities for +bestowing a sound education. We do it no injustice, however, in +asserting that its tendency is to develop students of abstract science +and teachers, while the aim of the _Polytechnic_ school proper is, in +addition to this, to supply the manufactures of the country with +_working men_, and the country at large, including those already engaged +in labor, with technological information of every kind. It should be a +vast reservoir of practical knowledge, where the man of the +'print-works,' in search of a certain dye or of a new form of machinery, +may apply, certain that all the latest discoveries will be found +registered there. It should be a place where capitalists may go as to an +intelligence-office, confident of finding there the assistants which +they may need. It should be, in fact, in every respect, an institute +simply and solely for the people, and for the development of +_manufacturing industry_. If, as we have urged, it should embrace +eventually thorough instruction in _every_ branch of knowledge, this +should be because experience shows that the most commonplace branches +require the stimulus of genius, which can only be fairly developed by +universal facilities. No young man, however practical, could have his +_Thätigkeit_ or 'available energy' other than stimulated by even an +extensive familiarity with every detail of philosophy, literature, and +art, provided that these were properly _scienced_, or taught strictly +according to their historical development. + +It is, therefore, needless to say that we welcome with pleasure the plan +of An Institute of Technology, which it is proposed to establish in +Boston, and which, to judge from its excellently well prepared +prospectus, will fully meet, in every particular, all the requirements +which we have laid down as essential to a perfect Polytechnic Institute. +Indeed, the wide scope of this plan, its capacity for embracing every +subject in the range of science, and of communicating it to the public +either by publication, by free lectures, by a museum of reference, or by +collegiate instruction, leaves but little to be desired. That there is +great need of such an institution in this State is apparent from many +causes. In the words of the prospectus, we feel that in New-England, and +especially in our own Commonwealth, the time has arrived when, as we +believe, the interests of Commerce and Arts, as well as General +Education, call for the most earnest cooperation of intelligent culture +with industrial pursuits. It is no exaggeration to state that probably +no project was ever before presented to the wealthy men of Massachusetts +which appealed so earnestly to their aid or gave such fair promise of +doing good. The institute in question is one which will in every +respect, socially and mentally, elevate the business man or practical +man to a level with the college graduate or the practitioner in the +three learned professions. It will stimulate progress by still further +refining industry, and ally the action of capital to the advance of +intellect. It will perform a noble and distinguished part in the great +mission of the age and of future ages--that of vindicating the dignity +of free labor and showing that the humblest work may be rendered +high-toned and raised to a level with the calling of scholar or +diplomatist through the influence of science. If we were called on to +set forth the noble spirit of the _North_ with all its free labor and +all its glorious tendencies, we should, with whole heart and soul, +choose this magnificent conception of an institute whose aim is to +confer dignity on what the wretched and ignorant slaveocracy believe is +cursed into everlasting vulgarity. It is fitting that this practical and +eminently intelligent and progressive community should build up, on a +grand scale, an institution which will be not only eminently useful and +profitable, but serve as a culminating exponent of the great and liberal +ideas for which the North has already made in every form the most +remarkable sacrifices. + + 'While the vast and increasing magnitude of the industrial + interests of New-England furnishes a powerful incentive to the + establishment--within its borders of an institution devoted to + technological uses, it can not be doubted that the concentration of + these interests in so great a degree, in and around Boston, renders + the capital of the State an eligible site for such an undertaking. + Indeed, considering the peculiar genius of our busy population for + the Practical Arts, and marking their avidity in the study of + scientific facts and principles tending to explain or advance them, + we see a special and most striking fitness in the establishment of + such an Institution among them, and we gather a confident assurance + of its preëminent utility and success. Nor can we advert to the + intelligence which is so well known as guiding the large + munificence of our community, without taking encouragement in the + inception of the enterprise, and feeling the assurance, that + whatever is adapted to advance the industrial and educational + interests of the Commonwealth will receive from them the heartiest + sympathy and support.' + +As we have stated, the plan proposed is to establish an Institution to +be devoted to the practical arts and sciences, to be called the +Massachusetts Institute of Technology, having the triple organization of +a Society of Arts, a Museum or Conservatory of Arts, and a School of +Industrial Science and Art. Under the first of these three +divisions--that of the Society of Arts--the Institute of Technology +would form itself into a department of investigation and +publication--devoting itself in every manner to collecting and rendering +readily available to the public all such information as can in any way +aid the interests of art and industry. If our manufacturers will reflect +an instant on the vast amount of knowledge relative to their specialties +extant in the world, which they have as individuals great difficulty in +procuring, and which would be useful, but which an Institute devoted to +the purpose could furnish without difficulty, they will at once +appreciate the good which may be done by it. For many years the only +comprehensive summaries of American Manufactures were a German work by +Fleischmann, _On the Branches of American Industry_, to which was +subsequently added Whitworth and Wallis's Report--drawn up for the +British government, and Freedley's Philadelphia Manufactures--to which +we should in justice add the invaluable series of Hunt's _Merchant's +Magazine_, and the Patent Office Reports. The community needs more, +however, than books can furnish. It requires the constant accumulation +and dissemination of technological knowledge of every kind. It is +proposed in the new Institute to effect this partly by publication and +in a great measure by the labor of committees, devoted to the following +subjects: + +1. _Mineral Materials_--having charge of all relating to the mineral +substances used in building and sculpture, ores, metals, coal, and in +fact, all mineral substances employed in the useful arts, as well as +what pertains to mining, quarrying, and smelting. + +2. _Organic Materials_--embracing whatever is practically interesting in +all vegetable and animal substances used in manufacturing, having in +view their sources, culture, collection, commercial importance and +qualities as connected with manufacturing. This department presents a +vast field of immense importance to every merchant and importer of raw +material. + +3. _On Tools and Instruments_--devoted to all the implements and +apparatus needed in all processes of manufacture. + +4. _On Machinery and Motive Powers._ + +5. _On Textile Manufactures._ + +6. _On Manufactures of Wood, Leather, Paper, India-Rubber, etc._ + +7. _On Pottery, Glass, and Precious Metals._ + +8. _On Chemical Products and Processes._ + +9. _On Household Economy._ This department would embrace attention to +whatever relates to warming, illumination, water-supply, ventilation, +and the preparation and preservation of food, as well as the protection +of the public health. + +10. _On Engineering and Architecture._ + +11. _On Commerce, Navigation, and Inland Transport._ This department +alone, developed in detail, and on the scale proposed, would of itself +amply repay any amount of encouragement and investment. To collect and +classify for the use of the public all available information on the +subject of shipping, the improvement of harbors, the construction of +docks, the location and efficiency of railroads, and other channels of +inland intercourse; 'keeping chiefly in view the economical questions of +trade and exchange, which give these works of mechanical and engineering +skill their high commercial value,' is a project as grand as it is +useful. + +12. _On the Graphic and Fine Arts._ + +Of the importance of the proposed Museum of Industrial Science and Art, +it is needless to speak. It would be for the public the central feature +of the Institute, and of incalculable value not only to it, but to all +engaged in all active industry whatever. + +As regards the School of Industrial Science and Art, with its divisions, +we see no occasion for material cause of difference between its +constitution and that of the excellent Polytechnic College in +Philadelphia. New departments of instruction could be added as the means +and power of the Institute increased, until it would ultimately form +what the world needs but has never yet seen--a thoroughly _scientific_ +University, in which every branch of human knowledge should be _clearly_ +taught on a positive basis--a school where literature and art would be +ennobled and refined by elevation from mysticism, 'rhapsody,' and +obscurity, to their true position as historical developments and indices +of human progress. We are pleased to see that in the plan proposed, +provision would be made for two classes of persons--those who enter the +school with the view of a progressive scientific training in applied +science, and the far more numerous class who may be expected to resort +to its lecture-rooms for such useful knowledge of scientific principles +as they can acquire without continually devoted study, and in hours not +occupied by active labor. + +This whole plan, though in the highest degree practical, has, it will be +observed, 'no affinity with that instruction in mere _empirical routine_ +which has sometimes been vaunted as the proper education for the +industrial classes'--an absurd and shallow system which has been urged +by quacks and dabblers in world-bettering, and which has been exhausted +without avail in England--the system dear to single-sided Gradgrinds and +illiterate men who grasp a twig here and there without knowing of the +existence of the trunk and roots. It lays down a perfectly scientific +and universal basis, believing that the most insignificant industry, to +be perfectly understood and pursued, must proceed from a knowledge of +the great principles of science and of all truth. + +Under the charge of Professor W.B. Rogers, Messrs. Charles H. Dalton, +E.B. Bigelow, James M. Beebee, and other members of a committee +embracing some of the most public-spirited men of Boston, this plan has +been thus far matured, and now awaits the sympathy, aid, and counsel of +the friends of industrial art and general education throughout the +community. We have gladly set forth its objects and claims, trusting +that it may be fully successful here, and serve as an exemplar for the +establishment of similar institutions in every other State. + + + + +SLAVERY AND NOBILITY vs. DEMOCRACY. + + +Few political convulsions have hitherto transpired, which have so much +puzzled the world to get at the entire motives of the revolt, as the +present insurrection in this country. Were public opinion to be made up +from the political literature of Great Britain, or its leading journals, +very little certainty would be arrived at as to the merits or demerits +of the attempted revolution. The articles of De Bow's _Review_ smack +little more of a secession origin than the late dissertations on +American politics appearing in the British periodicals. The statements +of most of the leading English journals are quite in keeping. Any one +accustomed to the 'ear-marks' of secession phraseology and declamation +would be at little loss to identify the Southern emissary in connection +with the periodicals and press of the British islands. Hence the +hypocrisy and studied concealment of those hidden motives necessary to +be made apparent, in order to judge of the merits of secession. + +The world has known that for thirty years past there has been a feverish +and jealous discontent expressed in the cotton States. It had its first +ebullition in 1832, when South-Carolina assumed the right to nullify the +revenue laws of Congress. Since that time the North has continually been +accused of an aggressive policy. Various extravagant pretenses have +from time to time been raised up by the South, and urged as causes for +dissolving the Union. They have always, until recently, been met by +forbearance and compromise. + +The extension and perpetuation of slavery has been prominent as the open +motive for Southern political activity; and equally prominent as one of +the motives for dismembering the Union. There has been another project, +however, in connection with the attempted dissolution of the Union, of a +most alarming nature: that project was the intended prostration of the +democratic principle in Southern politics. While a privileged order in +government was made the basis of political ambition by the aspirants or +leading spirits, it was also to be made the means of perpetuating the +institution of slavery. Whether these adjuncts, slavery perpetuation, +and government through a privileged class, were twins of the same birth, +is not very material; but whether they existed together as the joint +motive to overthrow the national jurisdiction, involves very deeply the +present and continuing questions in American politics. + +To many gentlemen of intelligence and high standing in the South, the +intended establishment of a different order of government, based on +privilege of class, has appeared to be the ruling motive. They have set +down the expressed apprehension as to the insecurity of slavery as a +hypocritical pretext for revolution; believing that the more absorbing +motive was to establish an order of nobility, either with or without +monarchy. There is some plausibility for giving the ambitious motive the +greater prominence; but a more severe analysis of the whole question +will, it is believed, place slavery perpetuation in the foreground as +the origin of all other motives for the conspiracy. + +In classifying slaveholders, it is undoubtedly true that a small portion +of them were Democrats in principle, and ardently attached to the +National Government--perhaps would have preferred the abolition of +slavery to the subversion of its jurisdiction. Another class, composing +a majority, though distrusting the National Government, connected as it +was and must be with a voting power representing twenty-six or seven +millions of free labor, yet more distrusted the attempt at revolution. +This class saw more danger in the proposed revolt than from continuing +in the Union. Another class were politically ambitious; had ventured +upon the revilement of the Democratic principle; had become +secessionists _per se_, and were the instruments and plotters of the +treason. This was substantially the condition of public opinion among +slaveholders at the time of the election of Mr. Lincoln to the +Presidency. These three classes, embracing the slaveholders and their +families, composed about one million five hundred thousand of the white +population of the South. + +Of the seven millions non-slaveholding population South, a small portion +was engaged in trade and commerce, and naturally inclined to oppose +secession; but timid in its apprehensions as to protection, was ready to +acquiesce in the most extravagant opinions; in other words, like trade +and commerce every where, too much disposed to make merchandise of its +politics. The balance of the non-slaveholding population, if we except a +venal pulpit and press, had not even a specious motive, pecuniary or +political, moral or social, that should have drawn it into rebellion. It +was a part and portion of the great brother-hood of free labor, and could +not by any possibility raise up a plausible pretense of jealousy against +its natural ally--free labor in the North. + +In estimating the strength of a cause, we are obliged to take into +account the actually existing reasons in favor of its support. Delusion, +founded on a fictitious cause of complaint, is but a weak basis for +revolution. It may have an apparent strength to precipitate revolt, but +has no power of endurance. There is a reflection that comes through +calamity and suffering that rises superior to sophistry in the most +common minds. If not already, this will soon be the case with the whole +Southern population. The slaveholder and the man of trade and commerce +who feared the tumult, and would have avoided it, will have seen their +apprehensions turned into the fulfillment of prophecy. The +non-slave-holding farmer, mechanic, or laborer, will be made to see +clearly that his interest did not lie on the side of treason. The +political adventurer who planned the conspiracy, is already brought to +see the fallacy of his dream. He may now consider the incongruous +materials of Southern population. He may view that population in +classes. He may contemplate it through the medium of its natural motives +of fidelity to the Government on the one hand, and of its artificial +delusion on the other. He may now go to the bottom of Southern society, +and find in its conflicting elements the antagonistic motives that +render the plans of treason abortive. These will be sure to continue, +and sure to strengthen on the side of fidelity to the National +Government. When the South is made a solid, compact unit in political +motive, it will become so, disarmed of all purposes of treason. + +It has been repeatedly asserted that the South was a political unit on +the question of the attempted revolution. This declaration has been +reïterated by the Southern press, by travelers, and by all the +influences connected with the rebellion. It is not now necessary to +delineate the _quasi_ military organization of the Knights of the Golden +Circle, or their operations in cajoling and terrorizing the Southern +population into acquiescence. Much unanimity through this process was +made to appear on the surface; but it is more palpable to the analytic +mind acquainted with Southern society, that the very means employed to +enforce acquiescence afforded also the evidence that there was a strong +under-current of aversion. Willing apostasy from allegiance to the Union +needed no terrorizing from mobs or murders. The ruffianism of the South +had been fully armed in advance of the full disclosure of the plot to +secede. Loyalty had been as carefully disarmed by the same active +influences. It had nothing to oppose to arms but its unprotected +sentiments. As soon as the law of force was invoked by the conspirators, +the day of reasoning was wholly past. Flight or conformity became the +condition precedent of safety, even for life. The bulk of the Southern +population was as much conspired against as the Government at +Washington; and force against the same population was rigorously called +into requisition to consummate what fraud and political crime had +concocted. This was the boasted unity of the South. + +The inquiry is often made: 'How was it possible to have inaugurated the +rebellion, without the bulk of the slaveholders, at least, acting in +concert?' This inquiry is not easily answered, unless its solution is +found in the fact that slaveholders, through jealousy, had parted with +their active loyalty to the National Government. This was generally the +case. Whilst the bulk of them hesitated for a little to take the fearful +step of revolt, their hesitation was more connected with apprehension of +its consequences than with any attachment to the Government. The +deceptive idea of peaceable secession first drew them within the lines +of the open traitor. The supposed probability of success made them +allies in rebellion. As a general sentiment, they made their imaginary +adieux to the Government of their fathers without apparent regret. + +There has been much misapprehension as to the process of reasoning that +brought slaveholders in the main to repudiate their Government. They +were influenced by no apprehension of present danger to the institution +of slavery. It was something far beyond the power of any party to +stipulate against. Their apprehensions were connected with the laws of +population and subsistence and the certain motive to political +affiliation that underlies the platform of free-labor society. When +indulging in the belief of peaceable secession, they expressed their +sentiments truly in the declaration that 'they would not remain in the +Union, were a blank sheet of paper presented, and they permitted to +write their own terms.' This declaration merely characterized the +foregone conclusion. It was the evidence of a previous determination, +merely withheld for a season, in order to gain time. + +But to come to a more definite delineation of the reasons that operated +to raise up the conspiracy. There was a partial feud that had long +existed in the mutual jealousies between the slaveholders and +non-slaveholding population. Nothing very remarkable, however, had +transpired to indicate an outbreak. Southern white labor was continually +annoyed with the appellation of 'white trash,' and other contemptuous +epithets; but still was obliged to toil on under the continuous insult. +The habits and usages of slaveholders and their families, indicated by +manners toward white labor, that white labor did not command their +respect. Too many of the accidental droppings of foolish and stupid +arrogance were let fall within the hearing of white labor to make it +fully reconciled to the pretended monopoly of respectability by +slaveholders. Under this corroded feeling, much of the white labor of +the South had emigrated to the free States. In 1850, seven hundred and +thirty-two thousand of these emigrants were living. Their communications +and intercourse showed to their old friends, relatives, and +acquaintances, that they had found homes and friendly treatment on +Northern soil; and in addition thereto, a much better and more +encouraging condition of society for the industrious white man. The +feeling reflected back from the free to the slave States was analogous +to that thrown back from the United States to Ireland. Its effect was +also the same. Under its influence, nearly two millions are now living +in the free States, who are the offshoot and increase of a Southern +extraction. Slaveholders merely complained of this flow of population, +on the ground that it contributed to overthrow the balance of political +power. It would not, perhaps, be amiss to conclude that they saw with +equal clearness the incentives that induced the emigration--a silent +logic of facts against slavery. + +The census statistics, commencing with 1840, have contributed much to +play the mischief with the equanimity of slaveholders. They have always +known that thorough education in the South was mainly confined to their +own families. When, however, the discovery was made public that only one +in seven of the aggregate white population of the South was receiving +instruction during the year, the disclosure became alarming.[D] It stood +little better than the educational progress of the British Islands, +which had crept up, under the fight with Toryism, to the alarming +extent of one in eight. That one in four and a half of the aggregate +population of the free States was receiving school instruction, made the +contrast unpleasant to the mind of the slaveholder. He knew that the +fact was 'world--wide,' that slaveholders had always controlled the +policy of Southern legislation. He was aware that slaveholders had made +themselves responsible for this neglect of the children of the South; +and knew also that public opinion would visit the blame where it +legitimately belonged. Pro-slavery sagacity was quick-sighted in its +apprehensions that it could not dodge the inquiry, 'Whence comes this +disparity?' + +The statistics of the two sections presented a still more obnoxious +comparison to the pro-slavery sensibilities, as it respects the physical +condition of the respective populations. The cotton States have mostly +been the advocates of '_free trade_,' some of them tenaciously so. They +deemed it impossible to introduce manufacturing, to much extent, into +sections where the yearly surpluses in production were wholly absorbed +by investment in land and negroes. The consequence has been, want of +diversified industry and want of profitable occupation for the poorer +classes. In the Northern and in some of the Border States, a different +industrial policy has been pursued. Diversified occupation has raised up +skilled labor in nearly every branch of industry. Notwithstanding the +greater rigor of climate, adult labor on the average, under full and +compensated employment, performs nearly three hundred solid days' work +in the year. The eight millions of white population in the South, in +consequence of this want of profitable occupation, perform much less, +perhaps not one hundred and fifty days' work on the average. The +following table, published in 1856-1857, by Mr. Guthrie, then Secretary +of the Treasury, discloses a condition of things very remarkable; but no +wise astonishing to those who have investigated the causes of the +disparity. The ratio of annual _per capita_ production to each man, +woman, and child, white and black, in the respective States, exclusive +of the gains or earnings of commerce, stood as follows: + +------------------------------------------------------- +Massachusetts, $166 60 | Indiana, $69 12 +Rhode-Island, 164 61 | Wisconsin, 63 41 +Connecticut, 156 05 | Mississippi, 67 50 +California, 149 60 | Iowa, 65 47 +New-Jersey, 120 82 | Louisiana, 65 30 +New-Hampshire, 117 17 | Tennessee, 63 10 +New-York, 112 00 | Georgia, 61 45 +Pennsylvania, 99 80 | Virginia, 59 42 +Vermont, 96 62 | South-Carolina, 56 91 +Illinois, 89 94 | Alabama, 55 72 +Missouri, 88 66 | Florida 54 77 +Delaware, 85 27 | Arkansas, 52 04 +Maryland, 83 85 | District of Columbia, 52 00 +Ohio, 75 82 | +Michigan, 72 64 | Texas, 51 13 +Kentucky, 71 82 | North-Carolina, 49 38 +Maine, 71 11 | +------------------------------------------------------- + +It is seen by this table that the income, or product of the +non-slaveholding population South, mainly disconnected as it is with +mechanical industry, is reduced to the extreme level of bare +subsistence, while the population of the States which have introduced +diversified industry stand on a high scale of production. Contrast +Massachusetts and South-Carolina, the two leading States in the +promulgation of opposite theories. These two States have often been +censured for the contumelious manner in which they have sometimes sought +to repel each other's arguments. The one is in favor of 'free trade.' +The other says: 'No State can flourish to much extent without +diversified industry.' The one says: 'Open every thing to free +competition.' The other replies: 'Are you aware that the interest on +manufacturing capital in Europe is much lower; that skilled labor there +is more abundant; and that it would dash to the ground most of the +manufacturing we have started into growth under protection through our +revenue laws?' 'Let it be so,' says Carolina; 'what right exists to +adopt a national policy that does not equally benefit all sections?' +'The very object of the policy,' replies Massachusetts, 'is, that it +_should_ benefit all sections; and the most desirable object of all, in +the eye of beneficence, would be, that it _should_ benefit the laboring +white population of the cotton States, as well as others.' 'But,' says +Carolina, 'this diversified industry can not be introduced, to much +extent, where slavery exists.' 'That is an argument by implication,' +says Massachusetts, 'that you more prize slavery than you do the +interests and welfare of the bulk of your white population.' 'Who set +you up to be a judge on the question of the welfare of any part of the +population South?' says Carolina. 'I assume to judge for myself,' +replies Massachusetts, 'as to that national policy which is designed to +affect beneficially the twenty-seven millions of people who are obliged +to obtain subsistence through personal industry; theirs is the great +cause of white humanity in its shirt-sleeves; and it behooves the +National Government to take care of that cause, and to foster it; and +not to submit to the narrow selfishness of a few slaveholders.' + +It may readily be seen that this controversy, growing out of the +opposite theories of selfish slaveholders on the one hand, and a spirit +of beneficence, blended with the idea of a wide-spread advantage on the +other, not only involves directly the demerits of slavery, in its +prejudicial effect on the non-slaveholding population South, but also +the great question of raising up skilled labor in all the States. It is +thus clearly demonstrated that our national policy should be exempt from +the control of an arrogant and selfish class. Slaveholders have had +little sympathy with the great bulk of the white people in the Union; at +most, they have never manifested it. Few of them can be trusted +politically, where a broad industrial policy is concerned. No one is +better aware than the political slaveholder of the crushing effect of +slavery on the interests of the non-slaveholding population in the slave +States: hence their jealousy of this population as a voting, governing +power. The Southern political mind, connected with slaveholding, is +astute when sharpened by jealousy. There is no phase in political +economy, bearing on the disparity of classes in the South, that has not +been taken into the account and analyzed. The fear with slaveholders has +been, that the great majority, composed of the white laboring population +South, would become able to subject matters to the same scrutinizing +analysis. + +It would be difficult to convince the American people that slavery is +not 'the skeleton in their closet.' Any one who has encountered for +years the pro-slavery spirit; who has watched it through its +unscrupulous deviations from rectitude, morally, socially, and +politically, will have been dull of comprehension not to have +appreciated its atrocious disposition. Its great instrumentality in the +management of Southern masses, consists not only of a disregard, but of +a positive interdict of the principles of civil liberty, in all matters +wherein the prejudicial effects of slavery might directly, or by +implication, be disclosed. It is true, people are permitted to adulate +slavery--so they are allowed to adulate kings, where kings reign. No one +in recent years has been allowed the open expression of opinion or +argument as to the bad effect of a pro-slavery policy on the great +majority of Southern white population. This would bring the offender +within the Southern definition of an 'incendiary,' and the offense would +be heinous. The pro-slavery spirit has always demanded sycophancy where +its strength was great enough to enforce it, and has ever been ready to +invoke the law of force where its theories were contradicted. Even the +fundamental law of the South, contained in Southern State Constitutions +in favor of the 'freedom of speech, and freedom of the press,' is mere +rhetorical flourish, where slavery is concerned. It means that you must +adulate slavery if you speak of it; and woe to the man that gives this +fundamental law any broader interpretation. In its amiable moods, the +pro-slavery spirit is often made to appear the gentleman. In its angry, +jealous moods, it is both a ruffian and an assassin. Mr. Sumner, of the +Senate, once sat for its picture--twice in his turn he drew it--each +portrait was a faithful resemblance. + +Had we been exempt from slavery and its influences, it is difficult to +conceive what possible pretense could have been raised up for +revolution. What position could have been taken showing the necessity of +disenthrallment from oppressive government? There would have existed no +element of political discontent that could by any possibility have +culminated in rebellion, aside from the active, jealous, and +unscrupulous influence of slaveholders. Rebellion and treason required +the lead and direction of an ambitious and reckless class; a class +actuated by gross and selfish passions, in disconnection with sympathy +for the masses. It required a class stripped and bereft by habits of +thinking of the spirit of political beneficence, devoid of national +honor, national pride, and national fidelity. Nothing less unscrupulous +would have answered to plot, to carry forward, and to manage the +incidents of the attempted dismemberment of the Union. It required +something worse in its nature than Benedict Arnold susceptibility. His +might have been crime, springing from sudden resentment or imaginary +wrong. The other is the result of thirty years' concoction under adroit, +hypocritical, and unscrupulous leaders. The slaveholders' rebellion has +assumed a magnitude commensurate only with long contemplation of the +subject. Making all due allowance for the honorable exceptions, this is +substantially the phase of pro-slavery infidelity to the Union. + +Were further argument needed to establish this position, it is found in +the fact that the seeds of rebellion are wanting in proportion to the +absence of slavery. There is no reason to believe that Kentucky or +Maryland, without slavery, would have been less loyal than Ohio. In +Eastern Kentucky, Western Virginia, Eastern Tennessee, Western +North-Carolina, a small portion of Georgia, and Northern Alabama, the +Union cause finds a friend's country. These sections, in the main, +contain a population dependent upon its own labor for subsistence. +Schooled by diligent industry to habits of perseverance, and learning +independence and manhood by relying on itself, it has preserved its +patriotism and attachment to the Government under which it was born. It +saw no cause of complaint, imaginary or real. Six or seven per cent of +slave population has not proved sufficient as a slave interest, to +prostrate or corrupt its national fidelity, nor to undermine its +national pride. It still retains its representation in Congress against +the influences of surrounding treason. There is a cheering satisfaction +in the belief that this plateau of civil liberty and freedom, even +unassisted, could not have been permanently held in subjection by the +myrmidons of rebellion. The secessionists themselves bestow a high +compliment to the patriotism of this people, when they complain of its +'idolatrous attachment to the old Government.' + +The time has come when the American people, from necessity, must analyze +to their root the whole aptitudes and incidents of slavery. They are now +obliged to deal with it, unbridled by the check-rein of its apologists. +Under the best behavior of slaveholders, the institution could not rise +above the point of bare toleration. There is so much inherent in the +system that will not bear analysis, so much of collateral mischief, so +much tending to overturn and discourage the principles of justice that +ought to be interwoven into the relationships of society, that it is +impossible for the ingenuous mind to advocate slavery _per se_. It is +not, however, to the bare dominion itself, that the objection is +exclusively raised up. It is the inevitable result of that dominion, in +connection with the worst cultivated passions of human nature, that the +exception is more broadly taken. The dominion of the master over the +slave involves in a great measure the necessary dominion over the +persons and interests of the balance of society where it exists. The +lust of power on the part of slaveholders, and on the part of the +privileged classes in Europe, in nature, is the same. The determination +through the artificial arrangements of power, to subsist on the toil of +others, is the same. The arrogant assumption of the right to maintain as +privilege what originated in atrocious wrong, is the same. The +disposition to crush by force any attempt to vindicate natural rights, +or to modify the status of society under the severity of oppression, is +the same; and no tyranny has yet been found so tenacious or +objectionable as the tyranny of a class held together by the 'bond of +iniquity.' Our forefathers had a just conception of the nature of the +case, on one hand, when they interdicted by fundamental law the +establishment of any order of nobility. Many of them were sorely +distressed at the contemplation of slavery on the other hand, in +connection with its probable results upon the national welfare. Our +calamity is but the fulfillment of their prophecies. They well knew the +nature of the evil we have to deal with. + +It is matter of astonishment to most minds that slaveholders should have +contemplated the bold venture of subordinating the Democratic principle +in government. It will be less astonishing, however, when it is duly +considered that it is utterly impossible for Democracy and Slavery to +abide long together. The one or the other must ere long have been +prostrated under the laws of population, and it is not very likely that +the twenty-seven millions and their increase would consent to be +subordinated to the policy of three hundred and fifty thousand +slaveholders. Slavery must exist as the ruling political power, or it +can not long exist at all. This the slaveholders well knew; hence the +necessity of fortifying itself through some political arrangement +against the Democratic power of the masses. + +The South-Carolina platform for a new government had close resemblance +to the ancient Roman--a patrician order of nobility, founded on the +interested motive to uphold slavery; but allowing plebeian +representation, to some extent, to the non-slaveholding classes. Others +in the South had preference for constitutional monarchy, with a class of +privileged legislators, and House of Commons, composing a government of +checks and balances, analogous to the English government. Whatever the +plan adopted, the leading idea was to institute a government that should +be impervious, through one branch, to the future influence of the +non-slaveholding majority. + +It is difficult to make entirely clear the ambitious motives and mixed +apprehensions that have combined to precipitate the Southern +slaveholders into rebellion. The defectiveness of the educational system +of the South, and the known responsibility of slaveholders for such +defect and its consequences; the defect in the industrial policy, and +the responsibility of slavery itself for the depressing consequences to +the non-slaveholding population, were fearful charges. A knowledge that +the causes of depression must soon be brought to the examination of +Southern masses, in contrast with a better state of things in the North, +filled the minds of slaveholders with jealous and fearful apprehensions +toward the non-slaveholding population. They knew that its interests +were identified with the Northern educational and industrial policy. +They appreciated fully that through these interests, free labor in the +South had every motive to affinity with the North, educationally, +politically, and industrially. They were astute in the discovery that +under the operation of the Democratic principle, free discussion, and +fair play of reason, the pro-slavery prestige must soon go down in the +South before the greater numerical force of Southern masses. It was, +therefore, not only necessary, as supposed, to overturn the power of the +masses in the South, but also to make them the instruments of their own +overthrow as to political power. + +The measurable acquiescence of the non-slaveholding population was +indispensable to the revolutionary project. Without it, there was but +little numerical force. It was, therefore, of entire consequence to make +this population hate the North--to hate the National Government, and to +train it for the purposes of rebellion. The press was suborned wherever +it could be. The pulpit manifested equal alacrity, in order to keep pace +with the workings of the virus of treason. Leading men, assuming to be +statesmen and political economists, taxed their ingenuity in the +invention of falsehood. The effort of the press and politicians was +directed to misrepresenting and disparaging the condition of free labor +in the North; whilst the Southern pulpit was religiously engaged in +establishing the divinity of slavery. It would require a volume to +delineate the arts and hypocrisy resorted to, and the false reasoning +employed, to impose upon the masses of white labor South, and to make +them contented with their disparaged condition. It is needless to say, +the work of imposition was too effectually accomplished. It must be +confessed that too much of the non-slaveholding population had been +induced to follow the political Iagos of the South, and thus to assist +the first act in the plan for its own subversion--separation from the +North. The next step in the plan of subversion, the 'abrogation of a +government of majorities,' was carefully kept from the public view. + +The inquiry naturally arises, as to how or why this design for the +arrangement of political power in the Southern Confederacy has been +confined within such narrow degrees of disclosure. The answer is plain. +A bold proposition to change the principles of their government would +have alarmed the people of the South into an intensified opposition. The +politicians of South-Carolina, more open and frank in the exposition of +their views than other leaders in the South, have been obliged to submit +the control of their discretion to the more crafty and subtle influences +of other States. Policy required that the contemplated new form of +government should be confined to the knowledge of the leading spirits +only. It would not bear the hazards of submission to the people as a +basis of revolution. Its success depended upon secresy and coupling the +adoption of the plan with a sudden _denouement_ after revolution. Any +one conversant with the pages of De Bow's _Review_ for the last ten +years, and who has watched the drift of argument in reviling the masses, +and contemning their connection with government; and accustomed also to +the 'accidental droppings' from secessionists in their cups, has had +little difficulty in determining the ultimatum in the designs of +treason. He will have become convinced that it is nothing less than a +warfare against the continuation of Democratic government in the +South--that this warfare is stimulated by the fixed belief that a +government of majorities must be superseded, in order to perpetuate the +institution of slavery. + +Were argument wanting to force this conclusion on the mind, it would be +supplied in the established affinity between the emissaries of secession +in Europe and the virulent haters of Democratic government there found. +The liberalists of England and elsewhere have been sedulously avoided; +not so those who would connive to bring Democratic government into +disrepute. With these last-mentioned classes, the secessionists have met +with a ready sympathy and encouragement, almost as much so, as if +treason in America involved directly the stability of privileged power +on that continent. The Tories of England, the Legitimists of France, the +nauseous ingredients of the House of Hapsburg, the degenerate nobility +of Spain, and from that down to the 'German Prince of a five-acre +patch,' have been the congenial allies of secession emissaries in +Europe. It mattered not to these haters of enfranchised masses how much +misery might be inflicted on the American people. They cared little for +the anguish of mind that was being every where felt by the supporters of +liberalized opinions. They rejoiced at the supposed calamities of that +government whose beneficent policy had always been to keep the peace, to +avoid the necessity of standing armies, to foster industry and +education, and in addition thereto, to encourage the depressed of Europe +to come and accept homes and hospitable treatment on the soil of the +country. These revilers of Democracy in Europe were long advised with, +were consulted beforehand, and knew the plottings of the pro-slavery +spirit, in its preparation for rebellion. They were indifferent as to +the character or hateful deformity of the agency to be employed, +provided it could be made instrumental in breaking the jurisdiction of a +government, heretofore more esteemed by the enlightened liberalists of +the world than any other that ever existed. Neither the secessionists +nor their co-plotters in Europe required seducing or proselyting. They +stood on the same level of affinity, the moment the secessionists +proposed the overthrow of the Democratic principle. This was the +promise, the condition precedent, and this the basis of alliance between +the plotters of treason in free America and their coädjutors abroad. It +would be both shallow and useless to charge the origin of sympathy with +rebellion projects, expressed by political circles in Europe, to the +mercenary motives of commerce, trade, or manufactures. Those were +standing on a broad foundation of contented reciprocity, and were the +first to dread the tumult that could not fail to prove prejudicial. We +shall hunt in vain to find the motive for European sympathy in +rebellion, elsewhere than in hatred of Democracy. We shall also search +in vain to find the motive for the wide-spread sympathy expressed by the +liberalists of Europe in the Union cause, elsewhere than in their +attachment to liberalized institutions. + +Having glanced at the compound motive for establishing the Southern +Confederacy, that is, slavery perpetuation through prostration of the +Democratic principle, it may not be amiss to refer to the contemplated +management of its _politico-economic_ interests. These were to be built +up, of course; but not through a system of diversified industry; for +free trade, as is well known, would have the effect to prostrate what +little manufacturing had been commenced in the South, and afford a +perpetual bar to the success of future undertakings. It was believed +that the foul elements North and South, and the illicit traders of the +world beside, could be brought together in the business of free trade +and smuggling. The immense frontier would render it impossible for the +Northern States to protect themselves to much extent from illicit trade, +through any preventive service possible to be adopted. The Mexican +frontier would be entirely helpless. Thus reasoned _Secesh_. This was to +have been the basis of competition with Northern mechanism. The +reasonings of the conspirators were consistent with the merits and +morals of the conspiracy. They calculated upon the active coöperation of +the mercenary in the North, and actually believed that the temptation to +gain would prove predominant over any efforts the Northern Government +could make to protect its revenue policy. They boldly ventured upon the +assumption that the influences of illicit traffic would soon become too +strong to be resisted, and that in this manner, in conjunction with the +agency of 'King Cotton,' the commerce of the North would be transferred +to the South. + +Another item in Southern political economy was the project of reöpening +the African slave-trade. The leaders of the secession programme had made +this a prominent feature in starting the rebellion into growth. The +various phases which this branch of the question afterward underwent, +was owing to the opposition of the Border States. So much were the +people of the Border States averse to being brought into competition +with slave-breeding in Dahomey, that the original conspirators were +obliged to forego, for a time at least, this incident in the motives of +the earlier revolutionists. + +A government founded on the supremacy of a class, and that class to be +composed of slaveholders; a political economy founded on slave labor, +free trade, illicit trade, and African kidnapping, were associations +that would require great strength and influence to sustain them. The +strongest military organization was therefore contemplated. In this, +much employment could be given to the non-slaveholding masses, while +military qualities of supposed superiority would enable the Southern +Confederacy to enter into a successful contest with the North for +empire. The potency of 'King Cotton' was to be made the powerful agency +with which the rest of the civilized world was to be dragooned into +acquiescence. On this delusive dream was built the fabric of that mighty +empire, whose history, from its origin to its subversion, is nearly +ready to be written. + +It must be acknowledged that the leading influences of the rebellion +were as sharp-sighted as political vice, or political immorality is ever +capable of becoming. Like all other vice, however, it based its +reasonings and supposititious strength exclusively on its powers of +deception, in conjunction with the iniquitous aptitudes of itself and +its coadjutors. It found co-plotters in Mozart Hall, in the stockholders +of the African Slave-trade Association, scattered from Maine to Texas, +and in its suborned press in New-York, Baltimore, Charleston, and +New-Orleans. It had bargained with the politically vitiated portion of +the Northern Democracy for assistance, and had received a wicked though +fallacious assurance from the Northern kidnappers, to the effect, that +the Democracy of the North would neutralize any attempt to oppose +secession by force. They had arranged for their diplomatic influence on +the other side of the Atlantic, and bargained for the subversion of +Democracy in the South. It planned beforehand for arming treason and +disarming the Union, and most adroitly were its plans in this respect +carried into effect. It had gained over to its side most of the Southern +material in the little army and navy of the country, and prepared it for +perfidy, in committing devastation or theft on the public property. Thus +allied and thus equipped, in the confidence of its pernicious strength, +it commenced its warfare on society. + +'How much injury can we inflict upon the North? How much of the debts +owing to Northern citizens can we confiscate? How much property in the +South owned by Northern men can we appropriate? How much can we make +Northern commerce suffer by depression of business, privateering, or +otherwise? To what extent can we paralyze Northern mechanical industry, +subvert Northern trade, and lay it under disabilities? How much can we +distress the laboring classes in England, in France, in other countries +in Europe, whereby we may compel them to clamor for the intervention of +their respective governments against the North, and against its attempts +to uphold the Union?' The whole reasoning of the conspirators was based +on the supposed power, coupled with the intent and effort to inflict +wide-spread and common injury. The scheme and all its contemplated and +attempted incidents of management were such as the pro-slavery spirit in +politics only could engender. + +It required many years of gradual development, in connection with the +ultimate culmination of treason, to shake the confidence of the North in +the disposition of the people of the South. There was, and could be, no +possible intelligent motive for the masses of the South to change their +form of government, or to enter into rebellion against it. The arguments +of the plotters of treason against a 'government of majorities'--the +doctrine of 'State rights,' with the right to secede at the option of a +State--the _quasi_ repudiation of the 'white trash,' so called, as an +element of political equality, were regarded as the ebullitions of a +politically vitiated class who would be willing to overthrow the +National Government, but who were supposed to be too few in numbers to +taint with poisonous fatality the political mind of the South. It is not +established as yet that the Southern political mind in the main has +become depraved. It is, however, established, that the leading political +influences South have cajoled and terrorized the bulk of the Southern +population into apparent acquiescence in treason. It yet remains to be +seen what disposition will be disclosed by the Southern people, as soon +as protection is guaranteed to them against the tyranny and usurpations +of the rebel influence. It is prophesied that there will be found a +heart in the bulk of the Southern population; that it will still cling +with affection and pride to that government which was their guarantee, +and which no power now on earth is competent to shake. It is not against +the deluded, the timid, or the helpless of the South that we would make +the indictment for political crime. It is the perfidious pro-slavery +spirit in politics that we seek to arraign. + +The analysis of developed motives in which the slaveholders' rebellion +had its origin, must naturally excite the inquiry in the American mind, +as to how far the slaveholding element can be trusted. As a political +force, we find it sowing the seeds of political discontent. As an +anti-democratic element, we find it plotting the overthrow of democratic +government. In its efforts to denationalize republican government in +America, it has not scrupled to seek aid from, and alliance with, the +haters of republican institutions every where. Under such calamitous +teachings as it has inflicted, can we longer conclude that it can, from +its aptitudes and nature, be converted into an element of national +strength? There is a South, and a great South, and would continue to be, +were there not a negro or slaveholder sojourning there. The seven +millions non-slaveholding population in the Southern States have rights, +social and political, based on the motive to maintain republican +government. The Constitution of the Union, as the highest principle of +fundamental law, guarantees in express terms, to every State, the form +of a republican government; and not less by implication, the essential +qualities of an actual one. It matters not how much the non-slaveholding +population of the South may have been deluded, nor how much it may have +been incited, under that delusion, to act as the instrument of its own +overthrow. This population is not less the object of just political +solicitude than any equal number of people North. That its general +education has not been advanced to the appreciative point, is its +misfortune. That it has been surrounded by a pro-slavery influence, +selfish, arrogant, and contemptuous of the interest of the masses, is +equally so. That it has been less favored than its brother-hood of free +labor in the North--that it has been placed under disabilities in the +comparison, are only additional reasons for increased solicitude for the +welfare and future advancement of this portion of Southern population. +While it has been imposed upon, and much of it deluded in its motives to +action, its actual condition is in reality coupled with every natural +incentive to alliance and adhesion to the National Government. It has +drunk the bitter cup of calamity in rebellion. It has tasted the dregs +of treason that lie at the bottom of political vice, and been victimized +by destitution, by the diseases of camp-life, by the casualties of the +battle-field, and by the widowhood and orphanage that have followed the +train of rebellion. This population is a natural element of national +strength, having the same incentives as its brotherhood in the North. +Arms will soon remove the blockade to its intercourse with the North, +and civil liberty once established, will most likely secure it to the +side of national patriotism. + +There is a question of equal magnitude respecting the colored +population, not only of the South, but of the whole country. It is +involved in the inquiry: Can the colored population be converted into an +element of national strength? Physiologically and mentally, the native +negro race stands as the middle-man in the five races--the Caucasian and +Malay being above, and the American aborigines and the Alforian below. +The mixture of blood with the Caucasian in America, places the negro +element of the United States at least upon a level with the Malay race +in natural powers, and from association, much the superior in practical +intelligence. Notwithstanding the crushing laws designed by slaveholders +to perpetuate the ignorance and helplessness of the negro, he _would_ +improve. Notwithstanding the brutal and studied policy of slaveholders +to slander and disparage the negro capacity for improvement, all the +arts of lying hypocrisy have occasionally been set at naught by some +convincing exhibition of truth, springing from a fair experiment on the +colored man's susceptibilities. The white man's dishonoring inclination +to strike the helpless--made helpless by brutal laws--has occasionally +recoiled in an exposure of the atrocious practice. The late attempt to +introduce a bill into the South-Carolina Legislature, providing for the +sale of the free negroes of the State into slavery, led to a disclosure +worthy of contemplation. The Committee to whom the bill was referred +stated that-- + + 'Apart from the consideration that many of the class were good + citizens, patterns of industry, sobriety, and irreproachable + conduct, there were difficulties of a practical character in the + way of those who advocated the bill. The free colored population of + Charleston alone pay taxes on $1,561,870 worth of property; and the + aggregate taxes reach $27,209.18. What will become of the one and a + half millions of property which belongs to them in Charleston + alone, to say nothing of their property elsewhere in the State? Can + it enter into the mind of any Carolina Legislature to confiscate + this property, and pot it in the Treasury? We forbear to consider + any thing so full of injustice and wickedness. While we are + battling for our rights, liberties, and institutions, can we expect + the smiles and countenance of the Arbiter of all events, when we + make war on the impotent and unprotected, enslave them against all + justice, and rob them of the property acquired by their own honest + toil and industry, under your former protection and sense of + justice?'[E] + +This slight exhibition in the Carolina Legislature presents an epitome +of the whole argument of cultivated brutality on the one hand, and of +humane sense and rationality on the other. What were the protection and +sense of justice here spoken of; and what the sequences flowing from +such protection and justice? The whole question is answered in three +words: Improvement, following encouragement. What was the 'robbery' +proposed by the bill, other than the concomitants of slavery, that have +robbed the colored man from generation to generation, not only of his +toil, but of every practical motive TO BE A MAN? It would be needless, +however, to discuss the question of the colored man's capacity to +improve, were it not for considerations that now make it necessary, +under national calamity, to take it into truthful account. The white +man's cultivation of barbarity under the teachings of slaveholders has +hitherto proved an overmatch for the colored man's claims in the +abstract. Things and conditions are now changed. The slaveholders' +rebellion has softened the obduracy of manufactured prejudice, and +necessity has become allied with humanity. Tho pro-slavery spirit in +politics is now discovered to be little short of a demon--a snake's egg +that hatches treason. The American mind is nearly forced to the +conclusion, that as long as colored women are compelled to breed slaves, +their white mistresses will continue to breed rebels. Slavery, of +course, must yield to the necessity of national security. A remnant may +exist for a while, and linger through modifications of a broken and +hopeless pro-slavery prestige, the duration depending entirely upon the +disposition of slaveholders to become subordinated to law. Perpetuation, +however, has become a word that has no meaning in connection with the +duration of slavery. The word in that sense has become obsolete; and +what shall become of the colored man, and how shall he be treated, is, +and is to be, the sequence of the conspiracy to overthrow the +jurisdiction of the Government. It being established that the +pro-slavery spirit, by nature, is the antagonist of the democratic +principle--the antagonist of the interests of the masses, the hot-bed +for the cultivation of brutality, devoid of fidelity, and a rebel by +practice, it has become an intolerable element of national weakness. We +can not avoid the inquiry, now to be made on the basis of humanity: Can +the colored man, by proper and just encouragement, be converted into an +element of patriotism and national strength? + +What is the solution of the riddle as it respects the strength of +democratic government? It has heretofore been said by the revilers of +the masses in America, that 'for two hundred years the scum, the crime, +and poverty of Europe have been cast upon the shores of the Atlantic.' +It is immaterial to the question of humanity, whether such has been the +seed from which a new nation has been raised up in the wilderness. A few +months since, 'Democracy on its trial,' was the favorite theme of +democracy-haters in Europe. The indictment against our free institutions +was freighted with fearful charges. The government of the Union was a +'delusive Utopia.' 'The people of the North had degenerated into a mob.' +'Society was drifting into the maelstrom of anarchy, and law and order +becoming extinct.' A little time, and an apparently unwarlike people had +changed into an astonishing organization, disciplined for warfare. Seven +hundred thousand bayonets, as if by enchantment, bristled in menace to +the slaveholders' rebellion. The navy-yards and arsenals resounded with +the clang of hammers, and soon the suddenly created armaments appeared +on the waters. Power in finance exhibited by the Government, based on +the confidence and patriotism of the people, was no less astonishing. +New inventions of warfare changed the scoffings in Europe into alarm for +their own security. The trans-Atlantic revilers of republicanism in +America have discovered a people who had a heart in them. Patriotism in +America is reassured of success by the exhibition of a deep-seated +attachment on the part of the Northman to his Government. Seven words +suffice to solve the riddle of free democratic strength--THE MASSES +CONVERTED INTO BEINGS OF POWER. This is the theory, the basis, the +strength of free institutions in America. They have no other foundation. +They have nothing else to rely on for enduring support. + +Let the Southern rebel attempt to disguise it as he may, the colored man +of the South is already a patriot on the side of the Union. He has heard +of a people in the North who believed that every human being, by nature, +was entitled '_to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness_.' He +knows that his oppressor hates this people of the North, and for the +sole reason that they entertain this generous sentiment. While the +Pharisaic theologian of the Southern pulpit is expounding his +Bible-doctrine in justification of kidnapping, and appealing to Heaven +for assistance, the colored man turns in disgust at the impiety, and +turns into secret places to beseech Omnipotence to favor the success of +the national arms. Perhaps there is an interfering Providence already +manifest in results. If the plagues of Egypt had been visited on the +rebellious States by an overruling Power, they would scarcely have +afforded a parallel to the calamity which rebel slaveholders have +inflicted on their country. They have exhausted and destroyed much of +what the long toil of the colored man South had assisted to raise up. +Devastation has followed the train of rebellion. The blood of the first +and of the second-born has been the sacrifice on the altar of slavery. +The brutal ruffianism of the pro-slavery spirit has far enough disclosed +its natural aptitudes to have become disgustingly odious in comparison +with the positively better characteristics of the colored man. The rebel +himself has taught a lesson to the world, which he can never unteach. +The twenty-seven millions of free labor in the Union have learned a +lesson through the teachings of slaveholders in rebellion, which they +can not forget. This teaching is nothing less than that the colored man +is capable, by protection and encouragement, of being converted into a +better element of national strength and national prosperity than +slaveholders, as _such_, would ever become. + +Could any contemplative mind doubt for a moment the ability of the white +population of the Union, if justly disposed, to raise the colored +population of the country, in a short time, to the platform of a decent +respectability? With unjust prejudice laid aside, and the work of +beneficence acquiesced in, no one could reasonably doubt it. Who +deserves best at the hands of the nation's power, the oppressor or the +oppressed? The one that grasps at the throat of the nation and attempts +its overthrow merely to perpetuate his power of oppression, or the other +who is crying to humanity for protection? The voice of nature, if +undefiled, will answer this question on the side of humanity--if not, +NECESSITY WILL. + +The democratic theory which seeks to absolve humanity from oppression, +is not confined to the resistance of a single despot. It goes in the +same degree to a privileged class that arrogates to itself the right to +oppress; nor does it stop at the half-way house of mere negative +protection. It allows in its onward course the full fruition of +'EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW.' In theory, the law is the sovereign, and we +seek to attach such qualities to that sovereign as are compatible with +the general good of society. That theory places no man above the law, +nor any man below its protection. As soon as the individual in society +is raised to the point of negative protection, he is in a measure +converted into a being of power. He can then appeal to his sovereign, +THE LAW, for the vindication of his rights. Experience is continually +demonstrating that men are respected in proportion to their power to +command respect. The very existence of slavery requires and demands the +brutalization of the governing power that upholds it. Were society +absolved from this tyranny, matters would begin to mend. Equalized +protection would be the consequence. Protection, not only to the colored +man, but protection in an almost equal degree to the non-slaveholding +white population, hitherto brought under the ban of disability by a +depressing pro-slavery policy. + +Until recently, when the colored race in the United States was spoken of +in connection with the subject of its release from oppression, it was +subjected to the same arguments that kept the white men in slavery in +olden times. The arguments of slaveholders were never truthful, and only +convenient for themselves. They damaged the slave; they damaged every +collateral interest; they damaged the strength of nationality; and more +than all, they damaged every humane principle of civilization. The whole +reasoning in favor of slaveholding has been a vicious fallacy; and +perhaps the time has come, attended by sufficient calamity, to set the +American population to thinking and acting in the right direction. + +The colored people South are better fitted for freedom than is commonly +imagined. They are quite well skilled in practical industry, more +especially in agricultural pursuits. There are many of them qualified in +skilled labor in the coarser mechanic arts. The whole of this population +has been trained to diligent labor, under habits of continuous toil. It +has acquired patience in performing labor, by the discipline which +unremitting labor gives. The colored man South has not been brought up +in idleness, or with habits calculated to make him a renegade. Were he +permitted to enjoy the fruits of his industry, there can be no doubt of +his disposition and patience to toil on. In case his rebel master would +not hire him for wages, there would be enough amongst the +non-slaveholding population who would. Production in the South, under +emancipation of the slaves of rebel masters, would not materially fall +off. Give to colored men the fruits of their industry, and many of them +would soon set up for themselves. Perhaps in connection with the soil of +the South, that yields most abundantly in annual value of product, the +rest of the colored population would soon get to emulate the free +colored people of Charleston. The law of subsistence would as much +compel the South to go on without compulsory labor as it does the North, +and there are just as many reasons for it in one section as in the +other; that is, just none at all. Under emancipation, there is little +doubt that actual production could and would soon be put on the +increase, with better distribution of wealth, more widely diffused +comforts, and a broader and better public policy. The only things that +would be curtailed in their proportions would be slave-breeding, +rebel-breeding, and ruffian cultivation. + +It may, perhaps, continue to be easier for a time to strike the colored +man than to strike off his shackles. There is a mean and low side of +humanity, a sort of defiled infirmity, that runs into a disposition to +strike the helpless. This is the bravery of ruffianism. There is apt to +be a shrinking away from duty, when the contest involves a conflict with +arrogant power. This is the cowardice of pusillanimity. The American +citizen has been noted for his superior bravery. He has certainly shown +himself brave in the battle-field, and more brave and determined than +any other nation in the vindication and maintenance of the natural +rights of the white man; but he is not done with the business of +disenthrallment. His language is the language of liberty. It must not, +it will not long continue to be spoken by slaves. This was the meaning +of Jefferson, when he penned the _text-words_ of disenthrallment: 'All +men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable +rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' +Where is to be found the evidence that these rights have been forfeited? +Who dare deny the right of the colored man morally, religiously, or +politically, to assert them? It is true, we have hitherto acted in +defiance of these acknowledged rights. We have outraged them. We have +waged a shameful and shameless warfare against them. The sequences of +that warfare are now upon us. The sin is now being atoned for in blood. +It has not yet been ordained that the principles of injustice should +have permanent duration. If not restrained by humane rationality, they +will culminate in convulsion. The light is now breaking upon the +heretofore obscured vision of the American people. We can now begin to +see with clearness that the colored man's disenthrallment is to become +the white man's future security. This would almost seem to be the +harmony of divine justice in the affairs of men. + +No substantial amelioration in the depressed condition of race or class +has yet been brought about in disconnection with the powerful agency of +such race or class. Human nature forbids it. The selfish tenacity of +advantage, resting on what is misnamed 'vested rights,' but having its +foundation in vested wrongs, yields only on compulsion. It is only when +the depressed race or class, acting in somewhat intelligent concert, +exhibits the disposition to aid in the purposes of protection, that the +mercenary power succumbs to necessity. History furnishes no examples to +the contrary. It may not be impossible that our own times may make +history to corroborate the truth of these premises. + +When it is asserted that the colored man is wanting in bravery, and is +not endowed with the natural courage to assert and maintain his rights, +we are apt to forget that physical bravery is a thing of cultivation. +There is not the least evidence that, with military discipline and +something to fight for, the colored population of the United States +would not prove as brave as the black regiment of the Revolution. With +such bravery as that regiment exhibited, the four millions and their +prospective increase would require a gigantic force to make profitable +slaves of them. Again, there is something beyond the protection from +domestic violence that demands consideration, in connection with the +military discipline of the colored man. We may reasonably expect that a +large colonization in some quarter will soon take place, and be carried +forward. Education and military discipline, in addition to knowledge in +practical industry, are necessary concomitants to successful +colonization. With these qualities, the colored man will cease to feel +helpless, and be fitted for enterprise, he will have the confidence to +go forward, and the aspirations to impel him. It may be the lot of the +colored man to encounter in some foreign land powers and influences +quite as barbarous as those he has hitherto encountered in the white +man's prejudices. If he is armed for the encounter, he will have little +inclination to shrink from it. Every humane consideration clusters to +the policy of disenthralling the colored man, and of making him a being +of power. Nothing can oppose it but the pro-slavery spirit that seeks to +enslave the American mind to barbarism and the colored millions and +their increase to perpetual bondage. + + + + + WATCHING THE STAG. + + [AN UNFINISHED POEM, BY FITZ-JAMES O'BRIEN.] + + + Hela and I lie watching here, + Above us the sky and below the mere. + long + Through distant gorges the-b-l-u-e-moors loom + Till the heath looks blue in the endless gloom. + + The eagle screams from the misty cliff, + With a quivering lamb in his taloned griff. + And the echoes leap over hill and hollow, + As the old stag bells to the herd to follow. + + The purpled heather is wet with mist, + Till it shines like a drownèd amethyst, + And the old, old rocks with furrowed faces + Start up like ghosts in the lonely places. + + With forefeet crossed, stanch Hela lies + Watching my face through her half-closed eyes, + -u-s- + -B-e-t-w-e-e-n--i-s--i-s--s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d-deer + While ^ I pillow my head on the stiffening-s-t-a-g- + + + + +LITERARY NOTICES. + + +BAYARD TAYLOR'S PROSE WRITING'S. Vol. V. A Journey to Central Africa, +with a Map and Illustrations by the Author. New-York: G.P. Putnam. +Boston: A.K. Loring. + +This work deservedly ranks as among the best, if not the best, by Bayard +Taylor. The East, as we feel in his poems, was full of the scenes of his +widely varied travels, that which most aroused his sympathy and stirred +his artistic creative powers, and it is of the East that he speaks most +freely and brilliantly. It was in Central Africa that he encountered his +most thrilling adventures, and forgot, as we can there only do, the +civilization of the Western World. Something we would say of the +beautiful typography and paper of this series. If the term _mise en +scène_ were as applicable to books as to dramas, it might be truely said +of Mr. Putnam's that they appear as well between boards as other works +do upon them. + + +EL DORADO. PROSE WRITINGS OF BAYARD TAYLOR. Vol. IV. New-York: G.P. +Putnam. Boston: A.K. Loring. 1862. + +Possibly some twenty years hence 'El Dorado' will be regarded as by far +the best of Bayard Taylor's works--certain it is that in it he is among +the pioneer describers of a land the early accounts of which will be +carefully investigated and duly honored. In picturing lands, where +others have been noting and sketching before, he is strong indeed who is +not driven into mannerism; but in fresh fields and pastures new there is +less danger of seeing through thrice-used spectacles. It is this +consciousness of being the first that ever burst into their silent seas +that made Herodotus and Tudela and Rubriquis and Mandeville so fresh and +vigorous--and there is much of the same peculiar inspiration due to +first-ness perceptible in this volume, which we cordially commend to all +who would be California-learned or simply entertained. Somewhat we must +say however of the fine paper, exquisite typography, and two neat steel +engravings with which this 'Caxton' edition is made beautiful and most +suitable either for a lady's _étagere_-book-shelf or the most elegant +library. + + +LES MISERABLES. I. FANTINE. BY VICTOR HUGO. Translated by CHARLES E. +WILBOUR. New-York: Carleton. Boston: Crosby and Nichols. 1862. + +A novel written twenty-five years ago by Victor Hugo is a curiosity. The +present was kept in reserve because the sordid publisher, who had a +contract for all of Hugo's works, would not give the sum demanded--the +author kept raising his price--it was like Nero and the Sybil, or the +converse of the conduct of the damsel who annually reduced her terms to +Martial: + + 'Millia viginti quondam me Galla poposcit; + Annus abit: bis quina dabis sestertia? dixit.' + +Finally the publisher died, the work was printed, and its first section +now appears in 'Fantine'--a capital picture of life, manners, customs, +in fact of almost every thing in France in 1817. It deals with much +suffering, many sorrows, as its title indicates--for it is easier to +make sensations out of pains than pleasures, and M. Hugo is preëminently +and proverbially 'sensational.' Still it is deeply interesting, +extremely well managed in all art-details, and above all things, is +extremely humane--as a book by Victor Hugo could hardly fail to be. And +as every page bears the impress of a certain characteristic originality +of thought and of observation, we may safely predict that 'Fantine' will +deservedly prove a success. We like the manner in which Mr. Wilbour has +translated it--neither too slavishly nor too freely, but in one word, +'admirably.' + + +ARTEMUS WARD HIS BOOK. New-York; Carleton. Boston: N. Williams and +Company. 1862. + +Once in five or six years we have a new humorist--at one time a Jack +Downing, then a Doesticks, then again a Phoenix-Derby. Last on the list +we have 'Artemus Ward,' as set forth in letters to the Cleveland +_Plaindealer_ and _Vanity Fair_, purporting to come from the proprietor +of a 'side-show,' as cheaper, or less than twenty-five cent exhibitions, +are called in this country. To say that they are excellent, spirited, +and racy--full of strong idioms of language and character, and abounding +in novelties in type which are no novelties to those familiar with +popular life--would be doing them faint justice. They embody a new and +perfectly truthful conception of one of the multitude, and have nothing +that is hackneyed in them. + +It is a great test of real stuff in a writer when he dashes off, or +picks up, phrases which are at once taken up by the people. 'Artemus +Ward' has originated many of these, and is perhaps at the present day as +much quoted 'in the broad and long' as any man in the country. It is +needless to say that all who relish broad eccentric humor will find his +Book very well worth reading. We regret that it does not embrace certain +other excellent sketches which we know he has written, but trust that +these will appear in due time in a second part or in a new edition. The +volume before us is very neatly got up, well illustrated, and tastefully +bound. + + +LYRICS FOR FREEDOM AND OTHER POEMS. UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE +CONTINENTAL CLUB. New-York: Carleton, 413 Broadway, Boston; Crosby and +Nichols. + +At a regular meeting of the 'Continental Club,' held at their rooms in +New-York, it was resolved and carried that a volume of poems written by +certain of the younger members be published 'under its auspices.' As a +noted Democratic sheet, the Boston _Courier_, has declined to notice the +volume on the plea that the name of the society from which it sprung +suggested too forcibly the CONTINENTAL MONTHLY, possibly a favorable +mention by us of our young New-York brother-in-literature may seem +partial and too en-famille-iar to be fair. Be this as it may, we can not +resist the expression of the honest conviction, for which we have many a +good indorser, that while it would be a matter of some difficulty to +compile a better collection of lyrics from the vast number which the war +has thus far called forth, its production by a limited number of a +single association is indeed remarkable. There is the right ring and the +true feeling perceptible in all of them; earnest enthusiasm flowing +bravely on the tide of musical words, and a clear conviction of the +justice of our cause springing from liberal and progressive political +views. It is enough indeed to say of most of the lyrics that they are +written from a principle, and with faith in the necessity of +Emancipation, and are not mere war-songs, full of commonplace, as +applicable to one cause as another. They are songs of the American war +of freedom in 1861, and as such will rank high in our literary history. + + +THE REJECTED STONE; OR, INSURRECTION VERSUS RESURRECTION IN AMERICA. By +a Native of Virginia. Second Edition, Boston: Walker, Wise and Company. +1862. + +We are as gratified at the reappearance of this glorious work as we are +astonished to learn that it has only reached a second edition. As it is +beyond comparison the most remarkable literary result thus far of the +war, as it has made a strong sensation in very varied circles, as it is +a book which has given rise to anecdotes, and as its wild eloquence, +bizarre humor and intense earnestness, have caused it to be read with a +relish even by many who dissent from its politics, we had supposed that +ere this its sale had reached at least its tenth edition. Meanwhile we +commend it to all, assuring them that as a fearless, outspoken work, +grasping boldly at the exciting questions of the day, it has not its +equal. We should mention that in the present edition we find given the +name of its author, the well-known and eloquent Rev. Moncure D. Conway, +formerly of Virginia, now of Cincinnati. + + +OUR FLAG: A Poem in Four Cantos. By T.H. UNDERWOOD. New-York: Carleton. +Boston: N. Williams. 1862. + +During the past year Mr. Underwood has published several poems of +remarkable merit, referring to the war. In the present we have a work of +higher ambition, and one which is truly well done. In it the horrors of +slavery, the iniquitous abuses to which it so often gives rise--the +tortures, vengeances, murders, and fiendish punishments, which in their +turn follow the crime--are portrayed with striking truthfulness and real +power. The author is evidently no Abolitionist on hear-say--the whole +poem gives evidence of practical familiarity with 'the institution,' and +the sense of truth has inspired his pen in many passages with wonderful +power. The terrible sufferings of an _almost_ white man and slave as +here portrayed, his revenge and punishment at the stake, are as moving +as they are manifestly true to life. We commend this little +pamphlet-poem to every friend of freedom, and sincerely trust that it +will attain the large circulation which it deserves. + + +SKETCHES OF THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND DECLINE OF SECESSION. With a +Narrative of Personal Adventures among the Rebels. By W.G. BROWNLOW, +Editor of the _Knoxville Whig_. Philadelphia: Geo. W. Childs. 1862. + +A decided character this 'Parson Brownlow,' and a representative man; +truly and bravely American, very Western in his traits; a man fond of +fierce argument and tough antagonisms, and not fearing the death either +by halter or revolver, which he will probably meet some day, for the +sake of Jehovah and his own stern convictions. Not exactly a man of +_salons_ and elegant _réunions_--yet full of real courtesies and gifted +with the kind heart of a true hater of wickedness, which flashes into +fury at witnessing deeds of cruelty and shame. And he has seen many +such--seen what few have done and lived--he has passed through a life's +warfare with men of his own grim obstinacy without his own honesty and +stern Puritan-like morality. We have followed his course for years--we +have met him 'afore-time,' when quite other subjects of quarrel engaged +him, and could have prophesied then with tolerable accuracy what part he +would play when it came to a question between bayonets and prisons for +the truth. + +As we have hinted, he is a splendid hater, and a ferocious antagonist, a +prince of vituperators and a very vitriol-thrower of savage sarcasms at +his enemies and those of humanity. And why should he not be all of this, +when we consider that in the stage whereon his part of life is played a +more delicate student of all the proprieties would have about the same +chances of success as attended the unfortunate cat which ventured +without claws among panthers. Measure such men by their moral worth and +by the good they do, and do not require of the hard-shell Methodist +preacher and tough polemical grappler with Satan in his most bristly and +thick-skinned Western incarnations that he display too much delicacy. +Those who will read his book may gather from it, beyond the interesting +personal and political narrative of which it consists, many useful and +curious hints as to the social development of America and of what men +the country is truly made. It is a _real_ work--one of value--interesting +to all, and very truly one of the monuments of this war and +of the scenes which preceded it in Tennessee. + + + + +EDITOR'S TABLE + + +The proclamation of President Lincoln in reference to General Hunter, +and the bold measures of the latter calling forth Executive +interference, form one of the most interesting episodes of the war of +Freedom. Regarded from the high standpoint whence acts are seen as +controlled by circumstances and formed by events, the conduct of the one +public functionary, as of the other, will appear to the future historian +in a very different light from that in which it has been presented by +either the radical or democratic journals of the day. He will speak of +the one as a military chieftain under the influence of worthy motives, +cutting a Gordian knot which the higher and controlling diplomatic and +executive superior wished should be cautiously untied. The one has acted +with a view to promptly settling a great trouble within his own +sphere--the other wisely comprehending that the action was premature, +has decisively countered it. By attempting to free the slaves, General +Hunter has shown himself a friend of freedom and a man of bold measures; +by annulling his acts Mr. Lincoln has availed himself of an excellent +opportunity of proving to the South and to the world that he is not, as +was said, a sectional or an Abolition President, and that with the +strongest sympathies for freedom, he is determined to respect the rights +even of enemies, and leave behind him a clear record, as one who did +nothing wrongly, and who with keen and wide comprehending glance took in +the times as they were, and acted accordingly. + +Meanwhile to the most prejudiced vision it is apparent that the great +cause of Emancipation has gained vastly by this little struggle between +the shepherd and that unruly member of the flock who _would_ dash a +little too impetuously ahead of his fellows. The proclamation of +President Lincoln contains but cold comfort for the pro-slavery +democracy, although they affect to rejoice over it. In vain may they +declare, as they did of the celebrated 'remunerating message,' that it +is very palatable, and vow that it 'creates fresh hope and gives a new +and needed assurance to the conservative men of the nation.' The sour +faces of their pro-slavery, Southern-adoring, English-ruled, traitorous +friends is an effectual answer to their hypocrisy. We have not forgotten +how warmly the Democratic press indorsed the message of January 6th, or +how the Democratic multitude kicked against it in public meetings. + +Let the Democratic tories of the day who find this message so +consolatory, duly weigh the following extract from it: + + 'I further make known that whether it be competent for me as + Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy to declare the slaves of + any State or States free, and whether at any time or in any case it + shall have become a necessity indispensable to the maintenance of + the Government to exercise such supposed power, are questions which + under my responsibility I reserve to myself, and which I can not + feel justified in leaving to the decisions of commanders in the + field. These are totally different questions from those of police + regulations in armies and camps. On the sixth day of March last, by + a special message, I recommended to Congress the adoption of a + joint resolution to be substantially as follows: + + "_Resolved_, That the United States ought to co-operate with, any + State which may adopt a gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to + such State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State in its + discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences, public and + private, produced by such change of system.' + + 'The resolution, in the language above quoted, was adopted by large + majorities in both branches of Congress, and now stands an + authentic, definite, and solemn proposal of the Nation to the + States and people moat immediately interested in the + subject-matter. To the people of those States, I now earnestly + appeal. I do not argue, I beseech you to make the arguments for + yourselves. _You can not, if you would, be blind to the signs of + the times._ I beg of you a calm and enlarged consideration of them, + ranging, if it may be, far above personal and partisan politics. + _This proposal makes common cause for a common object, casting no + reproaches upon any._ It acts not the Pharisee. The change it + contemplates would come gently as the dews of heaven, not rending + or wrecking any thing. Will you not embrace it? So much good has + not been done by one effort in all past time as in the providence + of God it is your high privilege to do. May the vast future not + have to lament that you have neglected it.' + +If any one can see in this aught save the clearest sympathy with the +gradual advance of Emancipation, he must be indeed gifted with a strange +faculty of perversion. If, however, the Democrats indorse the +President's recommendation and approve the Executive policy of gradual +emancipation for the sake of the white man, why do they continue to +abuse so fiercely presses which agree exactly with the Administration, +and ask for nothing more than a recognition of the great principle and +its realization according to circumstance? + +A more contemptible and pitiable political spectacle was never yet +presented than that which may now be witnessed in the actions and words +of the 'Conservative' Democracy. Driven day by day nearer into their +true light of sympathizers at heart with the enemy--upholding the +institution for which it fights--obliged to bear the odium of its +ancient opposition to protection, disgraced by its enmity to American +manufacturing interests--apologizing in a thousand shuffling, petty ways +for English arrogance--this wretched fragment of a faction, after +assuring the South that the North would not fight, and persuading the +North that the South was quite in the right in every thing, now appears +as constant meddler and mischief-maker in the great struggle going on, +giving to it those elements of darkness, disgrace, and treason which, +unfortunately, are always to be found in the greatest struggles for +freedom and right, and which, when history is written, give such grounds +to the carper, the sophist, and skeptic to ridicule the noblest efforts +of humanity. Such are the self-called Conservatives in this great +battle--men hindering and impeding the great cause, eagerly grasping at +every little premature advance--as in the case of General Hunter's +action, to scream out that all will be lost, and exult over its +correction by the leading power as though they had gained a victory! + +Meanwhile it is a matter of no small import to observe that there has +been a vast increase in the mass of indorsement of General Hunter's +conduct compared to what there would have been a few months ago. However +it interfered with the general policy of the Executive, no one doubts +that as a military and local measure it was eminently wise. Sooner or +later it will be adopted--meanwhile what has been done has been +productive of results which can not be undone. The great cause is the +cause of God--and every struggle only aids it onward. + + * * * * * + +The London Times of May 10th contained a long editorial leader on +American affairs, beginning in the following manner: + + 'It will have been noticed as a singular feature of the American + quarrel, that no intervention is thought probable or practicable, + except in favor of the South. Mediation, in whatever form or under + whatever name it is to be offered, is universally taken to imply + some movement in behalf of the Confederates. So completely, indeed, + are the belligerents themselves impressed with this idea, that the + South casts it in our teeth as a scandal and a blunder that no + European arbitration has been yet interposed; while the President + of the Northern States actually proclaims a day of thanksgiving for + the deliverance of the country from 'foreign intervention,' which + he identifies with nothing less than 'invasion.' The instincts of + the combatants have undoubtedly led them to correct decisions on + this point, but the fact is not a little curious. We need not + dissemble the truth about certain prepossessions current in + Europe. It is beyond denial that, in spite of the slavery question, + the Southerners have been rather the favorites, partly as the + weaker side, partly as conquerors against odds, and partly because + their demand for independence was thought too natural to be + resisted at the sword's point by a Government founded on the right + of insurrection only. To these merely sentimental and not very + cogent considerations was added the more potent and weighty + reflection that what the Southerners had done no Power, whether + American or European, could succeed in undoing.' + +The rest of the article, as the reader may recall, was devoted to +sneering at the North and in commending intervention; the whole being +characterized by an underhand, venomous, and latent treacherous tone, +much more becoming a vindictive and vulgar Oriental than a civilized and +Christian European. + +A little while before the _Times_ leader appeared, the London _Morning +Herald_ had informed the world that + + France and England suffer more than neutrals ever suffered from any + contest, and both begin to regard the war as interminable and + atrocious.' + +It is singular that the great majority of the British press and people +should dare to talk so glibly of intervention in this our civil war, +when we consider what their intermeddling may cost them. Cotton they may +or may not get, but no intervention can compel us to buy their goods, +and, as we have already pointed out in our columns, the entire loss of +the free States market involves a disaster which will be permanent and +terrible. Apart from the danger attendant upon insolently threatening a +nation amply capable of mustering an army of a million on its own +soil--two thirds of them practiced in war--there remains to be +considered the utter loss of all American custom. We buy much more than +any other nation whatever. Worse than this, for Europe, there would +follow Such a development of our home-manufactures as would seriously +threaten to drive England and France from a hundred markets. Let them +think twice ere they intervene. But the people, it is said, are +starving; and it may be, for this is one of the occasional and +unavoidable results of England's endeavoring to become the workshop of +the world. By _over-manufacturing_, she has brought it to such a pitch +that one fourth of her population live on _imported food_--such as do +not starve outright--for be it remembered that in Great Britain one +person in eight is buried at the public expense, while one in every +twelve or fourteen is a constant pauper. They are starving at present +more than usual, simply because the North is buying less; but to turn +away any popular opposition to government, and suppress riots, they and +the world are told that the trouble all comes from the closing of +Southern ports and _the want of cotton_! This, too, when published facts +show that the stock of goods and cotton on hand far exceeds the demand, +and is likely to exceed it for a long time to come. It is not cotton +that England or France want, but _customers_. How are they to obtain +these? By exasperating their best buyers beyond all reconciliation? The +day that witnesses British or French meddling in our war, sees the +inauguration of such hostility to their manufactures as they little +dream of. There will be leagues formed to enforce this to the letter. It +will be treason to wear an inch of English cloth or of French silk, and +what lie will they say to their starving operatives then? + +Already within the past year, great advances have been made in +manufacturing, especially in silks. A little closing of us up would be +the worst experiment for England that she ever yet tried. She may +possibly get cotton from the South, but not a customer from the North. +You may lead a horse to water, but it is another affair to make him +drink. And no one who can recall the prompt resolve not to use English +goods, and the beginning of leagues to that effect, of which we lately +heard so much, can doubt that in case we hear much more of this +impertinence of intervention, the American market would immediately be +lost to the insolent meddlers. It is only of late that the free States +have shaken off their Democratic, pro-slavery, anti-tariff tyrants, and +learned to be free. England has groaned and howled at our freedom; now +she goes so far as to threaten; but unless she soon stop _that_, we +shall promptly show her where the strength lies. While we were under a +half-Southern, half-British tyranny, we could do nothing. And be it +remembered that from the days of the New-York _Plebeian_, when British +gold was spent literally by the million in this country, to strengthen +the Democratic party and build up free trade, slavery and English +interests always went hand in hand to oppress the interests of American +free labor. But we shall soon change all that. It is in our power to +chastise British impudence most effectually, and we shall probably soon +be called upon to do it, by buying nothing from abroad. + +The inhuman, inconsistent, and cynically selfish conduct of England +toward the North in this war, whenever we have been threatened by +reverses, should not be forgotten. It has been literally devilish in its +grossness and meanness. Whatever wickedness the South has been guilty of +was at least barefaced and bold. The South had not for years labored to +build up an Abolition party in the North, as England did. For well nigh +half a century has England howled, wailed, whined, and canted over +slavery; but at the first pinch of the pocket, away goes the previous +philanthropy, and John Bull stands revealed, the brutal, cruel, +treacherous, lying savage that he is at heart, under all his +aristocratic feudal trash and gilding. Well, we know him at last, and +will _remember_ him. His conduct toward us has put hay on his +horns--_foenum habet in cornu_--and we shall avoid him. Let the +manufacturers of America watch this intolerably insolent intervention +closely, and lose no opportunity to turn it to their own advantage, that +is to say, to the advantage of the whole nation. Let them, by means of +journal and pamphlet, profusely scattered, explain to the people the +enormous wrong which England is seeking to do us, and the deliberate, we +may truthfully say, the official falsehood on which it is based. They +have it in their power to make our country literally _free_--will they +hesitate to use that power? + +The reliance of England is, by returning to her sweet, stale flatteries, +after the establishment of the Confederacy, to be friends as of old with +the North. It is, she thinks, easily done. Our servants abroad and their +friends are to be a little more favored with levee tickets and access to +noble society; a few dozen more of the rank and file will be marched +along or 'presented' before her Majesty, and thereby sworn in to endless +admiration of all that is Anglican; venerable gentlemen in white +waistcoats will make sweet speeches, after public dinners, of the beauty +of Union, just as they made them here a year ago, in reference to the +South, when the tiger was on the spring. The old see-saw of 'nations +united in language and customs--brothers at heart,' will be set to +vibrating, and all, as they believe, must jog along merrily as of old. +For it is with a very little regularly organized stuff of this kind, +turned on or off as from a hydrant, and always in dribbling drops at +that, that England has, when necessary, pacified and delighted a great +number of Americans, semi-insane to be received on terms of equality by +the 'higher classes,' whom they worshiped at heart, while they affected +all manner of bold Americanisms to hide the truth. It is time to end all +this. We have come to serious and terrible days, and must be free from +all such flunkeyism. In our hour of trouble, the English press boldly +proclaimed that its sympathy was with the South. Let it be remembered! + + * * * * * + +In our June number we gave the Kansas John Brown song, for the benefit +of those who collect the more curious ballads of the war. We are +indebted to Clark's _School-Visitor_ for the following song of the +Contrabands, which originated among the latter, and was first sung by +them in the hearing of white people at Fortress Monroe, where it was +noted down by their chaplain, Rev. L.C. Lockwood. It is to a plaintive +and peculiar air, and we may add has been published with it in +'sheet-music style,' with piano-forte accompaniment, by Horace Waters, +New-York: + + OH! LET MY PEOPLE GO. + + THE SONG OF THE CONTRABANDS. + + The Lord, by Moses, to Pharaoh said: Oh! let my people go; + If not, I'll smite your first-born dead--Oh! let my people go. + Oh! go down, Moses, + Away down to Egypt's land, + And tell King Pharaoh + To let my people go. + + No more shall they in bondage toil--Oh! let my people go; + Let them come out with Egypt's spoil--Oh! let my people go. + + Haste, Moses, till the sea you've crossed--Oh! let my people go; + Pharaoh shall in the deep be lost--Oh! let my people go. + + The sea before you shall divide--Oh! let my people go; + You'll cross dry-shod to the other aide--Oh! let my people go. + + Fear not King Pharaoh or his host--Oh! let my people go; + For they shall in the sea be lost--Oh! let my people go. + + They'll sink like lead, to rise no more--Oh! let my people go; + An' you'll hear a shout on the other shore--Oh! let my people go. + + The fiery cloud shall lead the way--Oh! let my people go; + A light by night and a shade by day--Oh! let my people go. + + Jordan shall stand up like a wall--Oh! let my people go; + And the wails of Jericho shall fall--Oh! let my people go. + + Your foes shall not before you stand--Oh! let my people go; + And you'll possess fair Canaan's land--Oh! let my people go. + + Oh! let us all from bondage flee--Oh! let my people go; + And let us all in Christ be free--Oh! let my people go. + + This world's a wilderness of woe--Oh! let my people go; + Oh! let us all to glory go--Oh! let my people go. + Oh! go down, Moses, + Away down to Egypt's land, + And tell King Pharaoh + To let my people go. + + + * * * * * + + +Speaking of the interview some weeks since between M. le Comte Henri de +Mercier with the extremely 'honorable' J.P. Benjamin, the secession +Secretary of State, the Petersburg (Virginia) _Express_ uses the +following elegantly accurate language: + + 'It is said that these two distinguished functionaries spoke the + French dialect altogether, the gallant Frenchman not having yet + been enabled to master the good old Anglo-Saxon idiom.' + +What, to begin with, is _the_ French dialect? The Provencal, the Gascon, +the Norman, are tolerably prominent French dialects, but which of them +is preëminently _the_ dialect we will not decide--nor why the diplomatic +gentlemen selected a dialect instead of French itself as a medium of +conversation. It is, however, possible that Comte de Mercier having +heard of little Benjamin's antecedents, talked to him in _argôt_ or +thieves' slang. It may be that in the school of Floyd and Benjamin argôt +is _the_ dialect. + +Again, we learn that the gallant Frenchman spoke 'the French dialect' +because he has not as yet mastered 'the good old Anglo-Saxon idiom.' +This is even more puzzling than the dialect-question. Why the +Anglo-Saxon idiom? Suppose Count Mercier wished to say that he was sorry +that his tobacco had been captured by the foe, why should he couch it in +such language as, 'Thá mee ongan hréowan thaet mín _tobacco_ on feónda +geweald feran sceolde'--which is the good _old_ Anglo-Saxon idiom.' We +_can_ imagine that thieves' slang would have the place of honor in +Secessia, but why the old Anglo-Saxon idiom should be so esteemed, +puzzled us for a longtime. At last we hit it. The Southrons have long +been told--or told themselves--that they are Normans, while we of the +North are Saxon--and hoping to acquire a little Anglo-Saxon +intelligence, prudently begin by studying the language which they +believe is in common use among our literati. + +Seriously, it is not merely to stoop to such small game as the grammar +of a secession newspaper that we notice these amusing mistakes. There +are many persons-we are sorry to say many clergymen among others--here, +even in the free States, who, in attempting to write elegantly, use +words very ridiculously. They say 'dialect' and 'idiom' when they mean +'language;' they use 'donate' for 'give;' 'transpired' for 'happened;' +'paper' for 'newspaper,' and describe various events as taking place in +'our midst'--all because they think that these vulgarisms are really +more correct than the words or terms in common use. + +We wish, however, that Anglo-Saxon--joking apart--were more generally +studied. When we remember that the very great majority of good _words_ +in English are of Saxon origin, and with them all that is characteristic +either in our grammar or modes of expression, it becomes evident that +the most certain and shortest method of arriving at a thorough and +correct comprehension of English is by the study of its most important +element--one which, as a writer has well said, bears the same relation +to our mother-tongue as oxygen does to water. It is not fair to speak as +some do of the Latin and Saxon wings of the English bird--the bird +itself is Saxon--head and tail included. English has been but little +benefited by its Latin and Greek additions--the old tongue had excellent +synonyms or creative capacity like German--to fully equal every new need +of thought. + +The reader who has time for study, would do well to obtain the +Anglo-Saxon Grammar of Louis Klipstein, published by G.P. Putnam, +New-York, which is by far the most practical and easiest work of the +kind with which we are acquainted. A few days' study in it will be time +well invested by any one desirous of really _understanding_ English. +When we reflect that many boys study Latin for years 'because it enables +them to understand the structure and derivation of their own language,' +while the extremely easy Anglo-Saxon is almost entirely neglected, we +smile at the ignorance of the first principles of education which +prevails. But we advise the reader who may have a few shillings and a +few hours to spare to invest them in a 'KLIPSTEIN,' and _know_--what +very few writers do--something of the roots of English. Our word for it, +he will not regret following the advice. + + * * * * * + +We are indebted to a Dawfuskie Island correspondent for the following +details relative to + +THE FALL OF PULASKI. + + 'Come and dine with me next Sunday in Pulaski?' said the commandant + of a detachment of the Volunteer Engineer corps located on Tybee + Island, one bright morning in the early part of April. As the + invitation was given in all sincerity, and the officer who thus + spoke was assisting in the erection of the batteries commanding + that fort, the question which had so long occupied my mind, as to + when the bombardment would begin, was now, I fondly hoped, near its + solution. Time and again had rumor fixed the period of that event; + but as often were we disappointed. Nor was _the_ day now fixed; at + least, if so, it was not communicated to me; but as the coming + Friday of that week would be the anniversary of the attack on Fort + Sumter, the natural inference was, that on the morning of that day, + we should witness the opening of the long and anxiously-looked for + engagement. + + Sad rumors had come to our camp, that eighteen soldiers who had + gone out skirmishing within the rebel lines, on Wilmington Island, + had been captured, and were prisoners within the walls of Pulaski. + How far this event may have hastened the attack, we know not; but + on Thursday, the tenth, instead of Friday, the eleventh, the + bombardment began, and the thunder of our mortars shook the earth + and rent the heavens with their roar. Pulaski returned the fire + with a promptness and energy that seemed to bid defiance to our + batteries. Throughout the whole day, the storm beat unceasingly + upon the doomed fort, raining shot and shell like hail against its + walls and upon its ramparts. Solid steel-pointed shot, from + columbiads and Parrotts, aimed with a precision that indicated not + only great skill but a knowledge of the point of danger in the + fort, perforated the walls and buried themselves in the thick and + heavy masonry. Once, twice, thrice, four times was the rebel flag + shot away; but as often was it replaced. At seven o'clock in the + evening, the firing ceased, and there was a lull in the storm, + only, however, to be renewed again at midnight, and kept up at + regular intervals until sunrise, when the engagement increased in + greater vigor than throughout the preceding day. + + The morning was clear and beautiful, but not calm. A stiff breeze + came from the East, as if to bear the terrific reports of the + cannonading to Savannah, whose distant spires and towers gleamed in + the sun. Our blockading fleet, with accompanying transports, lay at + anchor in Tybee harbor. Here and there a gunboat, firing occasional + shots, could be seen moving about in Wilmington sound, while the + Unadilla, Hale, and Western World occupied their positions in + Wright and Mud rivers. Tatnall's fleet was no where to be seen, and + all things in the direction of Savannah seemed as quiet as though + that city was peacefully and securely reposing, as in other days, + under the broad folds of the American Union. + + It was a sad and woful day to the cities of the South, when her + rebel princes renounced their allegiance to the government, and + raised the traitor arm of rebellion against its authority. Imagined + evils, in connection with the Union, were then converted into real + ones, and these have been augmented a thousand-fold in the + severance from that Union. When the South shall 'come to + herself'--if she ever does--like the prodigal son, she will find + her condition quite as pitiable, and in rags and wretchedness, she + will seek her father's house, willing, no doubt, to occupy a + servant's place in the national household. Nor until true and + genuine repentance shall come to her, can she hope for a father's + forgiveness and a prodigal's reception and restoration. + + Boom! boom!! boom!!! as if the last great day of vengeance had + come, and you could hear the screeching of a thousand fiends in the + air hastening to their destiny, come upon the ear, as Tybee utters + her thunders, and pours out her vials of wrath. See that cloud of + dust which shoots up like a volcano, and looks as though the whole + east side of the fort had fallen in! Bolts of iron, like winged + battering-rams, are ploughing fearfully through her belabored side. + Before this cloud has passed away, you see, just above it, another, + not dark and angry, but in appearance white and spherical as the + moon. A shell has exploded, and rained its iron fragments into the + fort. + + It is now past meridian of the second day. Pulaski still fires her + heaviest guns; but at greater intervals. The batteries from Tybee + have obtained so exact a range that nearly every shot does + execution. At length a breach is made in the vicinity of the + magazine. The fate of the fort and all its inmates is now suspended + upon a single, well-directed shot. There is but a step between the + besieged and death, and as all hope of raising the siege is + abandoned, the rebel flag is hauled down, and a white flag of + submission waves in its stead. Pulaski falls, and the day is ours. + The hope of Georgia is gone. In vain did the citizens of Savannah + offer a prize of one hundred thousand dollars for the relief of the + fort. Had that sum been increased to a million, it would have been + quite as unavailing. The same inevitable doom awaits all the other + forts and intrenchments of the rebel confederacy. With some of + these, the event may be delayed; but the day of doom will come, and + the broad flag of the Union will float over every inch of territory + from the hills of the Aroostook to the waters of the Rio Grande. + + Just as the fort struck her flag, an incident occurred which was + somewhat remarkable. A sloop, which had been at anchor in Tybee + harbor, was broken from her moorings by the violence of the wind, + and driven by wind and tide, she floated up the Savannah river. + With her Union down, she passed immediately in front of Pulaski, + and turned into Wright river, where she was run ashore. Twenty + minutes earlier, and she would have been blown to atoms by the guns + of the fort. + + An almost incredible amount of work has been done by our investing + army, in accomplishing this glorious result. Rivers and creeks had + to be sounded, obstructions removed, roads made through swamps on + marshy islands, where our officers and men had to work day and + night, often up to their waists in mud and water; heavy Parrotts + and columbiads had to be carried by hand across these swamps, and + erected on platforms inundated by rising tides; dykes and ditches + had to be made, while all the time our men were exposed to the fire + of the rebel fleet. When all this was accomplished, and + communication was cut off from Pulaski, then the nearest points on + Tybee were reached by our forces located on that island, and four + or five batteries were planted, which, in turn, have done their + work, and the result shows how wise were the plans and how + successful was the execution. The stars and stripes now float over + Pulaski, and may they never again be polluted by the touch of + traitor hands. + + * * * * * + +Those persons who 'collect' street literature (there be such) may be +pleased with the following: + + +PORTENTOUS PLACARDS. + +_New-York, May, 1862._ + +Since the publication of the 'Bill-Poster's Dream,' and of the extracts +from Richmond papers containing the prophecies of the handwriting on the +wall relative to the accomplice States of America, few things have so +generally attracted pedestrian attention in our down-town streets as two +enormous placards. The first bore the following legend: + +THERE'S +A TEMPEST +BREWING. + +Persons given to cryptical studies were inclined to consider this an +esoteric form of advertisement, intended to convey to the initiated the +information that A. STORM had gone into the beer business. But +conjecture was set at naught by its fellow which appeared at its side on +the day after its posting, in this shape: + +VIDELICIT + +Thê Prôphessor. + + Puncanhed, who was the first to call my attention to the placard, + did so with the following statement: + + ''Tan't spelt right--and why couldn't the feller just as well use + the 'good old English' word _viz._, as _'videlicit?'_' + + The query was unanswerable. But having some doubt as to the first + word in the Greek line, by using which instead of the article 'O, + the writer has shown not merely unconsciousness of the Greek + particle, but ignorance of a particle of Greek, I put the first + Hibernian who passed to the test of reading the sentence, which I + am forced to say the indignant Milesian scornfully declined. I + submit the whole question to the researches of your readers. + HEMIPLEGIUS. + +Nay--we know not. 'The Professor' at the Breakfast-Table we do indeed +know, and it is no unwonted thing for us to meet him in Tremont street, +merry and wise as ever. But we have never seen him or any other +Professor 'driven to the wall' in any way whatever; and albeit we +suspect him of a knowledge of whist, we have beheld him pla-carded. We +pass. + + * * * * * + +Do we say too much when we call the following poem truly beautiful? + +WITH FLOWERS. + +MAY MORNING, 1862. + + + Reject them not! they come to plead for me; + When you are cold, 'tis _winter_ in my heart; + Till you are kind, 'sweet May' 'twill never be, + And if you smile, summer will ne'er depart! + + 'My heart is weary,--waiting for the May,' + _So_ sad and weary; will _you_ give it rest? + Not _love_, but _rest_: it is not _much_ to say: + 'Poor, tired child! once more be thou my guest.' + + Forgive my wild and wayward words, forgive! + "We are dying of our thirst--'my heart and I!' + Without love's sunshine, who can care to live? + And when love shines, oh I who can bear to die? + +'Ah! this love!' 'There is not much of it in life,' says Heine; but that +little alone makes life tolerable. Rest, perturbed spirit, rest! In +another land, there is love enough for all. + + +CHIVALRY + +By R. Wolcott; Tenth Regiment + +Not long ago I happened to be one of a number of fair ladies and brave +men assembled at what is called a 'surprise-party.' It was my fortune to +be the attendant cavalier, for the time, of a damsel of romantic +disposition, and, I fear, of somewhat impaired digestive powers. And she +was lamenting, not boisterously, but in a subdued, conversational +manner, that the good old days were gone, 'the days of Chivalry,' when +my lady had her nice little _boo-dwah_ (for the life of me, I didn't +know whether that was something nice to eat or to wear; but I have since +learned that it is something French, and spelt, _b-o-u-d-o-i-r_,) and +was waited upon by handsome pages, and took her airing on a dappled-gray +palfrey, attended by trusty and obsequious grooms; when Sir Knight, +followed by his sturdy henchmen, rode forth in gay and gaudy attire, +with glittering helmet and cuirass, and entered the lists, and bravely +fought for his fair lady's fame. She spoke with fervid eloquence, and +with a glibness that betrayed a very recent perusal of the +tournament-scene in _Ivanhoe_. I was about to reply, and say something +in behalf of modern chivalry; but just then a gentleman claimed her hand +for a quadrille that was forming, and my remarks were cut short. + +If my readers will bear with me, I will attempt to tell them what I was +going to say to my romantic young friend. The days of chivalry are _not_ +gone. Let me remark that this assertion does not apply to the blatant, +nigger-driving article that whilom flourished in Dixie, for that is +about 'played out,' though they still rant and prate about the 'flower +of chivalry.' At Fort Lafayette, there is an herbarium of choice +specimens (rather faded and seedy) of that curious 'yarb;' and at the +old Alton Penitentiary, and at Camp Douglas, Chicago, there are +collections, not so choice and a great deal more seedy. Though +Simon--not he of other notoriety, but another man--Simon Bolivar +Buckner, a sweet-scented pink of Southern chivalry; though he must have +his little fling at us, and call General Grant 'ungenerous and +unchivalrous,' it does not strike me with stunning force that he, +ingrate that he is, and traitor to the government that educated him, is +exactly the one to teach us what chivalry is, or how it ought to treat +vanquished rebels. No, the days of chivalry are _not_ gone. While the +base counterfeit that has so often been thrust upon us by Southern +braggadocios, and indorsed by Northern sneaks and doughfaces, has been +detected, and, thank God! is being thrown out as fast as shot and shell +can knock it out, there never was a greater abundance of the genuine +metal than there is now and here in this land of ours. + +Not alone in war and warlike deeds does modern chivalry show itself. +There is a chivalry in religion, that, in spite of the howlings of +creed-worshipers, dares to throw off the shackles of antiquated and +intolerant dogmas, and believe and teach the religion of humanity, of +'peace on earth and good-will to men.' It is the chivalry in religion +that has smitten and is daily smiting with its gleaming lance the host +of old prejudices, letting in upon us the glorious golden sunshine, +allowing us to revel in it and to see this world as it is, joyous and +beautiful. True, some of the old superstitions that burned the witches +linger in the path, like grim dragons, to frighten us. But they are weak +and toothless, and are fast losing their terrors; and the spirit of +chivalry in religion is marching on, and smiting them one by one, and +one by one they fall. But while men are emancipating themselves from the +ancient errors, it is sad to see that the same bugbears that infested +the path of our great grandparents in the pinafore period of their +existence, are brought to bear upon our children. Especially in +Sabbath-school literature is this manifest. Impossible patterns of piety +and propriety are set before a stout, healthy boy, and he, in the flush +of his lusty life, is taught to believe that the only road to paradise +lies through some pulmonary affection. For the sake of all these dear +little ones, and for the sake of the Master who loved them so well, do +let them have some more natural and healthy mental and moral food! + +And this leads me to speak of literature in general. And have we not a +chivalry here that is working a revolution? And who is the bravest +knight in the field? Who but our own genial Meister Karl-Mace Sloper? +Isn't it glorious though, the way he rides into the lists, and with his +diamond-pointed lance pricks the tender skins of the lackadaisical +poetasters and lachrymose prosy-scribblers of our day! Again, O gallant +leader! smite them again. And fall in, ye who wield the pen! Let the +bugles sound the charge, and let our literature be cleared of Laura +Matildas and Martin Firecracker Splutters forever! + +We approach now a topic that was once nauseating in the extreme, but +which is now robbed of many of its disagreeable features--medicine. Let +it be understood in the beginning, disciple of Hahnemann, I am not +upholding you and your pellets of sugar; by no means. But there have +been some knights of the pill-box who, without rushing into folly, have +leaped the barriers of ignorance and ancient custom that kept them in an +atmosphere odorous of villainous drugs and combinations of drugs, and, +untrammeled by old traditions, have sought and are seeking milder means +of mitigating our bodily ills. All honor to them. They have driven away +the old doctor of our childhood, whose most pleasant smile resembled the +amiable leer that a cannibal might be supposed to bestow upon a plump +missionary. The old curmudgeon, with his huge bottles of mixtures and +his immense boulders--I beg pardon, I should say, _boluses_ of +nastiness--has vanished like a surly ghost at the approach of daylight, +and in his stead we have a gentleman, placid and self-poised, with a +velvet touch and a face beaming with cheerful smiles. And if they have +not made the measles a luxury, they have given us a syrup that children +are said to cry for. + +In the industrial arts, too, there is a spirit of chivalry that is +marching bravely on, overthrowing old notions. What knight of the olden +time ever did as much for his ladye fayre as he did for all womanity who +wrought out the problem of the sewing-machine? How many aching hands and +eyes and hearts has that little instrument, with its musical +_click-click, click-click_, relieved! No more songs of the shirt, no +more wearying of hands and curving of spines over the inner vestments of +mankind. We have changed all that. And every stroke of the pioneer's ax, +as he fells the mighty forest-trees, is a blow struck by the honest and +earnest chivalry of labor, battling with wild nature, carving a way for +civilization's triumphal march. And the cheery whistle of the plowboy, +as he drives his team a-field; the ring of the hammer on the anvil; the +clatter of the busy loom; the scream of the locomotive, as it sweeps +over the land, plunging through the mountains and dashing out across the +prairies--all these are the clarion-notes of modern chivalry's bugles, +ringing through the world in joyous and triumphant tones. + +And this war--who shall tell; what historic pen can record its grand and +glorious chivalry? Is not every one, from the pale young student, fresh +from the breast of _Alma Mater_, to the large-handed and larger-hearted +rustic, with the hay-seed yet in his hair, and the rugged bod-carrier, +redolent of sweat and brick-dust--are not all these, who have come forth +from the field and the workshop, the office and the lecture-room, to +defend the dear old flag, true and gallant knights? There is a boy out +there in the woods, on picket, slowly pacing his lonely beat, with the +tender-eyed stars for company. And as the silent hours pass by, slowly +he turns the leaves of memory's record, lingering over its cherished +pictures, the home-scenes, the fond father and mother, the dear sister, +and the dearer some-one-else's sister. The snapping of a twig startles +him, and hastily brushing away a tear--fond memory's tribute--he +instantly closes the book, and stands, with every sense on the alert, +unflinching, though he knows that each moment may be his last, only +remembering that it is his duty to be faithful, watch well, and fire +low. And though this boy, fair-haired and beardless, may not have passed +the stern ordeal of the battle's fierce shock, though his heart softens +at the thought of his far-off home in the North, yet his young soul is +that of a hero, brave and chivalrous, and in due time his spurs will be +nobly won. Yes, this war is bringing out the grand, heroic traits of our +American character, traits that years of rapid, busy, money-getting life +have thrown into the background, till it really did seem that we were +altogether sordid and selfish. + +In the year that I have been in the service, I have seen and heard of +more individual chivalrous deeds than my romantic and dyspeptic young +friend will find in all the books, from _Amadis de Gaul_ down. Every day +witnesses them. Private letters speak of them as ordinary incidents; a +few get before the public, enjoy a brief newspaper notoriety, and are +forgotten--no, not forgotten entirely; for every brave action lives +somewhere, though it may not be in an official report. A mother's or a +sister's memory cherishes it, and it is handed down to other +generations, an example and an incentive to other brave deeds. + +Then let us have no more sentimental lamentation over the decadence of +chivalry. There is a broad field open to us, for deeds of chivalrous +daring, now, upon the battle-field, amid the fierce clashing of arms. + + 'And many a darkness into the light shall leap, + And shine with the sudden making of splendid names.' + +Afterward, when holy peace shall smile again, there are the pulpit and +the rostrum, the workshop and the forest; and whether we wield the pen, +or the hammer, or the ax, according as we strive to make ourselves and +the world better, so shall we bear the palm of chivalry. + + * * * * * + +The Democratic press made itself convulsively merry over Governor +Andrew, of Massachusetts, for having called out the militia promptly in +the flurry of May 26th. After fairly exhausting its jeering and sneering +on this subject, that portion of the Northern Fourth Estate which would +be termed Satanic and traitorous were it not too utterly white-livered +and cowardly to be complimented with such forcible indices of even bad +character, had a cruel extinguisher clapped upon it on May 29th, by a +letter to the Boston _Journal_ from Lieutenant-Colonel Harrison Kitchie, +A.D.C., in which Governor Andrew is most effectually vindicated by the +simple publication of four telegrams received from Secretary +Stanton--the first two of which were as follows: + + [TELEGRAM I.-COPY] + + 'Washington, May 25th, 1862. + + 'To--GOVERNOR ANDREW: Send all the troops forward that you can + immediately. Banks is completely routed. The enemy are in large + force advancing upon Harper's Ferry. + + EDWIN M. STANTON, 'Secretary of War.' + + * * * * * + + [TELEGRAM II.--COPY] + + 'Washington, May 25th, 1862. + + 'TO THE GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS: Intelligence from various + quarters leaves no doubt that the enemy in great force are + advancing on Washington. You will please organise and forward + immediately all the volunteer and militia force in your State. + + 'EDWIN M. STANTON, 'Secretary of War.' + +How Governor Andrew could have been true to his duty and have acted +otherwise than he did after receiving such commands, must be settled by +those 'gossips of the mob' who, incapable of appreciating the nobility +of a prompt fulfillment of duty, measure every thing military by the +amount of melo-dramatic _denouement_ to which it leads. We trust that +after this effectual 'counter' we may hear a little less carping at +Governor Andrew, who has shown from the beginning an energy and +perseverance, a promptness in emergency, and a patriotism which, when +the history of this war comes to be written, will reflect the highest +honor upon his name. + + * * * * * + +He who sends us the following, is worthy to bear a crow-sier as one of +the Faithful: + +BOTH BARRELS INTO 'EM: + +If old Squire Price had any one bump of phrenology developed more than +another, it was CORVICIDE, or, KILL-CROWATIVENESS. From corn-planting to +husking-time, from dewy morn until evening more than due, he might be +seen dodging behind fences, crawling around barns, stalking along in the +high grass, with a long single-barreled old gun, trying to get a shot at +the black thieves of crows that were forever at work on his old, sandy +farm. + +'What cause have you, my aged friend,' Brother Hornblower once said to +him, '_What_ cause have _you_ to molest these birds, as 'toil not, +neither do they spin'?' + +'I tell yer what,' answered the Squire, shaking his head with savage +jerks, 'come down to my house ary moruin' airly, you'll hear _caws_!' + +Brother Hornblower smiled grimly and walked gently away, after that, to +get the evening paper at the grocery-post-office. He set his face +against jokes--unless they were serious ones. + +Whether it was Brother Hornblower's words, or more crows than usual, the +neighbors around Squire Price's farm were regaled for two days after the +above talk, with such constant explosions of gunpowder that it was +surmised the Squire must have bought 'a hull kag o' powder, and got some +feller to help him shoot.' The consequence of this energy was, that the +persecuted devil's-canaries flew away to other farms where powder was +scarce-first and foremost descending in flocks on Brother Hornblower's +lands, and digging up his young corn--it was in the month of May--until +even _he_ found cause to go at these birds as don't spin; for he found +out that they toiled most laboriously. Being a man of peaceful +disposition, and opposed to the use of fire-arms, he thought over a plan +by which fire-logs might be used with great advantage to his own +benefit, by destroying a large number of crows at one fell blow. How he +succeeded in this _fell_-blow, was told a few evenings afterward in the +grocery-post-office, by young Tyler, a promising youth who had not, as +they say of other sad dogs, 'quite got his set yet,' that is, attained +completion in figure and carriage. Seated on the edge of a barrel +half-filled with corn, and cutting a piece of pine-wood to one sharp +point only to be followed by another sharp point, he was talking to +another youth in a desultory manner, about his intentions 'to go by +water,' in old Bizzle's schooner, next trip she took, when Squire Price +came in to get his daily newspaper, _The Beantown Democrat_. + +'You bin givin' them crows partikler hail, hain't you, Squire?' asked +Tyler the youthful. + +'Wal, about as much as they kin kerry,' answered the Squire. 'They +hain't bin squawkin' round my prem'ses none to speak of lately.' + +'They bin roond Brother Horublower's, thick as pison, though,' said +Tyler. 'He counted on killin' 'bout a milyon on 'em yesserday--on-ly he +didn't quite come it.' + +'Thought he wouldn't never fire no guns at 'em!' + +'Put a couple o' barrils into 'em yesserday.' + +'Why, how you talk! You don't mean it?' + +'Honor bright! He got a big travers on 'em--leastwise, thought he had. +His brindle kaow, she got pizened night afore last, down there in the +woods; couldn't do nuthin with her, and she died same night. So he goes +and skins her, and throws her out into that gully down there, back o' +Bizzle's wood, and says he to me--for I was over there workin' for +him--says he, 'There'll be a power o'crows onto her t'morrer, and I +calc'late I'll fix a few on 'em--I will!' So next mornin'-that was +yesserdoy-we went out bright and airly, and rigged up a kind o' blind at +the side of the gully, right over the old carcass, Then we got our +amminishun all ready--both barrils all loadid.' + +'By jing!' said the Squire, rubbing his hands, 'I wish I'd bin there.' + +'Got all ready. Purty soon up comes one crow, sails round and round, +then two or three more, then a few more; they begun to smell meat. Then +they flew lower and lower; bime by one settles onto an old dead cedar +and begins cawin' for dear life. Then down he comes, then more and more +of 'em. Round they come, cawin' and flappin' their wings, clouds of 'em. +Guess there was 'bout two hundred settled onto that old kaow.' + +'Wish I'd bin there with my gun!' spoke the Squire, intensely excited. +'A feller could have made the most biggest kind of a shot.' + +'Wal, we waited, and waited, till the old kaow was black as pitch with +'em. Then Hornblower he nudges me. We got both barrils all ready--big +loads in 'em. 'Fire!' says he. I braced my leg up agin my barril; he +braced his leg up agin his barril--' + +'W-w-what?' said the Squire. + +'We give the most all-firedest shove--and over we went, barrels, stones, +dirt, and gravil, head-fo'most, spang into them crows and dead kaow! I +tell you, for about five minutes I calc'late I never seed sitch fuss, +feathers, dirt, and gravil, and kaow-beef flyin' as I did then. Things +was mixed up most promiscussedly, you can bet yer life on it! Bime by I +sort o' come to, and when I raised up I found I was sittin' onto four +dead, crushed crows, Brother Hornblower, and kaow-meat gin'rally. So I +dug out and lifted up the game--Brother Hornblower first off. When he +cum round a little, says he: + +"T-T-Tyler, I con-ceive somethin's give way 'bout these parts!' + +"You air about right in your suppostishuns,' says I; 'the gravil bank's +busted, and it's a marcy we an't in kingdom kum!' + +"Don't talk that way,' says he; 'let's go up and fire a cupple barrels +more into the blastid rebbils, fur vengenz.' + +"No yer don't, this mornin', as I knows on,' said I; 'I've got enough +shootin craws your fashun. Next time I go shootin' crows 'long any +boddy, I'm goin' to do it Christian-fashun, with gun-barrils, and not +blastid old flour-barrils filled with gravil. That kind o' shootin' +don't suit my style o' bones--'speehally head-fo'most inter a dead +kaow!" + +'On-ly four crows killt!' said the Squire, with a groan. 'To think what +a feller might have done, if he had only have spread his-self +judishuslously as he came tumblin' onto 'em spang! Wal!' (looking +cheeringly to young Tyler,) 'you couldn't do more'n fire both barrils +into 'em, ef they was flour-barrils, could you?' + + * * * * * + + THE LEGEND OF JESUS AND THE MOSS. + + + In the desert of Engedi + Lies a valley deep and lone; + Softly there the mild air slumbered, + Lovely there the sunlight shone. + In the bosom of this valley, + By the path that leads across, + Lay a modest velvet carpet + Of the finest, softest moss. + + But the careless traveler, passing, + Heedless of it went his way; + Thus this miracle of beauty + Lone in hidden glory lay. + Bloom and sunshine, sweeter, brighter, + Him from distant mountains greet; + On to that the stranger hurries, + Past the moss-bed at his feet. + + Then the moss-bed sighed, complaining + To the evening dew that fell; + And its tufted bosom heaving, + Thus its 'plains began to tell: + 'Ah! men love you, bloom and sunshine, + Long its rosy glow to see, + Feed their eyes on luring flowers + Whilst their feet tread rude on me!' + + Now, when mellow rays of sunset + Lingered golden on the trees, + Came a weary pilgrim slowly + From the bordering forest leas. + This was JESUS, just returning + From his fast of forty days; + Worn by Satan's fierce temptations, + He for rest and comfort prays. + + Sore his sacred feet are blistered, + Wandering o'er the desert-sands; + Torn and bleeding from the briers, + Sufferings which the curse demands. + When he came upon the moss-bed, + Soon he felt how cool and sweet + Lay the soft and velvet carpet + 'Neath his wounded, bleeding feet. + + 'Then he paused and spake this blessing: + 'Gift of my kind Father's love! + Fret not, little plant, thy record + Shineth in the book above. + By the careless eye unheeded, + Bear thy lowly, humble lot; + Thou hast eased my weary walking, + Thou art ne'er in heaven forgot.' + + Scarcely had he breathed this blessing + On the moss that soothed his woes, + When upon its bosom gathered, + Budded, bloomed, a lovely rose! + And its petals glowed with crimson + Like the clouds at close of day; + And a glory on the mosses + Like the smile of cherubs lay. + + Then said JESUS to the flower: + 'Moss-rose--this thy name shall be-- + Spread thou o'er all lands, the sweetest + Emblem of humility. + Out of lowly mosses budding, + Which have soothed a pilgrim's pain, + Thou shalt tell the world what honor + All the lowly, lovely gain.' + + Hear his words, ye lonely children, + By the world unseen, unknown; + Wait ye for the suffering pilgrim, + Coming weary, faint, and lone. + Keep your hearts still soft and tender, + Like the velvet bed of moss; + God will bless the love you render, + To some bearer of the cross. + + * * * * * + +In our May number we spoke old Englishly of the Boston demoiselle. In +the present number we have: + +YE PHILADELPHIA YOUNGE LADYE. + + +Ye Philadelphia young ladye 1s not evir of ruddie milke and blonde hew, +like unto hir cosyn of Boston, natheless is shee not browne as a +chinkapinn or persymon like unto ye damosylles of Baltimore. Even and +clere is hir complexioun, seldom paling, and not often bloshing, whyeh +is a good thynge for those who bee fonde of kissing, sith that if ther +mothers come in sodanely ther checkes wyll not be sinful tell-tayles of +swete and secrete deeds. Of whych matter of blushing itt is gretely to +the credyt of the Philadelphienne that shee blosheth not muche, sith +that Aldrovandus, and as methynketh also, Mizaldus in his _Mirabile +Centuries_, doe affirme thatt not to bloshe is a sign of noble bloods +and gentyl lineage--for itt may bee planely seene that every base-borne +churle's daughter blosheth, if thatt yee give hir a poke under ye chinn, +whereas ye countesse of highe degre only smileth sweetlie and sayth +merily, '_Aha! messire--tu voys que mon joly couer est endormy_!' for +shee well knoweth that a gentyllman, like ye kynge, can doe noe wronge. + +The Philadelphienne dressyth not in garments like unto Joseph, his cote +of manie colors, nethir dothe shee put on clothes whych look from afar +off like geographie-mapps, where the hues are as well assortyd as iff a +paint-mill had bursten and scattered the piggments all pele-mele into +everlastynge miscellayneous scatteratioun. For shee doth greately go inn +for subdued ratt-color, milde mouse-tints, temperate tea-caddy tones, +moderate mode--dyes, gentyll gray--shades, tranquill drabb--tinges, +temperate tawny, calm graye, sober ashie, pacifyed slate, mitigated dun, +lenientlie dingie, and blandlie cinereous chromattics, since shee hadd a +Quakir grandmother on the one syde, ande is too superblie proude on the +other, 'to make a pecocke of hirselfe,' as shee wyll telle you whann +thatt yee be spattered with the water whych is jetted from hose over ye +pavementes. Hee thatt woulde see manye of these swete beeings, shoulde +walke in Chestnutt strete whyles thatt shee goeth to shopp, or promenade +in Walnutt strete, on Sundaye. And if he can telle mee of a citie on +earthe where one can see more prettye, tiny feete, in neater shoos or +gaytered bootes, thann hee may then beholde, I wolde fayne knowe where +itt is, thatt I maye go there too. + +Muche loveth shee little tea-parties where onlie girles bee; and to have +ye gentylmen come, aske: 'Damsylle, wherefore walke ye nott in gayer +garmentes?' Soe thatt itt often comes to passe thatt whenn walkyng in ye +Broade Waye of New-Yorke, yee can tell a Philadelphienne by hir sober +yet rich garbe, so that ye Cosmopolite sayth: '_Per ma fe!_ thatt is a +ladye, I know shee is, by the waye shee lookes.' And trulie, as Dan +Chaucer sayeth, shee is one: + + 'Well seemed by her apparaile, + She is not wont to great travaile, + And whan she kempt is fetously, + And well arraied and richely. + Then hath shee done all her journée, + Gentyll and faire indede is shee!' + +Ye Philadelphia younge ladye loveth to ryde of pleasaunte afternoones +out untoe Pointe Breeze, adown ye Necke, in ye Parke, or along ye +wynding Wissahickon. Peradventure shee goeth whyles with a beau who +speaketh unto hir of love, to whych shee listeneth wyth tendir grace, +and replyeth with art, untill thatt they have builded upp betwene them a +flirtacioun. From tyme to tyme hee makyth a punn, and shee cryeth, +'Shame!' but itt shames him never a whitt or jott--nay, hee goeth on and +maketh yett anothir--ofttimes untill ye horse takyth frighte and runneth +awaie. Yett for all this she liketh hym still, so grete is ye love of +woman and so enduring hir constancye. + +Att other tymes shee ridoth farr and wyde in ye hors-carrs, since in her +natyve towne shee can go manye miles for five cents, and two pence whenn +shee takes ye other carr. Specially doth shee do this on Saturday +forenoons, else weare her neat clothes all in ye evenyng. Then they +speke of the newes of ye daye, and praise General! Mac Lellan, and +gossipp of ye laste greate partie, where Dorsey dyd serve so well ye +terrapines and steamed oysters, and howe thatt itt is verament and trewe +thatt Miss Porridge is to live, after hir marriage, in a howse in Locust +strete, or peradventure in Spruce, or in Pyne, for in this towne all the +stretes are of woode, albeit ye houses are all of bricke. + +Ye Philadelphienne spekythe more slowlie in hir speeche than dothe ye +New-Yorkere, and ever callyth a calf a cäff, and a laugh a läff, which +soundeth far more sweetlie, even like the _lingua Toscana in bocca +Romana._ Shee loveth ye opera even as shee loveth ye ice-creme, whych +shee buyeth at Mrs. Burns's, or old Auntie Jackson's, where shee often +goeth of warm sumer-nightes. Shee is graceful in hir miene, and gracious +in hir manner--trulie, in all ye worlde I know of none sweeter in this +laste itemm. And thatt shee may ever keepe up hir pleasante fame for +beinge ladyly, gentyll, and fayre, is the herte's prayere of + +CLERKE NICHOLAS. + + * * * * * + +GALLI VAN T is again active in setting forth the rural trials and +troubles of artists--which it seems are many. Listen! + +DEAR CONTINENTAL: 'Twas in the merry summer-tide, some seven years +since, when I went with a friend catching trout and sketching scenery in +the valley of the Connecticut. + +We thought we knew the value of a lovely view. + +We didn't. + +True, we could appreciate it to a dollar, when transferred to canvas. +Otherwise we had much to learn. + +C. Pia, Esq., and myself were hard at it one morning--making such +beautiful sketches, and doing it all with nothing but just a +lead-pencil and some paper--as a young admirer of our works was wont to +assure her friends. Suddenly appeared a man of great muscle, with pie +dish shirt-collar, and a canister-shot-eyed bull-terrier, gifted with +seven-tiger power of biting. + +'Stop that are!' was his courteous salutation. + +'Stop what?' + +'Stop making them are d--d picters. I don't have no such doings reound +here!' + +I looked at C. Pia--he was venomous and unterrified, and I felt +encouraged. So I firmly asked the intruder what he meant. + +'I mean what I say. There's property there that I'm a goin' to buy. I +know what you're arter. You're makin picters of the place for that are +in-fernal Kernal Smith who owns the land, so's he can show 'em round and +pint out the buildin' lots. And I'll jest lick you like ---- if you dror +another line!' + +'See here, young man,' quoth I, 'I've something to say to you. In the +first place you're a scamp who would keep a gentleman from getting a +fair price for his own property. Secondly, you're an ignorant fellow and +don't know what you're talking about. I never heard of your Colonel +Smith--I'm not drawing up real estate lots or plots of any kind. +Thirdly, I solemnly swear by Minos, Alianthus, Rhododendron, +Nebuchadnezzar, and all the infernal gods, that if you touch a hair of +our heads I'll see Colonel Smith--I'll map the whole property and +advertise it in every newspaper in New-York and Boston till it brings +ten thousand dollars an acre. Now sail in--dog or no dog--we'll settle +_you_, any how.' + +The glare of fury in our visitor's eyes died away as he listened to this +oration. + +'_Thunder!_' he exclaimed; 'what a lot you city fellers with l'arnin' +into you _do_ know! Ten thousand dollars an acre! Ad-ver-ti-sin'! What +an idee! I guess I'll buy the land on a morgidge right away. _Hee, hee, +hee_--it's a first-rate notion--and I _a-dopt_ it. Mister, if you want a +drink o' cider, you can get it at that are red house you see down +yander. Good-mornin'!' + +And off he went. + +'You've made that fellow's fortune--when you ought to have caved his +head in,' remarked C. Pia as the two brutes disappeared. + +'It is the mission of the artist to benefit every body except himself,' +I rejoined. And refilling my pipe I went on with my 'picter.' + +Yours truly, GALLI VAN T. + +Truly 'Art is--well--a--it's a great thing, and hath its many lights and +shadows,' as Phoenix or some body once ascertained. And we trust that +Galli Van T. will continue to depict the same in his peculiarly +affecting style. + + * * * * * + +Among the curiosities of literature which the war has brought forth, one +of the most piquant is a little pamphlet entitled, _Southern Hatred of +the American Government, the People of the North, and Free +Institutions_, recently published by R.F. Wallcut, of Number 221 +Washington street, Boston. It consists entirely of selections from the +columns of Southern newspapers--all of them rabid, and we may very truly +add, ridiculous; especially since the fortunes of war have made so much +of their Bobadil bluster appear like the veriest folly. Many of them are +old acquaintances--who, for instance, can have forgotten the following, +from the Richmond _Whig_? + + 'This war will test the physical virtues of mere numbers. Southern + soldiers ask no better odds than one to three Western and one to + six of the Eastern Yankees. Some go so far as to say that, with + equal weapons, and on equal grounds, they would not hesitate to + encounter twenty times their number of the last.' + +As regards those who go so far, it may be remarked that by this time +they have illustrated Father O'Leary's remark of the people who, not +'belaving in Purgathory, wint further and fared worse.' But there is +more of this 'chivalric' spirit in the same article. For instance, it +doubts 'whether any society since that of Sodom and Gomorrah' [Paris is +entirely too mild an example] 'has been _more thoroughly_ steeped in +_every_ species of vice than that of the Yankees.' Infanticide is hinted +at as prevailing as extensively as in China. The Yankees 'pursue with +envy and malignity every excellence that shows itself among them +unconnected with money; and a gentleman there stands no more chance of +existence than a dog does in the Grotto del Cano!' + +The elegance and refinement of the same editorial from the _Whig_, +appears from the following. A portion, which we omit, is too foully +indecent for republication: + + ' ... The Yankee women, scraggy, scrawny, and hard as whip-cord, + breed like Norway rats, and they fill all the brothels of the + continent.... But they multiply--the only scriptural precept they + obey--and boast their millions. So do the Chinese; so do the + Apisdæ, and all other pests of the animal kingdom. Pull the bark + from a decayed log, and you will see a mass of maggots full of + vitality, in constant motion and eternal gyration, one crawling + over one, and another creeping under another, all precisely alike, + all intently engaged in preying upon one another, and you have an + apt illustration of Yankee numbers, Yankee equality, and Yankee + greatness. + + 'We must bring these unfranchised slaves--the Yankees--back to + their true condition. They have long, very probably, looked upon + themselves as our social inferiors--as our serfs; their mean, + niggardly lives--their low, vulgar, and sordid occupations, have + ground this conviction into them. But of a sudden, they have come + to imagine that their numerical strength gives them power--_and + they have burst the bonds of servitude_, and are running riot with + more than the brutal passions of a liberated wild beast. Their + uprising has all the characteristics of a _ferocious, fertile + insurrection_.... They have suggested to us the invasion of their + territory, and the robbery of their banks and jewelry-stores. We + may profit by the suggestion, so far as the invasion goes--_for + that will enable us to restore them to their normal condition of + vassalage, and teach them that cap in hand is the proper attitude + of a servant before his master_.' + +These extracts are from the Richmond _Whig_--a paper beyond all +comparison the most respectable and moderate in the whole South, and by +no means of so little weight or character that its remarks can be passed +by as mere Southern vaunt and idle bluster signifying nothing. It speaks +the deep-seated belief and heartfelt conviction of even the most +intelligent secessionists--for the editor of the _Whig_ is not only one +of these, but one of the most honest and upright men to be found in +Dixie. + +'But,' the reader may ask, 'if the man really _believes_ that Yankees +are serfs, slaves, vassals of the South, where are his eyes, ears, and +common-sense?' Gently, dear reader. When we reflect on the toadying to +the South by Northern doughface Democrats in by-gone years--when we +recall the abominable and incredible servility with which every thing +Southern has been hymned, homaged and exalted--when we remember how +vulgar, arrogant, ignorant Southrons have been adored in doughface +society where gentlemen whom they were not worthy of waiting on were of +but secondary account--when we think of the shallow, pitiful meanness +which induces Northern men to rant in favor of that 'institution' which +they, at least, _know_ is a curse to the whole country--when we see even +now, how, with a baseness and vileness beyond belief, 'democratic' +editors continue to lick the hands which smite them, we do _not_ wonder +that the Southerner, taking the doughface for a type of the whole North, +characterizes all Yankees as serf-like, servile cap-in-hand crawlers and +beggars for patronage. For if we were all of the pro-slavery Democracy, +and especially of those who even now continue to yelp for Southern +rights and grinningly assure patriots that 'under the Constitution they +can do nothing to the South,' we should richly deserve all the scorn +heaped on us by the 'chivalry.' + + * * * * * + +We doubt not that, during this bitter war, many incidents have occurred, +or will occur, quite like that described in the following simple but +life-true ballad: + + FRANK WILSON. + + 'Twas night at the farm-house. The fallen sun + Shot his last red arrow up in the west; + Shadows came wolfishly stealing forth, + And chased the flush from the mountain's crest. + + Night at the farm-house. The hickory fire + Laughed and leaped in the chimney's hold, + And baffled, with its warm mirth, the frost, + As he pried at the panes with his fingers cold. + + The chores were finished; and farmer West, + As he slowly sipped from his foaming mug, + Toasted his feet in calm content, + And rejoiced that the barns were warm and snug. + + Washing the tea-things, with bared white arms, + And softly humming a love refrain; + With smooth brown braids, and cheeks of rose, + Washed and warbled his daughter Jane. + + She was the gift that his dear wife left, + When she died, some nineteen Mays before; + The light and the warmth of the old farm-home, + And cherished by him to his great heart's core. + + A sweet, fair girl; yet 'twas not so much + The fashion of feature that made her so; + 'Twas love's own tenderness in her eyes, + And on her cheeks love's sunrise glow. + + Done were the tea-things; the rounded arms + Again were covered, the wide hearth brushed; + Then from the mantle she took some work, + 'Twas a soldier's sock, and her song was hushed. + + Her song was hushed; for tenderer thoughts + Than ever were bodied in word or sound, + Trembled like stars in her downcast eyes, + As she knit in the dark yarn round and round. + + A neighbor's rap at the outer door + Was answered at once by a bluff 'Come in!' + And he came, with stamping of heavy boots, + Frost-wreathed brow and muffled chin. + + Come up to the fire! Pretty cold to-night. + What news do you get from the village to-day? + Did you call for our papers? Ah! yes, much obliged. + What news do you get from our Company K?' + + 'Bad news!--bad news!' He slowly unwinds + His muffler, and wipes his frost-fringed eyes. + 'Frank Wilson was out on the picket last night, + And was killed by some cursed rebel spies.' + + O God! give strength to that writhing heart! + Fling the life back to that whitening cheek! + Let not the pent breath forever stay + From the lips, too white and dumb to speak! + + 'Frank Wilson killed? ah! too bad--too bad, + The finest young man, by far, in this town; + Such are the offerings we give to war, + Jane, draw a fresh mug for our neighbor Brown.' + + Neither did notice her faltering step; + Neither gave heed to her quivering hand, + That awkwardly fumbled the cellar-door, + And spilled the cider upon the stand. + + But the father dreamed, as he slept that night, + That his darling had met some fearful woe; + And he dreamed of hearing her stifled moans, + And her slow steps pacing to and fro. + + II. + + 'Twas an April day, in the balmy spring, + The farmhouse fires had gone to sleep, + The windows were open to sun and breeze, + The hills were dotted with snowy sheep. + + The great elms rustled their new-lifed leaves + Softly over the old brown roof, + And the sunshine, red with savory smoke, + Fell graciously through their emerald woof. + + Sounds--spring sounds--which the country yields: + Voices of laborers, lowing of herds, + The caw of the crow, the swollen brook's roar, + The sportsman's gun, and the twitter of birds, + + Melted like dim dreams into the air; + 'Twas the azure shadow of summer, + Which fell so sweetly on plain and wood, + And brought new gladness to eye and ear. + + But a face looks out to the purple hills, + A wasted face that is full of woe, + Wan yet calm, like a summer moon + That has lost the round of its fullest glow. + + The smooth brown braids still wreathe her head; + Her simple garments are full of grace, + As if, with color and taste, she fain + Would ward off eyes from her paling face. + + 'Tis a morning hour, but the work is done; + The house so peacefully bright within, + And the wild-wood leaves on the mantel-shelf + Tell how busy her feet have been. + + She sits by the window and watches a cloud + Fading away in the hazy sky; + And 'Like that cloud,' she says in heart, + 'When summer is over, I too shall die.' + + The door-yard gate swings to with a clang, + She must not sadden her father so; + She springs to her feet with a merrier air, + And pinches her face to make it glow. + + But ah! no need; for a ruddier red + Than pinches can bring floods brow and cheek; + She stands transfixed by a mighty joy; + For millions of worlds she can not speak. + + Frank Wilson gathers her close to his heart, + With brightening glance, he reads that glow, + And draws from the wells of her joy-lit eyes + The secret he long has yearned to know. + + 'Frank Wilson! living and strong and well; + Were you not killed by the rebels? say!' + 'Thank God! I was not. 'Twas another man-- + There were two Frank Wilsons in Company K.' + + The one church-bell in the distant town + Chimes softly forth for twelve o'clock; + Another clang of the door-yard gate, + A sudden hush in the tender talk. + + She flies to meet him--the transformed child!-- + Her heart keeps time to her ringing tread; + 'O father! he's come!' and she needs no more + To pinch her cheeks to make them red. + + MARIE MIGNIONETTE. + + * * * * * + +A friend who doth such things has kindly jotted down for us the +following 'authentics': + + Sometimes I have thought that the reply our Irish girl gave the + other day, was of the nature of her usual blunders, and again that + it meant a good deal. On her return from a funeral, where a man, + who had previously lost his wife, had buried his only child, an + infant a few weeks old, I asked her how the father appeared? + + 'Oh! he was a dale sorry; but I guess _he's glad to get rid of + it_!' + + _It was only a_ WAY _he had._--Whiggles, on being told that a boy + down-town, only sixteen years old, weighed six hundred and fifty + pounds, was further enlightened by the information that he weighed + that amount of coal on a platform Fairbanks. + + +The Southern press has proposed that, even in case of defeat, the +wealthy class shall retire to their plantations, 'live comfortably' on +what they can raise, let cotton go for two years, and thereby starve +Europe and the North into a conviction that Cotton is King. + +But how will the poor whites of the South like this? What is to become +of _them_? Or what, indeed, is to become of us, if no cotton be +forthcoming? The truth is, and every day makes it more apparent, _the +raising of cotton must pass into other hands_. The _army_ has its +rights--the right to land-grants--and the _only_ effectual means of +putting an end to our dependence on the South will be found in settling +soldiers in the cotton country. Texas would be, perhaps, best suited for +the purpose, and other regions may be selected as opportunity may +suggest. With this course fully determined on, it would hardly be +necessary to further agitate Emancipation, it would come of itself, and +slave-labor would yield to the energy of the free Northern farmer. + +Very little has been said as yet on this subject of properly rewarding +our troops. But it is destined to rise into becoming the great question +of the day; and if the Democratic pro-slavery party sets itself in +opposition to it, it will be ground to powder. Events are tending to +this issue with irresistible and tremendous power, and the days of +planterdom are numbered. + + * * * * * + + + + FOOTNOTES + +[Footnote A: This anecdote has frequently gone the rounds in an +abbreviated form. It may interest the reader to see it in authentic +detail.] + +[Footnote B: Richmond _Examiner._] + +[Footnote C: To which we add, 'An Account of the Proceedings preliminary +to the Organization of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with a +List of the Members thus far associated, and an Appendix, containing +Petitions and Resolutions in aid of the objects of the Committee of +Associated Institutions of Science and Art. Boston, 1861.' Also the +Objects and Courses of Instruction in the Lawrence Scientific School. In +the 'Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Harvard University, for +the Academical Year 1860-1861.' The Editor will hold himself greatly +indebted to any one who will kindly forward him catalogues or +prospectuses relative to any scientific schools or institutes whatever, +either in this country or Europe.] + +[Footnote D: EDUCATIONAL CONDITION--CENSUS 1850. + +Maine, 1 in 3-1/3 +New-Hampshire, " 3-1/2 +Vermont, " 3-1/3 +Michigan, " 3-1/3 +Ohio, " 3-3/4 +New-York, native-born, " 3-3/4 + Aggregate, " 4-1/2 +Massachusetts, native-born, " 3-1/2 + Aggregate, " 4-1/2 +Pennsylvania, native-born, " 4 + Aggregate, " 4-1/2 +Rhode-Island, " 4-1/2 +Connecticut, " 4-1/2 +Indiana, " 4-1/2 +Illinois, " 4-1/2 +Iowa, 1 in 5-1/2 +Florida, " 10 +Louisiana, " 8 +Texas, " 8 +Virginia, " 8 +Alabama, " 7 +Arkansas, " 7 +Georgia, " 7 +Maryland, " 7 +South-Carolina, " 7 +Mississippi, " 6-1/2 +Kentucky, " 6 +Missouri, " 6 +New-Jersey, " 5-1/2 +North-Carolina " 5-1/2 +Wisconsin, " 5-1/2 +Tennessee, " 5 +Delaware, " 5 + +EUROPEAN STATES. + +Denmark, 1 in 4-1/2 +Sweden, " 5-1/2 +Saxony, " 6 +Prussia, " 6-1/4 +Norway, " 7 +Great Britain, " 8-1/2 + Actually receiving instruction, " 7 +Ireland, 1 in 14 +Belgium, " 8-1/2 +France, " 10-1/2 +Austria " 13-3/4 +Holland, " 14-3/4 +Greece, " 18 +Russia, " 50 +Portugal, " 81 +Spain, Not known. + +FREE COLORED POPULATION--UNITED STATES. + +Maine, 1 in 5 +Rhode-Island, " 6-1/2 +Massachusetts, " 6-1/4 +New-Hampshire, " 7 +Vermont, 1 in 8 +Connecticut, " 6 +Pennsylvania, " 8 +New-York, " 9 + +It may be seen, by the foregoing table, that a thorough system of +education for the masses requires that one third of the aggregate +population should be kept at school for a goodly portion of the year. +This is essential, under Democratic Government, in order to bring each +generation up to the appreciative point.] + +[Footnote E: The free colored population of Charleston in 1860, did not +vary materially from four thousand. The associated value of their +property would give to each $390. Each family or six persons would +possess, according to this estimate, $2840. This would be a full average +of wealth to the free population of the United States--the amount +varying in the different States from $2200 to $2500 to each family of +six persons.] + + + + +DESTINED TO BE THE BOOK OF THE SEASON + + * * * * * + +As published in the pages of THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY, it has been +pronounced by the Press to be + +"SUPERIOR TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN." + +"FULL OF ABSORBING INTEREST." + +"Whether invented or not, True, because true to Life."--HORACE GREELEY. + + * * * * * + +WILL SHORTLY BE PUBLISHED, + +==In a handsome 12mo vol. of 330 pages, cloth, $1,== + +==AMONG THE PINES,== + +BY EDMUND KIRKE. + +(Symbol: Pointing Finger) Read the following Notices from the Press; + +"It contains the most vivid and lifelike representation of a specimen +family of poor South-Carolina whites we have ever read."--E.P. WHIPPLE, +in the _Boston Transcript._ + +"It is full of absorbing interest."--_Whig_, Quincy, III. + +"It gives some curious ideas of Southern Social Life."--_Post_, Boston. + +"The most lifelike delineations of Southern Life ever written."--_Spy_, +Columbia, Pa. + +"One of the most attractive series of papers ever published, and +embodying only facts"--C.C. HAZEWELL, in the _Traveller_, Boston. + +"A very graphic picture of life among the clay-eaters and +turpentine-makers."--_Lorain News_, Oberlle, Ohio. + +"The author wields a ready and graphic pen."--_Times_, Armenia, N.Y. + +"There are passages in it of the most thrilling dramatic +power."--_Journal_, Roxbury, Mass. + +It is the best and most truthful sketch of Southern Life and Character +we have ever read."--R. SURLTON MACKENZIE, in the _Press_, Philadelphia. + +"Has a peculiar interest just now, and deserves a wide +reading."--_Dispatch,_ Amsterdam, N.Y. + +"An intensely vivid description of things as they occur on a Southern +Plantation."--_Union_, Lancaster, Pa. + +"The author is one of the finest descriptive writers in the +country."--_Journal_, Boston, Mass. + +"It presents a vivid picture of Plantation Life, with something of the +action of a character that is more than likely to pass from t story into +history before the cause of the Rebellion is rooted out."--_Gazette._ +Taunton, Mass. + +"A most powerful production, which can not be read without exciting +great and continued interest"--_Palladium_, New Haven. + +PUBLISHED BY + +J.R. GILMORE, + +532 BROADWAY, NEW-YORK, + +And 110 TREMONT STREET, BOSTON + +C.T. EVANS, General Agent + +(Three star image) Orders from the Trade will be filled in the order in +which they are received. + +==Single Copies sent, postpaid, by mail, on receipt of $1.== + + + +THE + +CONTINENTAL MONTHLY. + + * * * * * + +PUBLISHER'S NOTICE. + + * * * * * + +THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY has passed its experimental ordeal, and stands +firmly established in popular regard. It was started at a period when +any new literary enterprise was deemed almost foolhardy, but the +publisher believed that the time had arrived for just such a Magazine. +Fearlessly advocating the doctrine of ultimate and gradual Emancipation, +for the sake of the UNION and the WHITE MAN, it has found favor in +quarters where censure was expected, and patronage where opposition only +was looked for. While holding firmly to _its own opinions_, it has +opened its pages to POLITICAL WRITERS of _widely different views_, and +has made a feature of employing the literary labors of the _younger_ +race of American writers. How much has been gained by thus giving, +practically, the fullest freedom to the expression of opinion, and by +the infusion of fresh blood into literature, has been felt from month to +month in its constantly increasing circulation. + +The most eminent of our Statesmen have furnished THE CONTINENTAL many of +its political articles, and the result is, it has not given labored +essays fit only for a place in ponderous encyclopedias, but fresh, +vigorous, and practical contributions on men and things as they exist. + +It will be our effort to go on in the path we have entered, and as a +guarantee of the future, we may point to the array of live and brilliant +talent which has brought so many encomiums on our Magazine. The able +political articles which have given it so much reputation will be +continued in each issue, and in this number is commenced a new Serial by +Richard R. Kimball, the eminent author of the 'Under-Currents of Wall +Street,' 'St. Leger,' etc., entitled, + + +WAS HE SUCCESSFUL? + +An account of the Life and Conduct of Hiram Meeker, one of the leading +men in the mercantile community, and 'a bright and shining light' in the +Church, recounting what he did, and how he made his money. This work +which will excel the previous brilliant productions of this author. + + The UNION--The Union of ALL THE STATES--that indicates our + politics. To be content with no ground lower than the highest--that + is the standard of our literary character. + +We hope all who are friendly to the spread of our political views, and +all who are favorable to the diffusion of a live, fresh, and energetic +literature, will lend us their aid to increase our circulation. There is +not one of our readers who may not influence one or two more, and there +is in every town in the loyal States some native person whose time might +be profitably employed in procuring subscribers to our work. To +encourage such to act for us we offer the following very liberal + +TERMS TO CLUBS. + +Two copies for one year,....................................Five dollars. +Three copies for one year,..................................Six dollars. +Six copies for one year,....................................Eleven dollars. +Eleven copies for one year,.................................Twenty dollars. +Twenty copies for one year,.................................Thirty-six dollars. + +PAID IN ADVANCE + +_Postage, Thirty-six Cents a year_, TO BE PAID BY THE SUBSCRIBER. + +SINGLE COPIES. + +Three Dollars a year, IN ADVANCE.--_Postage paid by the Publisher._ + +J.R. GILMORE, 532 Broadway, New-York, +and 110 Tremont Street, Boston. + +CHARLES T. EVANS, 532 Broadway, New-York, +GENERAL AGENT. + +Number 8. 25 Cents + +The + +Continental + +Monthly + +Devoted to Literature and National Policy. + + * * * * * + +AUGUST, 1862. + + * * * * * + +NEW-YORK AND BOSTON: + +J.R. GILMORE, 532 BROADWAY, NEW-YORK, + +AND 110 TREMONT STREET, BOSTON. + +NEW-YORK: HENRY DEXTER AND SINCLAIR TOUSEY. + +PHILADELPHIA: T.B. CALLENDER AND A. WINCH. + +CONTENTS.--No. VIII. + + * * * * * + +Among the Pines. (Concluded,) 127 + +Southern Rights, 143 + +Maccaroni and Canvas, 144 + +Glances from the Senate-Gallery, 154 + +The Last Ditch, 159 + +Rewarding the Army, 161 + +John McDonogh, the Millionaire, 165 + +Helter-Skelter Papers, 175 + +Sketches of the Orient, 179 + +Witches, Elves, and Goblins, 184 + +A True Romance, 190 + +Huguenots of New-York City, 193 + +The Bane of our Country, 198 + +The Molly O'Molly Papers, 200 + +Wounded, 206 + +Astor and the Capitalists of New-York, 207 + +Thunder all Round, 217 + +Was he Successful? 218 + +A Merchant's Story, 232 + +Corn is King, 237 + +Literary Notices, 238 + +Editor's Table, 241 + + * * * * * + +A MERCHANT'S STORY, + +By the author of 'Among the Pines,' which is begun in this number, will +be continued in each issue of THE CONTINENTAL until it is completed. It +will depict Southern White Society, and be a truthful history of some +eminent Northern Merchants, who are largely in 'the cotton trade and +sugar line.' + + * * * * * + +ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by JAMES H. +GILMORE, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United +States for the Southern District of New-York. + + * * * * * + +JOHN A. GRAY, PRINTER. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Continental Monthly, Vol. II. July, +1862. No. 1., by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONTINENTAL MONTHLY *** + +***** This file should be named 16272-8.txt or 16272-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/2/7/16272/ + +Produced by Cornell University, Joshua Hutchinson, Janet +Blenkinship and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/16272-8.zip b/16272-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..db46b8b --- /dev/null +++ b/16272-8.zip diff --git a/16272-h.zip b/16272-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6b69418 --- /dev/null +++ b/16272-h.zip diff --git a/16272-h/16272-h.htm b/16272-h/16272-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cea9d52 --- /dev/null +++ b/16272-h/16272-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9883 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Continental Monthly. July, 1862. Volume II. No. 1. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + hr.minor { width:50%; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;} + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } + + body {margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .author {text-align: right; margin-right: 5%;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + + a:link {text-decoration:none} + link {text-decoration:none} + a:visited {text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:#ff0000} + --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Continental Monthly, Vol. II. July, 1862. +No. 1., by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Continental Monthly, Vol. II. July, 1862. No. 1. + +Author: Various + +Release Date: July 12, 2005 [EBook #16272] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONTINENTAL MONTHLY *** + + + + +Produced by Cornell University, Joshua Hutchinson, Janet +Blenkinship and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1>Production Note</h1> +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Cornell University Library produced this volume to preserve the +informational content of the deteriorated original. The best available +copy of the original has been used to create this digital copy. It was +scanned bitonally at 600 dots per inch resolution and compressed prior +to storage using ITU Group 4 compression. Conversion of this material to +digital files was supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Digital +file copyright by Cornell University Library 1995.</p> + +<p>This volume has been scanned as part of The Making of America Project, a +cooperative endeavor undertaken to preserve and enhance access to +historical material from the nineteenth century.</p> +</div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h3>CORNELL<br /> +UNIVERSITY<br /> +LIBRARY</h3> + +<h4>FROM</h4> +<h3>Charles William Wason</h3> + + + +<h4>THE</h4> +<h2>CONTINENTAL MONTHLY.</h2> + +<h4>DEVOTED TO</h4> +<h3>Literature and National Policy.</h3> +<hr /> +<h3>VOL. II.</h3> + +<h4>JULY-DECEMBER, 1862.</h4> +<hr /> + +<h4>New York: JOHN F. TROW, 50 GREENE STREET.<br /> +(FOR THE PROPRIETORS).<br /> +1862.</h4> +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class='center'>Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by +JOHN F. TROW, +For the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for +the Southern District of New York.</p> + +<p class='center'>JOHN F. TROW,<br /> +Printer, Stereotyper and Electrotyper, 48 & 50 Greene Street, New York.</p> + +<p class='center'>ENTERED, according to an Act of Congress, in the year 1882 by JAMES B. +GILMORE, in the Clerk of the Office of the District Court of the United +States for the Southern District of New-York.</p> + +<p class='center'>JOHN A. GRAY PRINTER</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h2><a name="INDEX_TO_VOLUME_II" id="INDEX_TO_VOLUME_II"></a>INDEX TO VOLUME II.</h2> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Index"> +<tr><td></td><td align='left'>PAGE</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Among the Pines. Edmund Kirke,</td><td align='left'> 28, 127</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>An Englishman in South Carolina,</td><td align='left'>689</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Adorium,</td><td align='left'> 82</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>A True Romance. Isabella McFarlane,</td><td align='left'>190</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>A Physician's Story,</td><td align='left'>667</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Astor and the Capitalists of New York. W. Frothingham,</td><td align='left'>207</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>A Merchant's Story. Edmund Kirke,</td><td align='left'>232, 328, 451, 560, 719</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>American Student Life,</td><td align='left'>266</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Author Borrowing,</td><td align='left'>285</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Anthony Trollope on America,</td><td align='left'>302</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>A Military Nation. Charles G. Leland,</td><td align='left'>453</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>A Southern Review. Charles G. Leland,</td><td align='left'>466</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Aurora. Hon. Horace Greeley,</td><td align='left'>622</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Bone Ornaments. Charles G. Leland,</td><td align='left'> 5</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Cambridge and its Colleges,</td><td align='left'>662</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Corn is King,</td><td align='left'>237</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Editor's Table,</td><td align='left'>109, 241, 369, 481, 638, 750</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-Two, U.S. Johnson,</td><td align='left'>442</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>For the Hour of Triumph,</td><td align='left'> 26</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Flower Arranging,</td><td align='left'>444</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Glances from the Senate Gallery. G.W. Towle,</td><td align='left'> 10, 154</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Gold. Hon. E.J. Walker,</td><td align='left'>743</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Helter-Skelter Papers,</td><td align='left'>175</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Hopeful Tackett. Richard Wolcott,</td><td align='left'>262</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Huguenots of New York City. Hon. G.P. Disosway,</td><td align='left'>193</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Henry Thomas Buckle,</td><td align='left'>253</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>In Transitu,</td><td align='left'> 27</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>I Wait,</td><td align='left'> 69</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>John McDonogh. Alexander Walker,</td><td align='left'>165</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>John Bull to Jonathan,</td><td align='left'>265</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>John Neil,</td><td align='left'>295</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>La Vie Poetique,</td><td align='left'>679</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Literary Notices,</td><td align='left'>106, 238, 866, 478, 636, 747</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>London Fogs and London Poor,</td><td align='left'>404</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Maccaroni and Canvas. Henry P. Leland,</td><td align='left'> 14, 144, 290, 383, 591</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Newbern as it Was and Is. F. Kidder,</td><td align='left'> 58</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>National Unity. Hon. Horace Greeley,</td><td align='left'>357</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>On Guard. John G. Nicolay,</td><td align='left'>706</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Our Brave Times,</td><td align='left'> 62</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Our Wounded. C.K. Tuckerman,</td><td align='left'>465</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>One of the Million. Caroline Chesebro',</td><td align='left'>541</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Polytechnic Institutes. Charles G. Leland,</td><td align='left'> 83</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Railway Photographs. Isabella McFarlane,</td><td align='left'>708</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Rewarding the Army. Charles G. Leland,</td><td align='left'>161</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Reminiscences of Andrew Jackson,</td><td align='left'>318</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Red, Yellow, and Blue,</td><td align='left'>535</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Slavery and Nobility<i>vs.</i>Democracy. Lorenzo Sherwood,</td><td align='left'> 89</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Southern Rights,</td><td align='left'>143,</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sketches of the Orient. Hon. J.P. Brown,</td><td align='left'>179</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Shakspeare's Richard III. Rev. E.G. Holland,</td><td align='left'>320</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Shoulder Straps. Henry Morford,</td><td align='left'>342</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sir John Suckling,</td><td align='left'>397</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Southern Hate of the North. Horace Greeley,</td><td align='left'>448</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Something we have to Think of, and to Do. C.S. Henry, LL.D.,</td><td align='left'>657</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Stewart, and the Dry Goods Trade of New York. W. Frothingham,</td><td align='left'>528</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Thank God for All. Charles G. Leland,</td><td align='left'>718</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Molly O'Molly Papers,</td><td align='left'> 6, 200, 257</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Crisis and the Parties. C.G. Leland,</td><td align='left'> 65</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Taking the Census,</td><td align='left'> 70</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Ash Tree. Charles G. Leland,</td><td align='left'>682</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Obstacles to Peace. A Letter to an Englishman. <br />Hon. Horace Greeley,</td><td align='left'>714</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Freed Men of the South. Hon. F.P. Stanton,</td><td align='left'>730</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Peloponnesus in March,</td><td align='left'> 74</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Last Ditch. Charles G. Leland,</td><td align='left'>159</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Bone of our Country,</td><td align='left'>198</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Soldier and the Civilian. C.G. Leland,</td><td align='left'>281</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Negro in the Revolution,</td><td align='left'>324</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Children in the Wood. Henry Morford,</td><td align='left'>354</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Constitution as It Is. C.S. Henry, LL.D.,</td><td align='left'>377</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Tom Winter's Story. G.W. Chapman,</td><td align='left'>416</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The White Hills in October. C.M. Sedgwick,</td><td align='left'>423</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Union. Hon. E.J. Walker,</td><td align='left'>457, 572, 641</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Causes of the Rebellion. Hon. F.P. Stanton,</td><td align='left'>513, 695</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Wolf Hunt. Charles G. Leland,</td><td align='left'>580</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Poetry of Nature,</td><td align='left'>581</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Proclamation.</td><td align='left'>603</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Press in the United States. Hon. F.L. Stanton,</td><td align='left'>604</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Homestead Bill. Hon. R.J. Walker,</td><td align='left'>627</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Up and Act. Charles G. Leland,</td><td align='left'>314</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Unheeded Growth. John Neil,</td><td align='left'>534</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>What shall be the End? Hon. J.W. Edmonds,</td><td align='left'> 1</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Was He Successful?</td><td align='left'> 48, 218, 360, 470, 610, 734</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Watching the Stag. Fitz-James O'Brien,</td><td align='left'>105</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Witches, Elves and Goblins,</td><td align='left'>184</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Wounded. Henry P. Leland,</td><td align='left'>206</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Word-Murder,</td><td align='left'>524</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="center"><img src="images/007.png" width="640" alt="title page" /></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3>CONTENTS.—No. VII.</h3> +<p> + <a href="#INDEX_TO_VOLUME_II">INDEX TO VOLUME II.</a><br /> + + <a href="#WHAT_SHALL_BE_THE_END">WHAT SHALL BE THE END?</a><br /> + <a href="#BONE_ORNAMENTS">BONE ORNAMENTS.</a><br /> + <a href="#THE_MOLLY_OMOLLY_PAPERS">THE MOLLY O'MOLLY PAPERS. No. V.</a><br /> + <a href="#GLANCES_FROM_THE_SENATE-GALLERY">GLANCES FROM THE SENATE-GALLERY.</a><br /> + <a href="#MACCARONI_AND_CANVAS">MACCARONI AND CANVAS. No. V.</a><br /> + <a href="#FOR_THE_HOUR_OF_TRIUMPH">FOR THE HOUR OF TRIUMPH.</a><br /> + <a href="#IN_TRANSITU">IN TRANSITU.</a><br /> + <a href="#AMONG_THE_PINES">AMONG THE PINES.</a><br /> + <a href="#WAS_HE_SUCCESSFUL">WAS HE SUCCESSFUL?</a><br /> + <a href="#NEWBERN_AS_IT_WAS_AND_IS">NEWBERN AS IT WAS AND IS.</a><br /> + <a href="#OUR_BRAVE_TIMES">OUR BRAVE TIMES.</a><br /> + <a href="#THE_CRISIS_AND_THE_PARTIES">THE CRISIS AND THE PARTIES.</a><br /> + <a href="#TAKING_THE_CENSUS">TAKING THE CENSUS.</a><br /> + <a href="#THE_PELOPONNESUS_IN_MARCH">THE PELOPONNESUS IN MARCH.</a><br /> + <a href="#ADONIUM">ADONIUM.</a><br /> + <a href="#POLYTECHNIC_INSTITUTES">POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTES.</a><br /> + <a href="#SLAVERY_AND_NOBILITY_vs_DEMOCRACY">SLAVERY AND NOBILITY vs. DEMOCRACY.</a><br /> + <a href="#STAG">WATCHING THE STAG</a><br /> +<a href="#LITERARY_NOTICES">LITERARY NOTICES.</a><br /> + <a href="#EDITORS_TABLE">EDITOR'S TABLE.</a><br /> + </p> + +<h4>SLAVERY AND NOBILITY vs. DEMOCRACY.</h4> + +<p>This article, written by a gentleman who, for fifteen years, was one of +the most prominent citizens of Texas, will be found worthy of most +attentive perusal.</p> + +<h4>WATCHING THE STAG</h4> + +<p>An unfinished Poem by <span class="smcap">Fitz-James O'Brien</span>, we give as it came wet from +the pen of its lamented author.</p> +<hr /> +<p> </p><p> </p> +<h4 class="smcap">the</h4> +<h3>CONTINENTAL MONTHLY:</h3> +<h4 class="smcap">devoted to</h4> +<h4>LITERATURE AND NATIONAL POLICY.</h4> +<hr style="margin-bottom:0" /> +<h4>Vol. II.—July, 1862.—No. 1.</h4> +<hr style="margin-top:0" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3><a name="WHAT_SHALL_BE_THE_END" id="WHAT_SHALL_BE_THE_END"></a>WHAT SHALL BE THE END?</h3> + + +<p>If we look to the development of slavery the past thirty years, we shall +see that the ideas of Calhoun respecting State Sovereignty have had a +mighty influence in gradually preparing the slave States for the course +which they have taken. Slavery, in its political power, has steadily +become more aggressive in its demands. A morbid jealousy of Northern +enterprise and thrift, with the contrast more vivid from year to year, +of the immeasurable superiority of free labor, has brought about a +growing aversion, in the South, to the free States, until with every +opportunity presented for pro-slavery extension, there has resulted the +present organized combination of slave States that have seceded from the +Union. When the mind goes back to the early formation of our Government +and the adoption of the Constitution, it will be found that an entire +revolution of opinion and feeling has taken place upon the subject of +slavery. From being regarded, as formerly, an evil by the South, it is +now proclaimed a blessing; from being viewed as opposed to the whole +spirit and teachings of the Bible, it is now thought to be of divine +sanction; from being regarded as opposed to political liberty, and the +elevation of the masses, the popular doctrine now is, that slavery is +the corner-stone of republican institutions, and essential for a manly +development of character upon the part of the white population. Formerly +slavery was looked upon as peculiarly pernicious to the diffusion of +wealth and the progress of national greatness; now the South is +intoxicated with ideas of the profitableness of slave labor, and the +power of King Cotton in controlling the exchanges of the world. And the +same change has taken place in relation to the African slave-trade. +While the laws of the land brand as piracy the capture of negroes upon +their native soil, and the transportation of them over the ocean, it is +nevertheless true that a mighty change in Southern opinion has taken +place in respect to the character of this business. It is not looked +upon with the same horror as formerly. It is apologized for, and in some +places openly defended as a measure indispensable to the prosperity of +the cotton States. As a natural inference from the theory of those who +hold to the views of Calhoun upon State sovereignty, the doctrine of +coercion in any form by the Federal Union is denounced, and to attempt +to put it in practice even so far as the protection of national property +<a name="Page_2" id="Page_2"></a>is concerned, is construed into a war upon the South. Thus, while it is +perfectly proper for the slave States to steal, and plunder the nation +of its property, to leave the Union at their pleasure, and to do every +thing in their power to destroy the unity of the National Government, it +is made out that to attempt to recover the property of the Federal Union +is unjustifiable aggression upon the slave States. Thus we see eleven +States in a confederate capacity openly making war upon the Federal +Government, and compelling it either into a disgraceful surrender of its +rights as guaranteed by the Constitution, or war for self-defense. Fort +Sumter was not allowed to be provisioned, nor was there any disposition +manifested to permit its possession in any manner honorable to the +Government, although its exclusive property. It must be surrendered +unconditionally, or be attacked.</p> + +<p>The worst feature connected with the secession movement is the hot haste +with which the most important questions connected with the interests of +the people are hurried through. The ordinance of secession is not fairly +submitted to the people, but a mere oligarchy of desperate men +themselves assume to declare war, and exercise all the prerogatives of +an independent and sovereign government. And yet the terms submitted in +the Crittenden Resolutions as a peace-offering to the seceding States to +win them back by concessions from the North, present a spectacle quite +as mournful for the cause of national unity and dignity as the open +rebellion of the seceding States. The professed aim of these States is +either a reconstruction of the Constitution in a way that shall +nationalize slavery and give it supreme control, or a forcible +disruption of the Union. What are the terms proposed that alone appear +to satisfy the South? They may be briefly comprehended in a short +extract from a speech delivered by Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, +February 21, 1861:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'But the Senator from Kentucky asks us of the North by irrepealable +constitutional amendments to recognize and protect slavery in the +Territories now existing, or hereafter acquired south of thirty-six +degrees, thirty minutes; to deny power to the Federal Government to +abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, in the forts, +arsenals, navy-yards, and places under the exclusive jurisdiction +of Congress; to deny the National Government all power to hinder +the transit of slaves through one State to another; to take from +persons of the African race the elective franchise, and to purchase +territory in South-America, or Africa, and send there, at the +expense of the Treasury of the United States, such free negroes as +the States may desire removed from their limits. And what does the +Senator propose to concede to us of the North? The prohibition of +slavery in Territories north of thirty-six degrees and thirty +minutes, where no one asks for its inhibition, where it has been +made impossible by the victory of Freedom in Kansas, and the +equalization of the fees of the slave Commissioners.'</p></div> + +<p>Here we have the true position in which the free States are placed +toward the slaveholding States. Seven States openly throw off all +allegiance to the Federal Union, do not even profess to be willing to +come back upon any terms, and then such conditions are proposed by the +other slaveholding States as leads to the repudiation of the +Constitution in its whole spirit and import upon the subject of slavery. +The alternative, in reality, is either civil war or the surrender of the +Constitution into the hands of pro-slavery men to be molded just as it +may suit their convenience. The price they ask for peace is simply the +liberty to have their own way, and that the majority should be willing +to submit to the minority. They aim for a reconstruction of the Union +that shall incorporate the Dred Scott decision into the whole policy of +the Government and make slavery the supreme power of the country, and +all other interests subservient to it. The North has its choice of two +evils—unconditional and unqualified submission to the demands of +slavery, or civil war. It is expected, since the country has yielded +step by step to the exactions of slavery ever since the Government was +instituted, that the free States will <a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"></a>keep on yielding until the South +has nothing more to ask for, and the North has nothing more to give. +With such a servile compliance, the free States are assured that they +will have no difficulty in keeping the peace. But the question to be +decided is: Is such a kind of peace worth the price demanded for it? May +it not be true that great as is the evil of civil war, it is less an +evil than an unresisting acquiescence to the exactions of slavery, and +the admission that any State that pleases can leave the Union? The +theory of secession involves, if admitted, a greater disaster to the +Federal Union than even the slow eating at its vitals of the cancer of +slavery. National unity, one country, the sovereignty of the +Constitution, are all sacrificed by secession. It involves in it either +the worst anarchy or the worst despotism. United, the States can stand, +and command the respect of the world, but secession is an enemy to the +country, the most cruel. Rev. Dr. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, most +forcibly says:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Every man who has any remaining loyalty to the nation, or any hope +and desire for the restoration of the seceding States to the +Confederacy, must see that what is meant by the outcry against +coërcion is in the interest, of secession, and that what is meant +is, in effect, that the Federal Government must be terrified or +seduced into complete coöperation with the revolution which it was +its most binding duty to have used all its power and influence to +prevent.'</p></div> + +<p>Jefferson Davis, in his late message, says: 'Let us alone, let us go, +and the sword drops from our hands.' But what does this involve? The +admission of the right of secession, which, as has been proved, is fatal +to all national unity and preservation. Even if this arrogant demand was +complied with, would peace be thus possible? Would not the breaking up +of the Union involve the people in calamities that no patience, or +wisdom upon the part of the North could avert? Remember a long border in +an open country, stretching from the Atlantic, possibly even to the +Pacific, is to be defended. Will the bordering people sink down from +war, and all its exasperations, and become as peaceful as lambs? +Constituted as human nature now is, will the dissolution of the Union +create with the great North and South the experience of millennium +prediction, 'The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall +lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and fatling +together; and a little child shall lead them'? Here is a line crossed by +great rivers; we are to shut up the mouth of the Chesapeake bay, on Ohio +and Western Virginia; we are to ask the Western States to give up the +mouth of the Mississippi to a foreign power. Is it reasonable to suppose +that no provocation will occur on this long frontier? Will no slaves run +away? What is to be gained by a dissolution of the Union? Not peace; for +if, when united, there exists such cause of dissension, the evil will be +tenfold greater when separated. Not national aggrandizement, for +division brings weakness, imbecility, and a loss of self-respect; it +invites aggressions from foreign powers, and compels to submission to +insults that otherwise would not be given. Not general competence, for +the South is quite as dependent upon the North as the North upon the +South.</p> + +<p>Disunion is a violent disruption of great material interests that now +are wedded together. The dream of separate State sovereignty, our great +Union split into two or more confederacies, prosperous and peaceable, is +Utopian. So far from the secession doctrine carried out leading to peace +and prosperity, it can only lead to perpetual war and adversity. The +request to be 'let alone,' is simply a request that the nation should +consent to see the Constitution and Union overthrown, slavery +triumphant, and the great problem that a free people can not choose its +own rulers against the will of a minority prove a disgraceful failure. +It is a request that a nation should purchase a temporary peace at the +price of all that is dear to its liberty and self-respect. The arrogance +of the demand '<i>to be let alone</i>,' is only equaled by the iniquity of +the means resorted to, to <a name="Page_4" id="Page_4"></a>break up the best Government under the sun. +The question of disunion, of separate State sovereignty, was fully +discussed by our fathers. Thus Hamilton, whose foresight history has +proved to be prophetic, says:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'If these States should be either wholly disunited, or only united +in partial Confederacies, a man must be far gone in Utopian +speculations, who can seriously doubt that the subdivisions into +which they might be thrown would have frequent and violent contests +with each other. To presume a want of motives for such contests, as +an argument against their existence, would be to forget that men +are ambitious, vindictive, and rapacious. To look for a +continuation of harmony between a number of independent, +unconnected sovereignties, situated in the same neighborhood, would +be to disregard the uniform course of human events, and to set at +defiance the accumulated experience of ages.'</p></div> + +<p>From a consideration of the true import of the Constitution, in relation +to slavery and the fallacy and wickedness of the doctrine of Secession, +we are now prepared to deduce, from what has been said, the following +reflections: First, the war in which the nation is now plunged should +have strictly for its great end, the restoration of the Constitution and +the Union to its original integrity; all side issues, all mere party +questions should be now merged in one mighty effort, one persevering and +self-sacrificing aim to maintain the Constitution and the Union. As +essential for this purpose, it is indispensable that all the rights +guaranteed to loyal citizens in the slave States should be respected. +The reason is two-fold. First, this war, upon the part of the North, is +for the maintenance of the Constitution as our fathers gave it to us. +Its object is not a crusade against slavery. What may be the results of +the war in relation to slavery is one thing; what should be the simple +purpose of the North is another. That this war, however it may turn, +will be disastrous to slavery, is evident from a great variety of +considerations. But that we should pretend to fight for the Constitution +and the Union, and yet against its express provisions, in respect to +those held in bondage by loyal citizens, is simply to act a part +subversive of the true intent of the Constitution. To violate its +provisions, in relation to loyal citizens South, is in the highest +degree impolitic and suicidal. It is the constant aim of the enemies now +in armed rebellion against the Union, to misrepresent the North upon +this very point. By systematic lying, they have induced thousands South +to believe that the election of Lincoln was designed as an act of war +upon slave institutions, and to subvert the Constitution that protects +them in all that they call their property.</p> + +<p>There is nothing that the rebels South are more anxious to see than the +Government adopting a policy that will give them a plausible pretense +for continuing in rebellion. The Constitution places the local +institution of slavery under the exclusive control of those States where +it exists. Its language, faithfully interpreted, is simply this: Your +own domestic affairs you have a right to manage as you please, so long +as you do not trespass upon the Union, or seek its ruin. All loyal +citizens should be encouraged to stand by the Union in every Southern +State, with the unequivocal declaration that all their rights will be +respected, and that their true safety, even as noblest interests, must +lie in upholding the North in the effort made to put down the vilest +rebellion under the sun. My second reflection is, that those South, who +are in armed rebellion against the Constitution and the Union, must make +up their minds to take what the fortune of war gives them. This +rebellion should be bandied without gloves. The North should permit +nothing to stand in the way of a complete and permanent triumph. As +Northern property is all confiscated South; as Union men there are +treated with the utmost barbarity; as nothing held by the lovers of the +Union is respected, the greatest injury in the end to the Constitution +and the Union is, an unwise clemency to armed rebellion. In this +death-struggle to test the vital question, <a name="Page_5" id="Page_5"></a>whether the majority shall +rule, let there be no holding back of money or men. Dear as war may be, +a dishonorable peace will prove much dearer. Great as may be the +sufferings of the camp and the battle-field, yet the prolonged tortures +of a murdered Union, a violated Constitution, and Secession rampant over +the country, will be found to be greater. My third reflection is, that +the main cause of our civil war is slavery. It has now assumed gigantic +proportions of mischief, and with its hand upon the very throat of the +Constitution and the Union, it seeks its death. The worst feature +connected with it has ever been, that it is satisfied with no +concession, and the more it has, the more it asks. By the very admission +of the chiefs of this rebellion, it is confessedly got up for the sake +of slavery, and to make it the corner-stone of the new Confederacy of +States. The real issue involved by the rebellion is, complete +independence of the North, the dissolution of the Union, and exclusive +possession of all the territories south of Mason and Dixon's line; or +reconstruction upon such conditions as would result in the repudiation +of the old Constitution, the nationalization of slavery, and giving +complete political control to a slaveholding minority of the country. +This rebellion has placed the North where it must conquer, for its own +best interests, and dignity, and the salvation of free institutions. It +must conquer, to command future friendship and that respect without +which Union itself is a mockery. Let the South see that the North can +not be beaten, and the universal consciousness of this fact will command +an esteem, and the useful fear of committing offense, that will do more +to keep the peace than all the abject professions or humble submissions +in the world. Having found out that the North not only is conscious of +its rights, but has the willingness and the ability to defend them, it +is certain that the country will yet have as much peace, general thrift, +and noble enterprise with the onward march of virtue and intelligence, +as may be reasonably expected of any community upon the face of the +earth.<br /><br /></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h3><a name="BONE_ORNAMENTS" id="BONE_ORNAMENTS">BONE ORNAMENTS.</a></h3> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Silent the lady sat alone:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">In her ears were rings of dead men's bone;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">The brooch on her breast shone white and fine,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">'Twas the polished joint of a Yankee's spine;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">And the well-carved handle of her fan,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Was the finger-bone of a Lincoln man.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">She turned aside a flower to cull,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">From a vase which was made of a human skull;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">For to make her forget the loss of her slaves,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Her lovers had rifled dead men's graves.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Do you think I'm describing a witch or ghoul?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">There are no such things—and I'm not a fool;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Nor did she reside in Ashantee;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">No—the lady fair was an F.F.V.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6"></a></p> +<h3><a name="THE_MOLLY_OMOLLY_PAPERS" id="THE_MOLLY_OMOLLY_PAPERS"></a>THE MOLLY O'MOLLY PAPERS.</h3> + +<h4>V.</h4> + + +<p>'Hearts are trumps,' is a gambler's cant phrase. That depends on the +game you are playing. In many of the games of life the true trump cards +are Diamonds; which, according to the fortune-teller's lore, stand for +wealth. Indeed, Hearts are by many considered so valueless that they are +thrown away at the very outset; whereas they should, like trumps, only +be played as a last resort. No trick that can be won with any other +card, should be taken with a heart—the card will be gone and nothing to +show for it. If you wish wealth, win it if you can—honestly, of +course—but don't throw in the heart. Are you ambitious—would you win +honor? Very well, if for political honor you can endure it to be spit +upon by the crowd, to have all manner of abuse heaped on you and your +<i>forbears</i> to the remotest generation—a ceremony that in Africa follows +the election, but is 'preliminary to the crowning,' but in this country +is preliminary to the election—but if you can make up your mind to pass +through this ordeal, well and good—but don't throw in the heart.... Yet +in games on which is staked all that is worth playing for, 'hearts <i>are</i> +trumps;' and he who holds the lowest card, stands a better chance of +winning than he who has none, though in his hand may be all the aces of +the others, diamonds included. But, lest I go too far beyond the +analogy—as I might ignorantly do, being unskilled in the many games of +cards—I will drop the figurative.... Keep your heart for faith, love, +friendship, for God, your country, and truth. And where the heart is +given, it should be unreservedly. Its allegiance is too often withheld +where it is due, yet this is better than a half-way loyalty; there +should be no <i>if</i>, followed by self-interest.... The seal of confederate +nobles, opposed to some measures of Peter IV. of Aragon, 'represents the +king sitting on his throne, with the confederates kneeling in a +suppliant attitude, around, to denote their loyalty and unwillingness to +offend. But in the back-ground, tents and lines of spears are +discovered, as a hint of their ability and resolution to defend +themselves.' ... This kind of allegiance no true heart will ever give.</p> + +<p>I take it for granted that you have a heart—not merely anatomically +speaking, an organ to circulate the blood, but a something that prompts +you to love, to self-sacrifice, to scorn of meanness, and, it may be, to +good, honest hatred. All metals can be separated from their ores; but +meanness is inseparable from some natures, so it is impossible to hate +the sin without hating the sinner; we can't, indeed, conceive of it in +the abstract. I don't mean hate in a malignant sense—here I may as well +express my scorn of that sly hatred that is too cowardly to knock a man +down, but quietly trips him up.</p> + +<p>It is well enough for those who think that 'life is a jest,' (and a +bitter, sarcastic one it must be to them,) to mock at all nobler +feelings and sentiments of the heart. None do they more contemn than +friendship. I would not 'sit in the seat' of these 'scornful,' however +they may have found false friends. Yet every man capable of a genuine +friendship himself, will in this world find at least one true friend. +Oxygen, which comprises one fifth of the atmosphere, is said to be +highly magnetic; and any ordinary, healthy soul can extract magnetism +enough from the very air he breathes to draw at least one other soul. +Some people have an amazing power of absorption and retention of this +magnetism. You feel irresistibly drawn toward them—and it is all right, +for they are noble, true souls. There is a great difference between +their attractive force and that kind of 'power of charming' innocence +that villainy often has—just <a name="Page_7" id="Page_7"></a>as I once saw a cat charm a bird, which +circled nearer and nearer till it almost brushed the cat's whiskers—and +had he not been chased away, he would have that day daintily +lunched—and there would have been one songster less to join in that +evening's vespers.</p> + +<p>False——s there are—I will not call them false <i>friends</i>—this noun +should never follow that adjective. To what shall I liken them—to the +young gorilla, that even while its master is feeding it, looks +trustingly in his face and thrusts forth its paw to tear him? Who blames +the gorilla? Torn from its dam, caged or chained, it owes its captor a +grudge. To the serpent? The story of the warming of the serpent in the +man's bosom, is a mere fable. No man was ever fool enough to warm a +serpent in his bosom. And the serpent never crosses the path of man if +he can help it. The most deadly is that which is too sluggish to get out +of his way—therefore bites in self-defense. And the serpent generally +gives some warning hiss, or a rattle. Indeed, almost every animal gives +warning of its foul intent. The shark turns over before seizing its +prey. But the false friend (I am obliged to couple these words) takes +you in without changing his side.... In truth, a man, if he has a vice, +be it treachery or any other, goes a little beyond the other animals, +even those of which it is characteristic. We say, for instance, of a +treacherous man, <i>He is a serpent</i>; but it would be hyperbole to call a +serpent <i>a treacherous man</i>.</p> + +<p>But these false friends, who deceive you out of pure malignity, who +would rather injure you than not, who, perhaps, have an old, by you +long-forgotten, grudge, and become your apparent friends to pay you +back—these are few. Human nature, with all its depravity, is seldom so +completely debased. But there are many who are only selfishly your +friends. When you most need their friendship, where is it? When some +great calamity sweeps over you, and, bowed and weakened, you would lean +on this friendship, though it were but a 'broken reed,' you stretch +forth your hand—feel but empty space.</p> + +<p>Then there are some who let go the hand of a friend because they feel +sure of him, to grasp the extended hand of a former enemy. Politicians, +especially, do this. An enemy can not so easily be transformed into a +friend. As in those paintings of George III., on tavern-signs, after the +Revolution changed to George Washington, there will still be the same +old features.... The opposite of this is what every generous nature has +tried. To revive a dying friendship, this is impossible. If you find +yourself losing your friendship for a person, there must be some reason +for it. If the former dear name is becoming indistinct on the tablet of +your heart, the attempt to re-write it will entirely obliterate it. It +is said that a sure way to obliterate any writing, is to attempt to +re-write it.... But it is not true that 'hot love soon cools.' With all +my faults—and to say that I am an O'Molly is to admit that I have +faults, and I am not sure that I would wish to be without them. To speak +paradoxically, a fault in some cases does better than a virtue—as on +some organs 'the wrong note in certain passages has a better effect than +the right.' But, as I was saying, with all my faults, I have never yet +changed toward a friend; I will not admit even to the ante-chamber of my +heart a single thought untrue to my friend. Though it is true my friends +are so few that I could more than count them on my fingers, had I but +one hand.... And these few friends—what shall I say of them? They have +become so a part of my constant thoughts and feelings, so a part of +myself, that I can not project them—if I may so speak—from my own +interior self, so as to portray them. Have you not such friends? Are +there none whom to love has become so a <i>habit</i> of your life that you +are almost unconscious of it—that you hardly think of it, any more than +you think—<i>'I breathe'</i>?</p> + +<p>There is probably no one who has not some time in his or her life felt +the <a name="Page_8" id="Page_8"></a>dreariness of fancied friendliness. I can recall in my own +experience at least one time when this dreary feeling came over me. It +was during a twilight walk home from a visit. I can convey to you no +idea of the utter loneliness of the unloved feeling; it seemed that not +even the love of God was mine, or if it was, there was not individuality +enough in it; it was so diffused; this one, whom I disliked—that +insignificant person, might share in it. I know not how long I indulged +in these thoughts, with my eyes on the ground, or seeing all things 'as +though I saw them not,' but when I did raise them to take cognizance of +any thing, there was, a few degrees above the horizon, the evening star; +it shone as entirely on me as though it shone on me <i>exclusively</i>. It is +thus, I thought, with <i>His</i> love; thus it melts into each individual +soul. Such gentle thoughts as these, long after the star had sunk behind +the western mountains, were a calm light in my soul. And I awoke the +next morning, the old cheerful</p> + +<p class='author'><span class="smcap">Molly O'Molly</span>.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h4>VI.</h4> + + +<p>I have often thought what splendid members of the diplomatic corps women +would make, especially married women. As much delicate management is +required of them, they have as much financiering to do as any minister +plenipotentiary of them all. Let a woman once have an object in view, +and 'o'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense or rare; with +head, hands, or feet, <i>she</i> pursues <i>her</i> way, and swims, or sinks, or +wades, or creeps, or flies;' but <i>she attains her object</i>.</p> + +<p>You poor, hood-winked portion of humanity—man—you think you know +woman; that she 'can't pull the wool over your eyes.' Just take a +retrospective view. Did your wife ever want any thing that she didn't +somehow get it? Whether a new dress, or the dearest secret of your soul, +she either, Delilah-like, wheedled it out of you, or, in a passion, you +almost <i>flung</i> it at her, as an enraged monkey flings cocoa-nuts at his +tormentor.</p> + +<p>And how she has changed your habits, has turned the course of your life, +made it flow in the channel <i>she</i> wished, instead of, as heretofore, +'wandering at its own sweet will,' as the gently-winding but useless +brook has been converted into a mill-race.</p> + +<p>There is Mr. Jones. Before he married, as free and easy a man as ever +smoked a meerschaum. Mrs. Jones is considered a pattern woman; but of +that you can judge for yourself. Her first reformation was in regard to +his club, from which he returned home late, redolent of brandy-punch, +and lavish of <i>my dears</i>. All she could say to him had no effect, till, +after the birth of little Nellie, she joined a Ladies' Reading Society, +meeting on his club evening; he wouldn't leave the baby to the care of a +servant, consequently staid at home himself.</p> + +<p>He was also in the habit of resorting to the gymnasium, ostensibly for +exercise, as he was dyspeptic; but his wife suspected it was more to +meet his old cronies. Finding retrenchment necessary, and looking on +gymnastics somewhat as a Yankee looks on a fine stream that turns no +mill, she dismissed one of the servants, and so arranged it that the +surplus strength that formerly so ran to waste should make the fires, +rock the cradle, and split certain hickory logs. Very soon Mr. Jones, +who is a lawyer, found his business so much increased that he was +obliged to remain in his office all day, except at meal-time; after +which, however heartily he might have eaten, he never complained of +indigestion. With this, thrifty Mrs. Jones was delighted, till one day +she surprised him in his office, enveloped in tobacco-smoke, with +elevated feet, reading a nice new novel; you may be sure that after +that, she insisted on the exercise. As their family increased, thinking +still further retrenchment necessary, she gently broached the +relinquishing of the meerschaum. Finding him obstinate in his +opposition, she one day acci<a name="Page_9" id="Page_9"></a>dentally broke it. It was one that he had +been coloring for years; he had devoted time and attention to it, that, +if properly directed, might have made him a German philosopher, an +antiquary, or a profound theologian; or, if devoted to his law studies, +would have fitted him for Chief-Justice of the United States.</p> + +<p>The countryman who mistook for a bell-rope the cord attached to a +shower-bath, was not more astonished at the result of pulling it, than +she was at the result of this trifling accident. Such an overwhelming +torrent of abuse as was poured on her devoted head; such an array of +offenses as was marshaled before her; Banquo's issue wasn't a +circumstance to the shadowy throng. She had recourse to woman's only +means of assuaging the angry passions of man—tears, (you know the +region of constant precipitation is a perpetual calm;) but these, +instead of operating like oil poured on the troubled waters, were rather +like oil thrown on the fire. Pleading her delicate health, she hinted +that his unkindness would kill her, and that, when she was gone, her +sweet face would haunt him. Muttering something about one consolation, +ghosts couldn't speak till spoken to, and he was sure he wouldn't break +the spell of silence, he picked up his hat and strode out of the house, +slamming the door after him. For a while, Mrs. Jones was struck with +consternation; she felt somewhat as the woman must have felt who, in +attempting to pull up a weed, overturned the monument that crushed her; +and, though not quite crushed by the weight of Mr. Jones's indignation, +she only resolved to give no more tugs at the weed that had taken such +deep root in his heart; and that, if he brought home another meerschaum, +(which he did that evening,) it was best to ignore its existence. Mrs. +Jones says she believes that the meerschaum absorbs 'the disagreeable' +of a man's temper, as it is said to absorb that of tobacco; at least, +her husband is never so serene as when smoking one. Indeed, it is said +that the fiercest birds of prey can be tamed by tobacco-smoke.</p> + +<p>Don't think that after this little <i>contretemps</i> all Mrs. Jones's +authority was at an end; no, indeed; though she had, by stroking the +wrong way the docile, domestic animal, roused him into a tiger, she +hastened to smooth him down; and time would fail me to give even a list +of her reforms.</p> + +<p>After having heard her story, as I did, chiefly from her own lips, my +wonder at the immense Union army, raised on such short notice, was +considerably diminished. 'Extremes meet.' Probably Union and disunion +sentiments met in the mind of many a volunteer Jones. Then, too, I used +to wonder at the ease with which men apparently forget their buried +wives, and marry again; and, as I then had a great respect for the race, +thought their hearts must be very rich, new affections spring up with +such amazing rapidity; like the soil of the tropics, whose vegetation is +hardly cut down before there is a new, luxuriant growth. I've, however, +since come to the conclusion, that the poor man, somehow feeling that he +must marry, chooses in a manner at random, having, the first time, taken +the greatest care, and 'caught a Tartar,' in the same sense that the man +had with whom the phrase originated, that is, <i>the Tartar had caught +him</i>.</p> + +<p>In my childhood I was particularly fond of the hoidenish amusement of +jumping out of our high barn-window, and landing on the straw +underneath. The first few times I went to the edge—then drew +back—looked again—almost sprang—again stepped back—till finally I +took the leap. Thus old bachelors take the matrimonial leap—not so +widowers—how is it to be accounted for? Well, brother man, (for this is +the nearest relationship to you that I can claim,) you do about as well +in this way as in any other. You are destined to be taken in as +effectually as was Jonah, when he made that 'exploration of the +interior,' or, as was the fly, when Dame<a name="Page_10" id="Page_10"></a> Spider's 'parlor' proved to be +a dining-room.</p> + +<p>Sam Slick says that 'man is common clay—woman porcelain.' Alas! there +is but little genuine porcelain. It is a pity that you couldn't contrive +to have a few jars before matrimony, to crack off some of the glazing, +and show the true character of the ware.</p> + +<p>And you, sister woman, learn a lesson from the 'tiny nautilus,' which, +'by yielding, can defy the most violent ragings of the sea.' And, though +man is so nicely adapted to your management that it is obviously the end +of his creation, remember Mrs. Jones's trifling miscalculation in regard +to the meerschaum, and—<i>'N'évéillez pas le chat qui dort.'</i></p> + +<p class='author'>Abruptly yours, <span class="smcap">Molly O'Molly</span>.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="GLANCES_FROM_THE_SENATE-GALLERY" id="GLANCES_FROM_THE_SENATE-GALLERY"></a>GLANCES FROM THE SENATE-GALLERY.</h3> + + +<p>The comparative excellence of different periods of eloquence and +statesmanship affords a subject of curious and profitable contemplation. +The action of different systems of government, encouraging or depressing +intellectual effort, the birth of occasions which elicit the powers of +great minds, and the peculiar characteristics of the manner of thinking +and speaking in different countries, are observable in considering this +topic. A pardonable curiosity has led the writer frequently to visit the +United States Senate Chamber, and to place mentally the intellectual +giants of that body in contrast with their predecessors on the same +scene, and with the eminent orators and statesmen of other countries and +other ages; and the result of such comparisons has always been to awaken +national pride, and to convince that the polity bequeathed us by our +fathers, no less than the distinctive genius of the race, have +practically demonstrated that a free system is the most prolific in the +production of animated oratory and vigorous statesmanship. Undoubtedly, +the golden age of American eloquence must be fixed in the time of +General Jackson, when Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Rives, Woodbury, and Hayne +sat in the Upper House; and whatever may be our wonder, when we +contemplate the brilliant orations of the British statesmen who shone +toward the close of the last century, if we turn from Burke to Webster, +from Pitt to Calhoun, from Fox to Clay, and from Sheridan to Randolph +and to Rives, Americans can not be disappointed by the comparison. Since +the death of the last of that illustrious trio, whose equality of powers +made it futile to award by unanimity the superiority to either, and yet +whose greatness of intellect placed them by common assent far above all +others, the eloquence of the Senate has been less brilliant and less +interesting. And yet it has not fallen below a standard of eloquence +equal, if not superior, to that of any other nation. Unlike the English +and the French, who have to go back more than half a century to deplore +their greatest Senators and Ministers, the grave closed over the +greatest American intellects within the memory of the present +generation; and the contrast between the Senate of to-day and the Senate +of a score of years ago, is too striking, perhaps, to give us an +impartial idea of the abilities which now guide the nation.</p> + +<p>The Senate which is at present deliberating on the gravest questions +which our legislature has been called upon to consider since the +establishment of the Constitution, is, without doubt, inferior in point +of eminent talent, to the Senate of Webster's time, and even to the +Senate which closed its labors on the day of Mr. Lincoln's inauguration. +In this latter body were three men, who, though far below the great trio +preceding them, still occupied in a measure their commanding influence +on the floor and be<a name="Page_11" id="Page_11"></a>fore the country: one of whom now holds an Executive +office, another sits in the Lower House, and the third has passed away +from the scenes of his triumphs forever. Mr. Seward, whose keen logic, +accurate statement of details, and imperturbable coolness, remind one of +Pitt and Grey, was considered, while Senator from New-York, as the +leading Statesman of the body, and was the nucleus around which +concentrated the early adherents of the now dominant party. Mr. +Crittenden's fervent and earnest declamation, wise experience, and +good-nature, gave him a high rank in the respect and esteem of his +colleagues, while his age and life-long devotion to the service of the +state, endowed him with unusual authority. The lamented Douglas, who +surpassed every other American statesman in casual discussion, and whose +name will rank with that of Fox, in the art of extempore debate, could +not fail to be the leader of a large party, and the popular idol of a +large mass, by the manly energy of his character, his devotion to +popular principles, and a rich and sonorous eloquence, which convinced +while it delighted.</p> + +<p>It must also in candor be admitted, that the secession of the Southern +Senators from the floor, made a decided breach in the oratorical +excellence of that body. However villainous their statesmanship, and to +whatever traitorous purposes they lent the power of their eloquence, +there were several from the disaffected States who were eminent in a +skillful and brilliant use of speech. Probably the man who possessed the +most art in eloquence, and who united a keen and plausible sophistry +with great brilliancy of language and declamation with the highest +skill, was Benjamin, of Louisiana. Born a Hebrew, and bearing in his +countenance the unmistakable indications of Jewish birth, his person is +small, thick, and ill-proportioned; his expression is far less +intellectual than betokening cunning, while his whole manner fails to +give the least idea, when he is not speaking, of the wonderful powers of +his mind.</p> + +<p>Shrewd and unprincipled, devoting himself earnestly and without the +least scruple of conscience to two objects—the acquisition of money and +the success of treason—he yet concealed the true character of his +designs under an apparently ingenuous and fervent delivery, and in the +garb of sentiments worthy a Milton or a Washington. His voice, deeply +musical, and uncommonly sweet, enhanced the admiration with which one +viewed his matchless delivery, in which was perfect grace, and entire +harmony with the expressions which fell from his lips. How mournful a +sight, to see one so nobly gifted, leading a life of baseness and vice, +devoting his immortal qualities to the vilest selfishness, and to the +betrayal of his country and of liberty! Should the descendant of an +oppressed and persecuted race take part with oppressors? Senator +Benjamin is a renegade to the spirit of freedom which animated his +ancestors.</p> + +<p>He who, among the Southern Senators, ranked as an orator next to +Benjamin, now leads the rebellious hosts against the flag under which he +was reared, and lends his unquestioned powers to the demolition of the +great Republic of which he was once a brilliant ornament. Certainly +endowed with more forethought and practical wisdom than any of his +Democratic colleagues, well qualified by his calm survey of every +question and every political movement, to lead a large party, and +forcible and ironical in debate, Jefferson Davis stood at the head of +the disaffected in the Senate, as he now does in the field. Cautious and +deliberate in speech, he yet never failed to launch out in strong +invective, and to make effective use of irony in his attacks. He is in +personal appearance, rather small and thin, with a refined and decidedly +intellectual countenance, and a not unamiable expression. His health +alone prevented his rising to the first rank of American orators; and +what of his statesmanship was not directed to the accomplishment of +partisan purposes, gave him much consider<a name="Page_12" id="Page_12"></a>ation. He was incapable, from +a weak constitution, of sustaining, at great length, the vivacity and +energy with which he commenced his speeches; and therefore, their sharp +sarcasm and great power, made them appear more considerable in print +than in the delivery. Even after he had enlisted all his energies in the +detestable scheme which he is now trying to fulfill, his prudence halted +at the rash idea he had embraced; and he attempted for a moment to stem +the torrent, by voting for the Crittenden propositions. His delivery was +graceful and dignified, his manner sometimes courteous, often +contemptuous, and always impressive. His eloquence consisted rather in +the lucid logic and deliberate thought evinced than for rhetorical +beauty or range of imagination; occasionally, however, he would diverge +from the plain thread of argument, and rise to declamation of striking +brilliancy and power. Over-quick, with all his natural phlegm, to +discern and to resent personal affronts—oftentimes when there was no +occasion therefor—he was a favorable exemplar of that peculiar, and to +our mind, somewhat incomprehensible quality, which the Southern people +glory in, and which they dignify by the stately epithet of 'chivalry.' +On the whole, he must be regarded as the ablest, and therefore the most +culpable and dangerous of the insurgent leaders; and he may, perhaps, be +considered the first of Southern statesmen since the time of Calhoun.</p> + +<p>Another Senator who occupied a high rank as a partisan and statesman +among the Southern Democracy, was Hunter, of Virginia. He is a +thickly-built person, with a countenance possessing but little +expression, and far from intellectual; and would rather be noticed by +one sitting in the gallery for the negligence of his dress, utter want +of dignity, and exceedingly unsenatorial bearing, than for any other +external qualities. But when he had spoken a few moments, a decided +soundness of head, and shrewdness, appeared to enter into the +composition of his mind. No man in the Senate had a juster idea of +financial philosophy; and his services on the Committee devoted to that +department, were highly appreciated by every one. He was, however, +little trusted by loyal Senators, and his frequent professions of +devotion to the Union, failed to conceal the bent of his mind toward +those with whom he is now in intimate concert. Sincerity had least place +of all the virtues in his breast; and his hypocrisy, somewhat hidden by +the apparent ingenuousness and conciliatory address of his manner, +became manifest in actions and votes, rather than in words. He was, so +far as can now be ascertained, one of the prime movers of the Senatorial +cabal, or caucus, which was devoted either to the complete dominance of +the Southern element in the Union, or to their forcible secession from +the Union; and was probably as active and earnest a traitor, long before +the doctrine of secession was ventured upon, as the most fiery of +South-Carolina fire-eaters. Mr. Hunter is, in private, courteous and +affable, and, indeed, in the debates in which he took part, he never +transgressed the rules of respect due to his colleagues, or violated the +dicta of parliamentary etiquette.</p> + +<p>His colleague, Mason, is an irritable, petulant, arrogant man, not +without a certain ability in debate, but censorious, and unconfined by +the restraints of decency in his tirades against the North. He was 'one +of the finest-looking men,' if we speak phrenologically, in the last +Senate; and would always be noticed for his dignified manner and fine +head, by a stranger visiting the Chamber for the first time. We have +briefly noticed him, rather on account of the notoriety recently +attached to his name by the 'Trent' affair, than from his prominence +among Southern orators and statesmen—his talent, being, in fact, of a +decidedly mediocre description.</p> + +<p>While speaking of Mason, it will be <i>apropos</i> to allude to his late +companion in trouble, John Slidell, who was certainly the shrewdest +politician and party tactician among his friends on the north <a name="Page_13" id="Page_13"></a>side of +the chamber; he is indeed the Nestor of intriguers. From the time when, +early in life, he aspired to, and in a degree succeeded in controlling +the politics of the Empire City, up to this hour, when he is with +snake-like subtleness attempting to poison French honor, his career has +been a series of successful intrigues. Utterly devoid of moral +principle, he resembles his late colleague, Benjamin, in the immorality +of his life, and the baseness of his ends, attained by as base means. He +is rather a good-looking man, short, with snowy-white hair and red face, +his countenance indicative of the secretiveness and cunning of his +character. He was rather the caucus adviser and manager than one of the +orators of his party; seldom speaking, and never except briefly and to +the point. Imagination in him has been warped and made torpid by a life +of dissipation, as well as by his practical tendencies. He is, like many +other Southern statesmen, courteous and pleasing in social conversation; +but is heartless, selfish, and malignant in his enmities.</p> + +<p>Robert Toombs stood deservedly high in the traitorous cabal in the +Senate; for, to a bold and energetic spirit, great arrogance of manner, +and activity, he added a powerful mind and a clear head. In the street, +he would strike you as a self-conceited, bullying, contemptuous person, +with brains in the inverse proportion to his body, which was large and +apparently strong. His manner, when addressing the Senators, had indeed +much of an overbearing and insolent spirit; but the impression, in +regard to his character, after hearing him speak, was much better than +before. There was an indication of strength behind the bullying, +blustering air which he put on, which raised one's respect for his +attainments. One of the most rabid and uncompromising of secession +leaders, and bigoted in his hatred of the North, he was yet, in private, +a courteous and hospitable gentleman, and, apparently at least, frank in +the expression of opinion. Probably he had as little principle in +political and social life as most of his associates in treason; while +his great self-reliance, activity, and mental ability gave him a very +high position in their confidence. He was tall and stout, though not +corpulent; and was very negligent of his toilet and dress. Self-conceit +was written on his countenance, and displayed itself in his arrogant +assumptions of superiority. But his method of dealing with his Northern +opponents was open and bold, although insolent and overbearing, and not +like Hunter, Davis, and Benjamin, using ingenious sophistry and hidden +sarcasm, cautiously smoothing over their real purpose, by rhetoric and +elegant sentiment. Mr. Toombs became early an object of peculiar dislike +to Northern men, by the rude ingenuousness with which he announced the +last conclusions of his political creed, and the intolerable insolence +with which, not heeding the admonitions of his more cautious +confederates, he thundered out his anathemas of hatred and vengeance on +what he was pleased to call 'Northern tyranny.' It was only when the +crisis came, that others unfolded together their base character and +their hypocrisy. Davis, who had been fondled by New-Englanders but a +year or two since, and Hunter, who had cried for peace and compromise, +standing forth at last in the true light of traitors, and thereby +proclaiming their past life a game of hypocrisy. Toombs, therefore, who +was an original fire-eater, and hence could not be called a hypocrite, +has become less an object of hatred to us of the loyal States, than +those who, while they sat at the cabinet councils, or were admitted to +the confidence of the Executive, or were sent to foreign courts, or +presided over the Upper House, were using the power of such high trusts +for the consummation of a conspiracy against their country, yet +retaining the cant of patriotism and feigning a devotion to the Union. +We have dwelt almost exclusively, in the present chapter, upon Senators +whose highest honors have been tarnished or obliterated by the gravest +of crimes, that of treason <a name="Page_14" id="Page_14"></a>toward a vast community. But it has been +with the idea that the least should be presented first, and that the +greater should close the scene; as in royal processions, the monarch +always brings up the rear. We conceive that the great talents which we +have acknowledged, and which doubtless all will agree with us in +acknowledging, the leaders of the Southern rebellion to possess, only +enhance the magnitude of their offense, and serve to illustrate with +greater force the enormity of their purposes. That a brainless fanatic +like Lord George Gordon, or the Neapolitan fisherman, Massaniello, +should stir up tremendous agitation, may be matter for critical study, +but is hardly a subject of wonder. But that men gifted with exalted +ability, undoubted caution, well-balanced intellect, and apparently +refined reason, all of which have been appreciated and acknowledged, +should propound an erroneous doctrine of a chaotic system, and proceed +to the violence of civil war, on what they must know to be a false and +heretical plea, can only remind us of those devils who have been +pictured by the matchless art of Milton, of Dante, and of Goethe, as +possessing stately intellects with perfectly vicious hearts. We propose, +in a future number, if these remarks on public characters are +acceptable, to continue our remarks, by introducing the loyal Senators +of the last Congress, a band of men who will be found to equal in +talent, and immeasurably to surpass in moral rectitude and earnest +patriotism, the bad company from whom we now part.</p> + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + +<h2><a name="MACCARONI_AND_CANVAS" id="MACCARONI_AND_CANVAS"></a>MACCARONI AND CANVAS.</h2> + +<h4>V.</h4> + +<h4>THE GRECO.</h4> + + +<p>The Café Greco, like the belle of many seasons, lights up best at night. +In morning, in <i>deshabille</i>, not all the venerability of its age can +make it respectable. Caper declares that on a fresh, sparkling day, in +the merry spring-time, he once really enjoyed a very early breakfast +there; and that, with the windows of the Omnibus-room open, the fresh +air blowing in, and the sight of a pretty girl at the fourth-story +window of a neighboring house, feeding a bird and tending a rose-bush, +the old café was rose-colored.</p> + +<p>This may be so; but seven o'clock in the evening was <i>the</i> time when the +Greco was in its prime. Then the front-room was filled with Germans, the +second room with Russians and English, the third room—the Omnibus—with +Americans, English, and French, and the fourth, or back-room, was brown +with Spaniards. The Italians were there, in one or two rooms, but in a +minority; only those who affected the English showed themselves, and +aired their knowledge of the Anglo-Saxon tongue and habits.</p> + +<p>'I habituate myself,' said a red-haired Italian of the Greco to Caper, +'to the English customs. I myself lave with hot water from foot to head, +one time in three weeks, like the English. It is an idea of the most +superb, and they tell me I am truly English for so performing. I have +not yet arrive to perfection in the lessons of box, but I have a smart +cove of a bool-dog.'</p> + +<p>Caper told him that his resemblance to an English 'gent' was perfect, at +which the Italian, ignorant of the meaning of that fearful word, smiled +assent.</p> + +<p>The waiter has hardly brought you your small cup of <i>caffe nero</i>, and +you are preparing to light a cigar, to smoke while you drink your +coffee, when there comes before you a wandering bouquet-<a name="Page_15" id="Page_15"></a>seller. It is, +perhaps, the dead of winter; long icicles are hanging from fountains, +over which hang frosted oranges, frozen myrtles, and frost-nipped +olives, Alas! such things are seen in Rome; and yet, for a dime you are +offered a bouquet of camellia japonicas. By the way, the name camellia +is derived from <i>Camellas</i>, a learned Jesuit; probably <i>La Dame aux +Camélias</i> had not a similar origin. You don't want the flowers.</p> + +<p>'Signore,' says the man, 'behold a ruined flower-merchant!'</p> + +<p>You are unmoved. Have you not seen or heard of, many a time, the +heaviest kind of flour-merchants ruined by too heavy speculations, burst +up so high the crows couldn't fly to them; and heard this without +changing a muscle of your face?</p> + +<p>'But, signore, do buy a bouquet to please your lady?'</p> + +<p>'Haven't one.'</p> + +<p>'<i>Altro</i>!' answers the man, triumphantly, 'whom did I see the other day, +with these eyes, (pointing at his own,) in a magnificent carriage, +beside the most beautiful <i>Donna Inglesa</i> in Rome? <i>Iddio giusto</i>!'.... +At this period, he sees he has made a ten strike, and at once follows it +up by knocking down the ten-pin boy, so as to clear the alley, thus: +'For <i>her</i> sake, signore.'</p> + +<p>You pay a paul, (and give the bouquet to—your landlady's daughter,) +while the departing <i>mercante di fiori</i> assures you that he never, no, +never expects to make a fortune at flowers; but if he gains enough to +pay for his wine, he will be very tipsy as long as he lives!</p> + +<p>Then comes an old man, with a chessboard of inlaid stone, which he +hasn't an idea of selling; but finds it excellent to 'move on,' without +being checkmated as a beggar without visible means of s'port. The first +time he brought it round, and held it out square to Caper, that cool +young man, taking a handful of coppers from his pocket, arranged them as +checkers on the board, without taking any notice of the man; and after +he had placed them, began playing deliberately. He rested his chin on +his hand, and with knitted brows, studied several intricate moves; he +finally jumped the men, so as to leave a copper or two on the board; and +bidding the old man good-night, continued a conversation with Rocjean, +commenced previous to his game of draughts.</p> + +<p>Next approaches a hardware—merchant, for, in Imperial Rome, the peddler +of a colder clime is a merchant, the shoemaker an artist, the artist a +professor. The hardware-man looks as if he might be 'touter' to a +broken-down brigand. All the razors in his box couldn't keep the small +part of his face that is shaved from wearing a look as if it had been +blown up with gunpowder, while the grains had remained embedded there. +He tempts you with a wicked-looking knife, the pattern for which must +have come from the <i>litreus</i> of Etruria, the land called the <i>mother of +superstitions</i>, and have been wielded for auguries amid the howls and +groans of lucomones and priests. He tells you it is a Campagna-knife, +and that you must have one if you go into that benighted region; he says +this with a mysterious shake of his head, as if he had known Fra Diavolo +in his childhood and Fra 'Tonelli in his riper years. The +crescent-shaped handle is of black bone; the pointed blade long and +tapering; the three notches in its back catch into the spring with a +noise like the alarum of a rattle-snake. You conclude to buy one—for a +curiosity. You ask why the blade at the point finishes off in a circle? +He tells you the government forbids the sale of sharp-pointed knives; +but, signore, if you wish to <i>use it</i>, break off the circle under your +heel, and you have a point sharp enough to make any man have an +<i>accidente di freddo</i>, (death from cold—steel.)</p> + +<p>Victor Hugo might have taken his character of Quasimodo from the wild +figure who now enters the Greco, with a pair of horns for sale; each +horn is nearly a yard in length, black and white in color; they have +been polished by the hunchback until they shine like glass. Now he +approaches you, and with deep, rough voice, reminding you <a name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></a>of the lowing +of the large grey oxen they once belonged to, begs you to buy them. Then +he facetiously raises one to each side of his head, and you have a +figure that Jerome Bosch would have rejoiced to transfer to canvas. His +portrait has been painted by more than one artist.</p> + +<p>Caper, sitting in the Omnibus one evening with Rocjean, was accosted by +a very seedy-looking man, with a very peculiar expression of face, +wherein an awful struggle of humor to crowd down pinching poverty +gleamed brightly. He offered for sale an odd volume of one of the early +fathers of the Church. Its probable value was a dime, whereas he wanted +two dollars for it.</p> + +<p>'Why do you ask such a price?' asked Rocjean, 'you never can expect to +sell it for a twentieth part of that.'</p> + +<p>'The moral of which,' said the seedy man, no longer containing the +struggling humor, but letting it out with a hearty laugh; 'the moral of +which is—give me half a baioccho!'</p> + +<p>Ever after that, Caper never saw the man, who henceforth went by the +name of <i>La Morale é un Mezzo Baioccho</i>! without pointing the moral with +a copper coin. Not content with this, he once took him round to the +<i>Lepre</i> restaurant, and ordered a right good supper for him. Several +other artists were with him, and all declared that no one could do +better justice to food and wine. After he had eaten all he could hold, +and drank a little more than he could carry, he arose from table, having +during the entire meal sensibly kept silence, and wiping his mouth on +his coat-sleeve, spoke:</p> + +<p>'The moral this evening, signori, I shall carry home in my stomach.'</p> + +<p>As he was going out of the restaurant, one of the artists asked him why +he left two rolls of bread on the table; saying they were paid for, and +belonged to him.</p> + +<p>'I left them,' said he, 'out of regard for the correct usages of +society; but, having shown this, I return to pocket them.'</p> + +<p>This he did at once, and Caper stood astonished at the seedy-beggar's +phraseology.</p> + +<p>In addition to these characters, wandering musicians find their way into +the café, jugglers, peddlers of Roman mosaics and jewelry, plaster-casts +and sponges, perfumery and paint-brushes. Or a peripatetic shoemaker, +with one pair of shoes, which he recklessly offers for sale to giant or +dwarf. One morning he found a purchaser—a French artist—who put them +on, and threw away his old shoes. Fatal mistake. Two hours afterward, +the buyer was back in the Greco, with both big toes sticking out of the +ends of his new shoes, looking for that <i>cochon</i> of a shoemaker.</p> + +<p>To those who read men like books, the Greco offers a valuable +circulating library. The advantage, too, of these artistical works is, +that one needs not be a Mezzofanti to read the Russian, Spanish, German, +French, Italian, English, and other faces that pass before one +panoramically. There sits a relation of a hospodar, drinking Russian +tea; he pours into a large cup a small glass of brandy, throws in a +slice of lemon, fills up with hot tea. Do you think of the miles he has +traveled, in a <i>telega</i>, over snow-covered steppes, and the smoking +<i>samovar</i> of tea that awaited him, his journey for the day ended? Had he +lived when painting and sculpture were in their ripe prime, what a fiery +life he would have thrown into his works! As it is, he drinks cognac, +hunts wild-boars in the Pontine marshes—and paints Samson and Delilah, +after models.</p> + +<p>The Spanish artist, over a cup of chocolate, has lovely dreams, of burnt +umber hue, and despises the neglected treasures left him by the Moors, +while he seeks gold in—castles in the air.</p> + +<p>The German, with feet in Italy and head far away in the Fatherland, +frequents the German-club in preference to the Greco; for at the club is +there not lager beer?.... In imperial Rome, there are lager beer +breweries! He has <a name="Page_17" id="Page_17"></a>the profundities of the esthetical in art at his +finger-ends; it is deep-sea fishing, and he occasionally lands a whale, +as Kaulbach has done; or very nearly catches a mermaid with Cornelius. +Let us respect the man—he <i>works</i>.</p> + +<p>The French artist, over a cup of black coffee, with perhaps a small +glass of cognac, is the lightning to the German thunder. If he were +asked to paint the portrait of a potato, he would make eyes about it, +and then give you a little picture fit to adorn a boudoir. He does every +thing with a flourish. If he has never painted Nero performing that +celebrated violin-solo over Rome, it is because he despaired of +conveying an idea of the tremulous flourish of the fiddle-bow. He reads +nature, and translates her, without understanding her. He will prove to +you that the cattle of Rosa Bonheur are those of the fields, while he +will object to Landseer that his beasts are those of the guinea +cattle-show. He blows up grand facts in the science of art with +gunpowder, while the English dig them out with a shovel, and the Germans +bore for them. He finds Raphael, king of pastel artists, and never +mentions his discovery to the English. He is more dangerous with the +<i>fleurette</i> than many a trooper with broadsword. Every thing that he +appropriates, he stamps with the character of his own nationality. The +English race-horse at Chantilly has an air of curl-papers about his mane +and tail.</p> + +<p>The Italian artist—the night-season is for sleep.</p> + +<p>The English artist—hearken to Ruskin on Turner! When one has hit the +bull's-eye, there is nothing left but to lay down the gun, and go and +have—a whitebait dinner.</p> + +<p>The American artist—there is danger of the youthful giant kicking out +the end of the Cradle of Art, and 'scatterlophisticating rampageously' +over all the nursery.</p> + +<p>'I'd jest give a hun-dred dol-lars t'morrow, ef I could find out a way +to cut stat-tures by steam,' said Chapin, the sculptor.</p> + +<p>'I can't see why a country with great rivers, great mountains, and great +institutions generally, can not produce great sculptors and painters,' +said Caper sharply, one day to Rocjean.</p> + +<p>'It is this very greatness,' answered Rocjean, 'that prevents it. The +aim of the people runs not in the narrow channel of mountain-stream, but +with the broad tide of the ocean. In the hands of Providence, other +lands in other times have taken up painting and sculpture with their +whole might, and have wielded them to advance civilization. They have +played—are playing their part, these civilizers; but they are no longer +chief actors, least of all in America. Painting and sculpture may take +the character of subjects there; but their rôle as king is—played out.'</p> + +<p>'Much as you know about it,' answered Caper, 'you are all theory!'</p> + +<p>'That maybe,' quoth Rocjean; 'you know what ΘΕΟΣ means in Greek, don't +you?'</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h3>AMONG THE WILD BEASTS.</h3> + + +<p>There came to Rome, in the autumn, along with the other travelers, a +caravan of wild beasts, ostensibly under charge of Monsieur Charles, the +celebrated Tamer, rendered illustrious and illustrated by Nadar and +Gustave Doré, in the <i>Journal pour Rire</i>. They were exhibited under a +canvas tent in the Piazza Popolo, and a very cold time they had of it +during the winter. Evidently, Monsieur Charles believed the climate of +Italy belonged to the temperance society of climates. He erred, and +suffered with his '<i>superbe et manufique</i> ÉLLLLLÉPHANT!' 'and when we +reflec', ladies <i>and</i> gentlemen, that there <i>are</i> persons, forty and +even fifty years old, who have never seen the Ellllephant!!!... and who +DARE TO SAY so!!!...' Monsieur Charles made his explanations with teeth +chattering.</p> + +<p>Caper, anxious to make a sketch of a very fine Bengal tiger in the +collection, easily purchased permission to make studies of the animals +during the hours when the exhibition was closed to the <a name="Page_18" id="Page_18"></a>public; and as +he went at every thing vigorously, he was before long in possession of +several fine sketches of the tiger and other beasts, besides several +secrets only known to the initiated, who act as keepers.</p> + +<p>The royal Bengal tiger was one of the finest beasts Caper had ever seen, +and what he particularly admired was the jet-black lustre of the stripes +on his tawny sides and the vivid lustre of his eyes. The lion curiously +seemed laboring under a heavy sleep at the very time when he should have +been awake; but then his mane was kept in admirable order. The hair +round his face stood out like the bristles of a shoe-brush, and there +was a curl in the knob of hair at the end of his tail that amply +compensated for his inactivity. The hyenas looked sleek and happy, and +their teeth were remarkably white; but the elephant was the constant +wonder of all beholders. Instead of the tawny, blue-gray color of most +of his species, he was black, and glistened like a patent-leather boot; +while his tusks were as white as—ivory; yea, more so.</p> + +<p>'I don't understand what makes your animals look so bright,' said Caper +one day to one of the keepers.</p> + +<p>'Come here to-morrow morning early, when we make their toilettes, and +you'll see,' replied the man, laughing. 'Why, there's that old hog of a +lion, he's as savage and snaptious before he has his medicine as a +corporal; and looks as old as Methusaleh, until we arrange his beard and +get him up for the day. As for the ellllephant ... ugh!'</p> + +<p>Caper's curiosity was aroused, and the next morning, early, he was in +the menagerie. The first sight that struck his eye was the elephant, +keeled over on one side, and weaving his trunk about, evidently as a +signal of distress; while his keeper and another man were—blacking-pot +and shoe-brushes in hand—going all over him from stem to stern.</p> + +<p>'Good day,' said the keeper to him, 'here's a pair of boots for you! put +outside the door to be blacked every morning, for five francs a day. +It's the dearest job I ever undertook...and the boots are ungrateful! +Here, Pierre,' he continued to the man who helped him, 'he shines +enough; take away the breshes, and bring me the sand-paper to rub up his +tusks. Talk about polished beasts! I believe, myself, that we beat all +other shows to pieces on this 'ere point. Some beasts are more knowing +than others; for example, them monkeys in that cage there. Give that big +fool of a shimpanzy that bresh, Pierre, and let the gentleman see him +operate on tother monkeys.'</p> + +<p>Pierre gave the large monkey a brush, and, to Caper's astonishment, he +saw the animal seize it with one paw, then springing forward, catch a +small monkey with the other paw, and holding him down, in spite of his +struggles, administer so complete a brushing over his entire body that +every hair received a touch. The other monkeys in the cage were in the +wildest state of excitement, evidently knowing from experience that they +would all have to pass under the large one's hands; and when he had +given a final polish to the small one, he commenced a vigorous chase for +his mate, an aged female, who, evidently disliking the ordeal, commenced +a series of ground and lofty tumblings that would have made the fortune +of even the distinguished—Léotard. In vain: after a prolonged chase, in +which the inhabitants of the cage flew round so fast that it appeared to +be full of flying legs, tails, and fur, the large monkey seized the +female and, regardless of her attempts to liberate herself, he brushed +her from head to foot, to the great delight of a Swiss soldier, an +infantry corporal, who had entered the menagerie a few minutes before +the grand hunt commenced.</p> + +<p>'Ma voi!' said the Swiss, pronouncing French with a broad German accent, +'it would keef me krate bleshur to have dat pig monkey in my gombany. He +would mak' virst rait brivate.'</p> + +<p>The keeper, who was still polishing away with sand-paper at the +elephant's tusks, and who evidently regarded the soldier with great +contempt, said to him:</p> + +<p><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19"></a>'He would have been there long since—only he knows too much.'</p> + +<p>'<i>Ma voi</i>! that's the reason you're draining him vor a Vrench gavalry +gombany. Vell, I likes dat.'</p> + +<p>'Oh! no,' said the keeper, 'his principles an't going to allow him to +enter our army.'</p> + +<p>'Vell, what are his brincibles?'</p> + +<p>'To serve those who pay best!' quoth the Frenchman, who, in the firm +faith that he had said a good thing, called Pierre to help him adorn the +lion, and turned his back on the Swiss, who, in revenge, amused himself +feeding the monkeys with an old button, a stump of a cigar, and various +wads of paper.</p> + +<p>The keeper then gave the lion a narcotic, and after this medicine, +combed out his mane and tail, waxed his mustache, and thus made his +toilette for the day. The tiger and leopards had their stripes and spots +touched up once a week with hair-dye, and as this was not the day +appointed, Caper missed this part of the exhibition. The hyenas +submitted to be brushed down; but showed strong symptoms of mutiny at +having their teeth rubbed with a toothbrush and their nails pared.</p> + +<p>In half an hour more, the keeper's labors were over, and Caper, giving +him a present for his inviting him to assist as spectator at <i>la +toilette bien béte</i>, or beastly dressing, walked off to breakfast, +evidently thinking that <i>Art</i> was not dead in that menagerie, whatever +Rocjean might say of its state of health in the world at large.</p> + +<p>'To think,' soliloquized Caper, 'to think of what a bootless thing it +is, to shoe-black o'er an elephant!'</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h3>ROMAN MODELS.</h3> + + +<p>The traveler visiting Rome notices in the Piazza di Spagna, along the +Spanish steps, and in the Condotti, Fratina and Sistina streets, either +sunning themselves or slowly sauntering along, many picturesquely-dressed +men, women, and children, who, as he soon learns, are the +professional models of the artists. For a fee of from fifty +cents to a dollar, they will give their professional services for a +sitting four hours in length, and those of them who are most in demand +find little difficulty during the 'business season,' say from the months +of November to May, in earning from one and a half to two dollars, and +even more, every day. Many of them, living frugally, manage to make what +is considered a fortune among the <i>contadini</i> in a few years; and Hawks, +the English artist, who spent a summer at Saracenesca, found, to his +astonishment, that one of the leading men of the town, one who loaned +money at very large interest, owned property, and who was numbered among +the heavy wealthy, was no other than a certain Gaetano, he had more than +once used as model, at the price of fifty cents a sitting.</p> + +<p>The government prohibiting female models from posing nude in the +different life-schools, it consequently follows that they pose in +private studios, as they choose; this interdiction does not extend to +the male models; and when Caper was in Rome, he had full opportunities +offered him to draw from these in the English Academy, and in the +private schools of Gigi and Giacinti. Supported by the British +government, the English artist has, free of all expense, at this truly +National Academy, opportunities to sketch from life, as well as from +casts, and has, moreover, access to a well-chosen library of books. With +a generosity worthy of all praise, American artists are admitted to the +English Academy, with full permission to share with Englishmen the +advantages of the life-school, free of all cost; a piece of liberality +that well might be copied by the French Academy, without at all +derogating from its high position—on the Pincian Hill.</p> + +<p>If Gigi's school is still kept up, (it was in a small street near the +Trevi fountain,) we would advise the traveler in search of the +picturesque by all means to visit it, particularly if it is in the same +location it was when Caper was there. It was over a stable, in the +second story of a tumble-down old <a name="Page_20" id="Page_20"></a>house, frequented by dogs, cats, +fleas, and rats; in a room say fifty feet long by twenty wide. A +semi-circle of desks and wooden benches went round the platform where +stood the male models nude, or on other evenings, male and female models +in costumes, Roman or Neapolitan. Oil lamps gave enough light to enable +the artists who generally attended there to draw, and color in oils or +water-colors, the costumes. The price of admittance for the costume +class was one paul, (ten cents,) and as the model only posed about two +hours, the artists had to work very fast to get even a rough sketch +finished in that short time. Americans, Danes, Germans, Spaniards, +French, Italians, English, Russians, were numbered among the attendants, +and more than once, a sedate-looking English-woman or two would come in +quietly, make a sketch, and go away unmolested and almost unnoticed.</p> + +<p>More than three-quarters of the sketches made by Caper at Gigi's +costume-class were taken from models in standing positions. At the end +of the first hour, they had from ten to fifteen minutes allowed them to +rest; but these minutes were seldom wasted by the artist, who improved +them to finish the lines of his drawing, or dash in color. The powers of +endurance of the female models were better than those of the men; and +they would strike a position and keep it for an hour, almost immovable. +Noticeable among these women, was one named Minacucci, who, though over +seventy years old, had all the animation and spirit of one not half her +age; and would keep her position with the steadiness of a statue. She +had, in her younger days, been a model for Canova; had outlived two +generations; and was now posing for a third. If you have ever seen many +figure-paintings executed in Rome, your chance is good to have seen +Minacucci's portrait over and over again. Caper affirms that of any +painting made in Rome from the years 1856 to 1860, introducing an +Italian head, whether a Madonna or sausage-seller, he can tell you the +name of the model it was painted from nine times out of ten! The fact +is, they do want a new model for the Madonna badly in Rome, for Giacinta +is growing old and fat, and Stella, since she married that cobbler, has +lost her angelic expression. The small boy who used to pose for angels +has smoked himself too yellow, and the man who stood for Charity has +gone out of business.</p> + +<p>'I have,' said Caper to me the other day, 'too much respect for the +public to tell them who the man with red hair and beard used to pose +for; but he has taken to drinking, and it's all up with him.'</p> + +<p>Spite of fleas, rats, squalling cats, dog-fights, squealing of horses, +and braying of donkeys, lamp-smoke, and heat or cold, the hours passed +by Caper in Gigi's old barracks were among the pleasantest of his Roman +life. There was such novelty, variety, and brilliancy in the costumes to +be sketched, that every evening was a surprise; save those nights when +Stella posed, and these were known and looked forward to in advance. She +always insured a full class, and when she first appeared, was the beauty +of all the models.</p> + +<p>Caper was sitting one afternoon in Rocjean's studio, when there was a +tap at the door.</p> + +<p>'<i>Entrate</i>!' shouted Rocjean, and in came a female model, called Rita. +It was the month of May, business was dull; she wanted employment. +Rocjean asked her to walk in and rest herself.</p> + +<p>'Well, Rita, you haven't any thing to do, now that the English have all +fled from Rome before the malaria?'</p> + +<p>'Very little. Some of the Russians are left up there in the Fratina; but +since the Signore Giovanni sold all his paintings to that rich Russian +banker, <i>diavolo</i>! he has done nothing but drink champagne, and he don't +want any more models.'</p> + +<p>'What is the Signore Giovanni's last name?' asked Caper.</p> + +<p>'Who knows, Signore Giacomo? I <a name="Page_21" id="Page_21"></a>don't. We others (<i>noi altri</i>) never can +pronounce your queer names, so we find out the Italian for your first +names, and call you by that. Signore Arturo, the French artist, told me +once that the English and Russians and Germans had such hard names they +often broke their front-teeth out trying to speak them; but he was +joking. <i>I</i> know the real, true reason for it.'</p> + +<p>'Come, let us have it,' said Rocjean.</p> + +<p>'<i>Accidente</i>! I won't tell you; you will be angry.'</p> + +<p>'No we won't,' spoke Caper, 'and what is more, I will give you two pauls +if you will tell us. I am very curious to know this reason.'</p> + +<p>'<i>Bene</i>, now the <i>prete</i> came round to see me the other day; it was when +he purified the house with holy water, and he asked me a great many +questions, which I answered so artlessly, yes, so artlessly! whew! [here +Miss Rita smiled artfully.] Then he asked me all about you heretics, and +he told me you were all going to—be burned up, as soon as you died; for +the Inquisition couldn't do it for you in these degenerate days. After a +great deal more twaddle like this, I asked him why you heretics all had +such hard names, that we others never could speak them? Then he looked +mysterious, so! [here Miss Rita diabolically winked one eye,] and said +he: 'I will tell you, <i>per Bacco</i>! hush, it's because they are so +abominably wicked, never give any thing to OUR Church, never have no +holy water in their houses, never go to no confession, and are such +monsters generally, that their police are all the time busy trying to +catch them; but their names are so hard to speak that when the police go +and ask for them, nobody knows them, and so they get off; otherwise, +their country would have jails in it as large as St. Peter's, and they +would be full all the time!'</p> + +<p>'H'm!' said Rocjean, 'I suppose you would be afraid to go to such +horrible countries, among such people?'</p> + +<p>'Not I,' spoke Rita,'didn't Ida go to Paris, and didn't she come back to +Rome with such a magnificent silk dress, and gold watch, and such a +bonnet! all full of flowers, and lace, and ribbons? Oh! they don't eat +'nothing but maccaroni' there! And they don't have priests all the time +sneaking round to keep a poor girl from earning a little money honestly, +and haul her up before the police if her <i>carta di soggiorno</i> [permit to +remain in Rome] runs out. I wish [here Rita stamped her foot and her +eyes flashed] Garibaldi would come here! Then you would see these black +crows flying, <i>Iddio giusto</i>! Then we would have no more of these +<i>arciprete</i> making us pay them for every mouthful of bread we eat, or +wine we drink, or wood we burn.'</p> + +<p>'Why,' said Caper, 'they don't keep the baker-shops, and wine-shops, and +wood-yards, do they?'</p> + +<p>'No,' answered Rita, 'but they speculate in them, and Fra 'Tonelli makes +his cousins and so on inspectors; and they regulate the prices to suit +themselves, and make oh! such tremen-di-ous fortunes. [Here Rita opened +her eyes, and spread her hands, as if beholding the elephant.] Don't I +remember, some time ago, how, when the Pope went out riding, he found +both sides of the way from the Vatican to San Angelo crowded with people +on their knees, groaning and calling to him. Said he to Fra 'Tonelli:</p> + +<p>''What are these poor people about?'</p> + +<p>''Praying for your blessed holiness,' said he, while his eyes sparkled.</p> + +<p>''But,' said the Pope, 'they are moaning and groaning.'</p> + +<p>''It's a way the <i>poblaccio</i> have,' answered 'Tonelli, 'when they pray.'</p> + +<p>'The Pope knew he was lying, so, when he went home to the Vatican, he +sent for one of his faithful servants, and said he:</p> + +<p>''Santi, you run out and see what all this shindy is about?'</p> + +<p>'So Santi came back and told him 'Tonelli had put up the price of bread, +and the people were starving. So the Pope took out a big purse with a +little money in it, and said he:</p> + +<p><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22"></a>''Here, Santi, you go and buy me ten pounds of bread, and get a bill +for it, and have it receipted!'</p> + +<p>'So Santi came back with bread, and bill all receipted, and laid it down +on a table, and threw a cloth over it. By and by, in comes 'Tonelli. +Then the Pope says to him, kindly and smiling:</p> + +<p>''I am confident I heard the people crying about bread to-day; now, tell +me truly, what is it selling for?'</p> + +<p>'Then 'Toneli told him such a lie. [Up went Rita's hands and eyes.]</p> + +<p>'Then the Pope says, while he looked so [knitting her brows]:</p> + +<p>''Oblige me, if you please, by lifting up that cloth.'</p> + +<p>'And'Tonelli did.</p> + +<p>'Bread went down six <i>baiocchi</i> next morning!'</p> + +<p>'By the way, Rita,' asked Rocjean, 'where is your little brother, +Beppo?'</p> + +<p>'Oh! he's home,' she answered, 'but I wish you would ask your friend +Enrico, the German sculptor, if he won't have him again, for his model.'</p> + +<p>'Why, I thought he was using him for his new statue?'</p> + +<p>'He was; but oh! so unfortunately, last Sunday, father went out to see +his cousin John, who lives near Ponte Mole, and has a garden there, and +Beppo went with him; but the dear little fellow is so fond of fruit, +that he ate a pint of raw horse-beans!'</p> + +<p>'Of all the fruit!' shouted Caper.</p> + +<p>'<i>Si, signore</i>, it's splendid; but it gave Beppo the colic next day, and +when he went to Signore Enrico's studio to pose for Cupid, he twisted +and wrenched around so with pain, that Signore Enrico told him he looked +more like a little devil than a small love; and when Beppo told him what +fruit he had been eating, Signore Enrico bid him clear out for a savage +that he was, and told him to go and learn to eat them boiled before he +came back again.'</p> + +<p>'I will speak to the Signore Enrico, and have him employ him again,' +said Rocjean.</p> + +<p>'Oh! I wish you would, for the Signore Enrico was very good to Beppo; +besides, his studio is a perfect palace for cigar-stumps, which Beppo +used to pick up and sell—that is, all those he and father didn't smoke +in their pipes.'</p> + +<p>'Make a sketch, Caper,' said Rocjean, 'of Cupid filling up his quiver +with cigar-stumps, while he holds one between his teeth. There's a model +love for you! Now, give Rita those two pauls you promised her, and let +her go. <i>Adio!</i>'</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h4>GIULIA DI SEGNI.</h4> + + +<p>(<i>Lines found written on the back of a sketch in Caper's portfolio</i>.)</p> + +<p> +By Roman watch-tower, on the mountaintop,<br /> +We stood, at sunset, gazing like the eagles<br /> +From their cloud-eyrie, o'er the broad Campagna,<br /> +To the Albanian hills, which boldly rose,<br /> +Bathed in a flood of red and pearly light.<br /> +Far off, and fading in the coming night,<br /> +Lay the Abruzzi, where the pale, white walls<br /> +Of towns gleamed faintly on their purple sides.<br /> +<br /> +The evening air was tremulous with sounds:<br /> +The thrilling chirp of insects, twittering birds,<br /> +Barking of shepherds' fierce, white, Roman dogs;<br /> +While from the narrow path, far down below,<br /> +We heard a mournful rondinella ring,<br /> +Sung by a home-returning mountaineer.<br /> +<br /> +Then, as the daylight slowly climbed the hills,<br /> +And the soft wind breathed music to their steps,<br /> +O'er the old Roman watch-tower marched the stars,<br /> +In their bright legions—conquerors of night—<br /> +Shedding from silver armor shining light;<br /> +As once the Roman legions, ages past,<br /> +Marched on to conquest o'er the Latin way,<br /> +Gleaming, white-stoned, so far beneath our gaze.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Giula di Segni</span>, 'mid the Volscians born,<br /> +Streamed in thy veins that fiery, Roman blood,<br /> +Curled thy proud lip, and fired thy eagle eyes.<br /> +Faultless in beauty, as the noble forms<br /> +Painted on rare Etrurian vase of old;<br /> +How life, ennobled by thy love, swept on,<br /> +Serene, above the mean and pitiful!<br /> +<br /><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23"></a> +Stars! that still sparkle o'er old Segni's walls,<br /> +Oh! mirror back to me one glance from eyes<br /> +That yet may watch you from that Roman tower.<br /><br /> +</p> + +<hr /> + +<h4>MR. BROWN BUYS A PAINTING.</h4> + + +<p>Caper's uncle, from St. Louis, Mr. William Browne, one day astonished +several artists who were dining with him:</p> + +<p>'My young men,' said he, 'there is one thing pleases me very much about +you all, and that is, you never mention the word Art; don't seem to care +any thing more about the old masters than I would about a lot of old +worn-out broom-sticks; and if I didn't know I was with artists in Rome, +the crib—no, what d' ye call it?'</p> + +<p>'The manger?' suggested Rocjean.</p> + +<p>'Yes,' continued Uncle Bill, 'the manger of art, I should think I was +among a lot of smart merchants, who had gone into the painting business +determined to do a right good trade.'</p> + +<p>'Cash on delivery,' added Caper.</p> + +<p>'Yes, be sure of that. Well, I like it; I feel at home with you; and as +I always make it a point to encourage young business men, I am going to +do my duty by one of you, at any rate. I shan't show favor to my nephew, +Jim, any more than I do to the rest. And this is my plan: I want a +painting five feet by two, to fill up a place in my house in St. Louis; +it's an odd shape, and that is so much in my favor, because you haven't +any of you a painting that size under way, and can all start even. I'll +leave the subject to each one of you, and I'll pay five hundred dollars +to the man who paints the best picture, who has his done within seven +days, <i>and puts the most work on it</i>! Do you all understand?'</p> + +<p>They replied affirmatively.</p> + +<p>'But what the thunder,' asked Caper, 'are those of us who don't win the +prize, going to do with paintings of such a size, left on our hands? +Nobody, unless a steamboat captain, who wants to ornament his berths, +just that size, and relieve the tedium of his passengers, would ever +think of buying them.'</p> + +<p>'Well,' replied Uncle Bill, 'I don't want smart young men like you all, +to lose your time and money, so I'll buy the balance of the paintings +for what the canvas and paints cost, and give two dollars a day for the +seven days employed on each painting. Isn't that liberal?'</p> + +<p>'Like Cosmo de Medici,' answered Rocjean; 'and I agree to the terms in +every particular, especially as to putting the most work on it! There +are four competitors—put down their names. Légume, you will come in, +won't you?'</p> + +<p>'Certainly I will, by Jing!' answered the French artist, who prided +himself on his knowledge of English, especially the interjections.</p> + +<p>'Then,' continued Rocjean, 'Caper, Bagswell, Légume, and I, will try for +your five hundred dollar prize. When shall we commence?'</p> + +<p>'To-day is Tuesday,' replied Uncle Bill; 'say next Monday—that will +give you plenty of time to get your frames and canvases. So that ends +all particulars. There are two friends of mine here from the United +States, one, Mr. Van Brick, of New York, and the other, Mr. Pinchfip, of +Philadelphia, whom I think you all met here last week.'</p> + +<p>'The thin gentleman with hair very much brushed, be Gad?' asked Légume.</p> + +<p>'I don't remember as to his hair,' answered Uncle Bill, 'but that's the +man. Well, these two I know will act as vampires, and I am sure you will +be pleased with their verdict. Monday after next, therefore, we will all +call, so be ready.'</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The four artists took the whole thing as a joke, but determined to paint +the pictures; and at Caper's suggestion, each one agreed, as there was a +play of words in the clause, 'most work on it,' to puzzle Uncle Bill, +and have the laugh on him.</p> + +<p>On the day appointed to decide the prize, Uncle Bill, accompanied by +Messrs. Van Brick and Pinchfip, called first at Légume's studio; they +found him in the Via Margutta, (in English, Malicious <a name="Page_24" id="Page_24"></a>street,) in a +light, airy room, furnished with a striking attention to effect. On his +easel was a painting of the required size, representing Louis XV. at +Versailles, surrounded by his lady friends. By making the figures of the +ladies small, and crowding them, Légume managed to get a hundred or two +on the canvas. A period in their history to which Frenchmen refer with +so much pleasure, and with which they are so conversant, was treated by +the artist with professional zeal. The merits of the painting were +carefully canvassed by the two judges. Mr. Pinchfip found it exceedingly +graceful, neat, and pretty. Mr. Van Brick admired the females, remarking +that he should like to be in old Louis's place. To which Légume bowed, +asserting that he was sure he was in every way qualified to fill it. Mr. +Van Brick determined in his mind to give the artist a dinner, at +Spillman's, for that speech.</p> + +<p>Mr. Pinchfip took notes in a book; Mr. Van Brick asked for a light to a +cigar. The former congratulated the artist; the latter at once asked him +to come and dine with him. Mr. Pinchfip wished to know if he was related +to the Count Légume whom he had met at Paris. Mr. Van Brick told him he +would bring his friend Livingston round to buy a painting. Mr. Pinchfip +said that it would afford him pleasure to call again. Mr. Van Brick gave +the artist his card, and shook hands with him:...and the judges were +passing out, when Légume asked them to take one final look at the +painting to see if it had not the <i>most work</i> on it. Mr. Van Brick +instantly turned toward it, and running over it with his eye, burst into +an uncontrollable fit of laughter.</p> + +<p>'If the others beat that, I am mistaken,' said he. 'Look at there!' +calling the attention of Uncle Bill and Mr. Pinchfip to a fold of a +curtain on which was painted, in small letters,</p> + +<h5>'MOST WORK.'</h5> + +<p>'I say, Browne,' continued Mr. Van Brick, 'he is too many for you; and +if the one who puts 'most work' on his painting is to win the five +hundred dollars, Légume's chance is good.'</p> + +<p>'Very ingenious,' said Mr. Pinchfip, 'very; it is a legitimate play upon +words. But legally, I can not affirm that I am aware of any precedent +for awarding Mr. Browne's money to Monsieur Légume on this score.'</p> + +<p>'We will have to make a precedent, then,' spoke Van Brick, 'and do it +illegally, if we find that he deserves the money. But time flies, and we +have the other artists to visit.'</p> + +<p>They next went to Bagswell's studio, in the Viccolo dei Greci, and found +him in a large room, well furnished, and having a solidly comfortable +look; the walls ornamented with paintings, sketches, costumes, armor; +while in a good light under its one large window, was his painting. They +found he had left his beaten track of historical subjects, and in the +<i>genre</i> school had an interior of an Italian country inn—a +kitchen-scene. It represented a stout, handsome country girl, in +Ciociara costume, kneading a large trough of dough, while another girl +was filling pans with that which was already kneaded, and two or three +other females were carrying them to an oven, tended by a man who was +piling brush-wood on the fire. The painting was very life-like, and for +the short time employed on it, well finished. It wanted the fire and +dash of Légume's painting, but its truthfulness to life evidently made a +deep impression on Uncle Bill. Stuck on with a sketching-tack to one +corner was a piece of paper, on which was marked the number of hours +employed each day on the work; it summed up fifty-four hours, or an +average each day of nearly eight hours' work on it.</p> + +<p>Mr. Pinchfip's note-book was again called into play. Mr. Van Brick had +another cigar to smoke, remarking that the artist had triple work in his +picture—head, bread, and prize-work: his picture representing working +in, over, and for bread!</p> + +<p>They next went to see Rocjean, in the Corso; they found him in a +bournouse, <a name="Page_25" id="Page_25"></a>with a fez on his head, a long chibouk in his mouth, smoking +away, extended at full length on a settee, which he insisted was a +divan. There was a glass bottle holding half a gallon of red wine on a +table near him, also a bottle of Marsala, and half a dozen glasses. +There was a roaring wood-fire in his stove—for it was December, and the +day was overcast and cool.</p> + +<p>'This is the most out and out comfortable old nest I've seen in Rome,' +said Mr. Van Brick, as they entered; 'and as for curiosities and +plunder, you beat Barnum. <i>Will I take a glass of wine</i>? I am there!'</p> + +<p>Rocjean filled up glasses. Mr. Pinchfip declining, as he never drank +before dinner, neither did he smoke before dinner. He told them that the +late Doctor Phyzgig, who had always been their (the Pinchfips') family +physician, had absolutely forbidden it.</p> + +<p>No one made any remark to this, unless Mr. Van Brick's expressive face +could be translated as observing, in a quiet manner, that the late +Doctor was possibly dyspeptic, and probably nervous.</p> + +<p>Rocjean's painting represented a view of the Claudian aqueduct, +mountains in the distance; bold foreground, shepherd with flocks, a +wayside shrine, peasants kneeling in front of it. Over all, bold cloud +effects. A very ponderous volume balanced on top of the picture, and +leaning against the easel, invited Uncle Bill's attention, and he asked +Rocjean why he had put it there? The artist answered that it was a folio +copy of <i>Josephus</i>, his works, and, as he was anxious to comply with the +terms of Mr. Browne, he had placed it there in order to put the <i>most +work</i> on it.</p> + +<p>Mr. Pinchfip having asked Rocjean why, in placing that book there, he +was like a passenger paying his fare to the driver of an omnibus?</p> + +<p>The latter at once answered:</p> + +<p>'I give it up.'</p> + +<p>'So you do,' replied Pinchfip. 'You are quick, sir, at answering +conundrums.'</p> + +<p>Mr. Brick saw it. Finally Uncle Bill was made to comprehend.</p> + +<p>'Very excellent, sir; very ingenious! Philadelphians may well be proud +of the high position they have as punsters, utterers of <i>bon mots</i> and +conundrums,' said Rocjean; 'I have had the comfort of living in your +city, and thoroughly appreciating your—markets.'</p> + +<p>After Rocjean's the judges and Uncle Bill went to Caper's studio. As +they entered his room they found that ingenious youth walking, in his +shirt-sleeves, in as large a circle as the room would permit, bearing on +his head a large canvas, while a quite pretty female model, named +Stella, sat on a sofa, marking down something on a piece of paper, using +the sole of her shoe for a writing-desk.</p> + +<p>'We-ell!' said Uncle Bill.</p> + +<p>'One more round,' quoth Caper, with unmoved countenance, 'and I will be +with you. That will make four hundred and fifty, won't it, Stella?'</p> + +<p>'<i>Eh, Gia</i>, one more is all you want.' And making an extra scratch with +a pencil, the female model surveyed the new-comers with a triumphant +air, plainly saying: 'See there! I can write, but I am not proud.'</p> + +<p>'What are you about, Jim?'</p> + +<p>'Look at that painting!' answered Caper. 'The Blessing of the Donkeys, +Horses, etc.; it is one of the most imposing ceremonies of the Church. +As my specialty is animal, I have chosen it for my painting; and not +contented with laboring faithfully on it, I have determined, in order to +put the thing beyond a doubt as to my gaining the prize, to put the +<i>most work</i> on it of any of my rivals; so I have actually, as Stella +will tell you, carried it bodily four hundred and fifty times round this +studio.'</p> + +<p>'Instead of a painting, I should think you would have made a panting of +it,' spoke Mr. Van Brick.</p> + +<p>'The idea seems to me artful,' added Mr. Pinchfip, 'but after all, this +pedestrian work was not on the painting, but under it; therefore, +according to Blackstone on contracts, this comes under the <a name="Page_26" id="Page_26"></a>head of a +consideration <i>do, ut facias</i>, see vol. ii. page 360. How far moral +obligation is a legal consideration, see note, vol. iii. p. 249 +Bossanquet and Puller's Reports. The principle <i>servus facit, ut herus +det</i>, as laid down by....'</p> + +<p>'Jove!' exclaimed Uncle Bill, 'couldn't you stop off the torrent for one +minute? I'm drowning—I give up—do with me as you see fit.'</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>'And now,' said Mr. Van Brick, 'that we have seen the four paintings, +let us, Mr. Pinchfip, proceed calmly to discover who has won the five +hundred dollars. Duly, deliberately, and gravely, let us put the four +names on four slips of paper, stir them up in a hat. Mr. Browne shall +then draw out a name, the owner of that name shall be the winner.'</p> + +<p>It was drawn, and by good fortune for him, Bagswell won the five hundred +dollars. Thus Uncle Bill Browne bought one painting for a good round +sum, and three others at the stipulated price. Which one of the four had +the <i>most work</i> on it, is, however, an unsettled question among three of +the artists, to this day.<br /><br /></p> + +<hr /> + + +<h3><a name="FOR_THE_HOUR_OF_TRIUMPH" id="FOR_THE_HOUR_OF_TRIUMPH">FOR THE HOUR OF TRIUMPH</a></h3> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Victory comes with a palm in her hand,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">With laurel upon her brow;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Cypress is clinging about her feet,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">But its dark blossoms are red and sweet,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">And the weeping mourners bow.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">It is well. Through her tears, the widow smiles</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">To the child upon her knee;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">'Thou'rt fatherless, darling; but he fell</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Gallantly fighting, and long and well,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">For the banner of the free!'</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Then, weeping: 'Alas! for my lost, lost love;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Alas! for my own weak heart;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">I know, when the storm shall pass away,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">My boy, in manhood, would blush to say:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">'My blood had therein no part."</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">The maiden her lover weeps, unconsoled,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">So desolate is her gloom;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">But a voice falls softly through the air,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Whispering comfort to her despair,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">'Love <i>here</i> hath fadeless bloom.'</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">The father laments for his boy, who fell</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">By Cumberland's river-side;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">The sister, her brother loved the best,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Whose blood, in the dark and troubled West,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">The father of waters dyed.</span><br /> +<br /><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27"></a> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">The mother—oh! silence your Spartan tales—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Says bravely, hushing a moan:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">'I have yet <i>one</i> left. My boy! go on;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Rear freedom's banner high in the sun!'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Then sits in the house alone.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">To die for one's country is sweet, indeed!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">To fight for the right is brave;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">But there are brave hearts who vainly wait</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Till triumph shall find them desolate,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Their hopes in a far-off grave.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">O mourners! be patient; the end shall come;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">The beautiful years of peace.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Remember! though hearts rebel the while</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">You hide your tears with a mournful smile,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">That tyranny soon shall cease.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">For victory comes, a palm in her hand,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Fresh garlands about her brow;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">But the cypress trailing under her feet,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">With crimson blossoms, by tears made sweet,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Shall wreathe with the laurel now.</span><br /> +</p> + +<hr /> + +<h3><a name="IN_TRANSITU" id="IN_TRANSITU">IN TRANSITU</a></h3> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">When the acid meets the alkali,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">How they sputter, snap, and fly!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Such a crackling, such a pattering!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Such a hissing, such a spattering!</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">All in foaming discord tossed,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">One would swear that all is lost.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Yet the equivalents soon blend,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">All comes right at last i' the end.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Country mine!—'tis so with thee.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Wait—and all will quiet be!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Men, while working out a mission,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Must not fear the fierce transition.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr /><p><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28"></a></p> +<h3><a name="AMONG_THE_PINES" id="AMONG_THE_PINES"></a>AMONG THE PINES.</h3> + +<p>I sauntered out, after the events recorded in the last paper, to inhale +the fresh air of the morning. A slight rain had fallen during the night, +and it still moistened the dead leaves which carpeted the woods, making +an extended walk out of the question; so, seating myself on the trunk of +a fallen tree, in the vicinity of the house, I awaited the hour for +breakfast. I had not remained there long before I heard the voices of my +host and Madam P—— on the front piazza:</p> + +<p>'I tell you, Alice, I can not—must not do it. If I overlook this, the +discipline of the plantation is at an end.'</p> + +<p>'Do what you please with him when you return,' replied the lady, 'but do +not chain him up, and leave me, at such a time, alone. You know Jim is +the only one I can depend on.'</p> + +<p>'Well, have your own way. You know, my darling, I would not cause you a +moment's uneasiness, but I must follow up this d——d Moye.'</p> + +<p>I was seated where I could hear, though I could not see the speakers, +but it was evident from the tone of the last remark, that an action +accompanied it quite as tender as the words. Being unwilling to overhear +more of a private conversation, I rose and approached them.</p> + +<p>'Ah! my dear fellow,' said the Colonel, on perceiving me, 'are you +stirring so early? I was about to send to your room to ask if you'll go +with me up the country. My d——d overseer has got away, and I must +follow him at once.'</p> + +<p>'I'll go with pleasure,' I replied. 'Which way do you think Moye has +gone?'</p> + +<p>'The shortest cut to the railroad, probably; but old Cæsar will track +him.'</p> + +<p>A servant then announced breakfast—an early one having been prepared. +We hurried through the meal with all speed, and the other preparations +being soon over, were in twenty minutes in our saddles, and ready for +the journey. The mulatto coachman, with a third horse, was at the door, +ready to accompany us, and as we mounted, the Colonel said to him:</p> + +<p>'Go and call Sam, the driver.'</p> + +<p>The darky soon returned with the heavy, ugly-visaged black who had been +whipped, by Madam P——'s order, the day before.</p> + +<p>'Sam,' said his master, 'I shall be gone some days, and I leave the +field-work in your hands. Let me have a good account of you when I +return.'</p> + +<p>'Yas, massa, you shill dat,' replied the negro.</p> + +<p>'Put Jule—Sam's Jule—into the field, and see that she does full +tasks,' continued the Colonel.</p> + +<p>'Hain't she wanted 'mong de nusses, massa?'</p> + +<p>'Put some one else there—give her field-work; she needs it.'</p> + +<p>I will here explain that on large plantations the young children of the +field-women are left with them only at night, being herded together +during the day in a separate cabin, in charge of nurses. These nurses +are feeble, sickly women, or recent mothers; and the fact of Jule's +being employed in that capacity was evidence that she was unfit for +out-door labor.</p> + +<p>Madam P——, who was waiting on the piazza to see us off, seemed about +to remonstrate against this arrangement, but she hesitated a moment, and +in that moment we had bidden her 'Good-by,' and galloped away.</p> + +<p>We were soon at the cabin of the negro-hunter, and the coachman +dismounting, called him out.</p> + +<p>'Hurry up, hurry up,' said the Colonel, as Sandy appeared, 'we haven't a +moment to spare.'</p> + +<p>'Jest so, jest so, Cunnel; I'll jine ye in a jiffin,' replied he of the +reddish extremities.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29"></a>Emerging from the shanty with provoking deliberation—the impatience of +my host had infected me—the clay-eater slowly proceeded to mount the +horse of the negro, his dirt-bedraggled wife, and clay-incrusted +children, following close at his heels, and the younger ones huddling +around for the tokens of paternal affection usual at parting. Whether it +was the noise they made, or their frightful aspect, I know not, but the +horse, a spirited animal, took fright on their appearance, and nearly +broke away from the negro, who was holding him. Seeing this, the Colonel +said:</p> + +<p>'Clear out, you young scarecrows. Into the house with you.'</p> + +<p>'They hain't no more scarecrows than yourn, Cunnel J——,' said the +mother, in a decidedly belligerent tone. 'You may 'buse my old man—he +kin stand it—but ye shan't blackguard my young 'uns!'</p> + +<p>The Colonel laughed, and was about to make a good-natured reply, when +Sandy yelled out:</p> + +<p>'Gwo enter the house and shet up, ye —— ——.'</p> + +<p>With this affectionate farewell, he turned his horse and led the way up +the road.</p> + +<p>The dog, who was a short distance in advance, soon gave a piercing howl, +and started off at the speed of a reindeer. He had struck the trail, and +urging our horses to their fastest speed, we followed.</p> + +<p>We were all well mounted, but the mare the Colonel had given me was a +magnificent animal, as fleet as the wind, and with a gait so easy that +her back seemed a rocking-chair. Saddle-horses at the South are trained +to the gallop—Southern riders deeming it unnecessary that one's +breakfast should be churned into a Dutch cheese by a trotting nag, in +order that one may pass for a good horseman.</p> + +<p>We had ridden on at a perfect break-neck pace for half an hour, when the +Colonel shouted to our companion:</p> + +<p>'Sandy, call the dog in; the horses won't last ten miles at this +gait—we've a long ride before us.'</p> + +<p>The dirt-eater did as he was bidden, and we soon settled into a gentle +gallop.</p> + +<p>We had passed through a dense forest of pines, but were emerging into a +'bottom country,' where some of the finest deciduous trees, then brown +and leafless, but bearing promise of the opening beauty of spring, +reared, along with the unfading evergreen, their tall stems in the air. +The live-oak, the sycamore, the Spanish mulberry, the mimosa, and the +persimmon, gayly festooned with wreaths of the white and yellow +jessamine, the woodbine and the cypress-moss, and bearing here and there +a bouquet of the mistletoe, with its deep green and glossy leaves +upturned to the sun—flung their broad arms over the road, forming an +archway grander and more beautiful than any the hand of man ever wove +for the greatest heroes the world has worshiped.</p> + +<p>The woods were free from underbrush, but a coarse, wiry grass, unfit for +fodder, and scattered through them in detached patches, was the only +vegetation visible. The ground was mainly covered with the leaves and +burs of the pine.</p> + +<p>We passed great numbers of swine, feeding on these burs, and now and +then a horned animal browsing on the cypress-moss where it hung low on +the trees. I observed that nearly all the swine were marked, though they +seemed too wild to have ever seen an owner, or a human habitation. They +were a long, lean, slab-sided race, with legs and shoulders like a deer, +and bearing no sort of resemblance to the ordinary hog except in the +snout, and that feature was so much longer and sharper than the nose of +the Northern swine, that I doubt if Agassiz would class the two as one +species. However, they have their uses—they make excellent bacon, and +are 'death on snakes;' Ireland itself is not more free from the +serpentine race than are the districts frequented by these long-nosed +quadrupeds.</p> + +<p>'We call them Carolina race-horses,' said the Colonel, as he finished an +account of their peculiarities.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30"></a>'Race-horses! Why, are they fleet of foot?'</p> + +<p>'Fleet as deer. I'd match one against an ordinary horse at any time.'</p> + +<p>'Come, my friend, you're practicing on my ignorance of natural history.'</p> + +<p>'Not a bit of it. See! there's a good specimen yonder. If we can get him +into the road, and fairly started, I'll bet you a dollar he'll beat +Sandy's mare on a half-mile stretch—Sandy to hold the stakes and have +the winnings.'</p> + +<p>'Well, agreed,' I said, laughing, 'and I'll give the pig ten rods the +start.'</p> + +<p>'No,' replied the Colonel, 'you can't afford it. He'll <i>have</i> to start +ahead, but you'll need that in the count. Come, Sandy, will you go in +for the pile?'</p> + +<p>I'm not sure that the native would not have run a race with Old Nicholas +himself, for the sake of so much money. To him it was a vast sum; and as +he thought of it, his eyes struck small sparks, and his enormous beard +and mustachio vibrated with something that faintly resembled a laugh. +Replying to the question, he said:</p> + +<p>'Kinder reckon I wull, Cunnel; howsomdever, I keeps the stakes, anyhow?'</p> + +<p>'Of course,' said the planter, 'but be honest—win if you can.'</p> + +<p>Sandy halted his horse in the road, while the planter and I took to the +woods on either side of the way. The Colonel soon maneuvered to separate +the selected animal from the rest of the herd, and, without much +difficulty, got him into the road, where, by closing down on each flank, +we kept him till he and Sandy were fairly under way.</p> + +<p>'He'll keep to the road when once started,' said the Colonel, laughing, +'and he'll show you some of the tallest running you ever saw in your +life.'</p> + +<p>Away they went. At first the pig seemed not exactly to comprehend the +programme, for he cantered off at a leisurely pace, though he held his +own. Soon, however, he cast an eye behind him—halted a moment to +collect his thoughts and reconnoiter—and then, lowering his head and +elevating his tail, put forth all his speed. And such speed! Talk of a +deer, the wind, or a steam-engine—their gait is not to be compared with +it. Nothing in nature I have ever seen run—except, it may be, a +Southern tornado, or a Sixth Ward politician—could hope to distance +that pig. He gained on the horse at every pace, and I soon saw that my +dollar was gone!</p> + +<p>'In for a shilling in for a pound,' is the adage, so turning to the +Colonel, I said, as intelligibly as my horse's rapid steps, and my own +excited risibilities would allow:</p> + +<p>'I see I've lost, but I'll go you another dollar that you can't beat the +pig!'</p> + +<p>'No—sir!' the Colonel got out in the breaks of his laughing explosions; +'you can't hedge on me in that manner. I'll go a dollar that <i>you</i> can't +do it, and your mare is the fastest on the road. She won me a thousand +not a month ago.'</p> + +<p>'Well, I'll do it; Sandy to have the stakes.'</p> + +<p>'Agreed,' said the Colonel, and away we went.</p> + +<p>The swinish racer was about a hundred yards ahead when I gave the mare +the reins, and told her to go. And she did go. She flew against the wind +with a motion so rapid that my face, as it clove the air, felt as if +cutting its way through a solid body, and the trees, as we passed, +seemed taken with a panic, and running for dear life in the opposite +direction.</p> + +<p>For a few moments I thought the mare was gaining, and I turned to the +Colonel with an exultant look.</p> + +<p>'Don't shout till you win, my boy,' he called out from the distance +where I was fast leaving him and Sandy.</p> + +<p><i>I did not shout</i>, for spite of all my efforts the space between me and +the pig seemed to widen. Yet I kept on, determined to win, till, at the +end of a short half-mile, we reached the Waccamaw—the swine still a +hundred yards ahead! There his pig-ship halted, turned coolly around, +eyed me for a moment, then quietly and deliberately trotted off into the +woods.</p> + +<p>A bend in the road kept my compan<a name="Page_31" id="Page_31"></a>ions out of sight for a few moments, +and when they came up I had somewhat recovered my breath, though the +mare was blowing hard, and reeking with foam.</p> + +<p>'Well,' said the Colonel, 'what do you think of our bacon 'as it runs'?'</p> + +<p>'I think the Southern article can't be beat, whether raw or cooked, +standing or running.'</p> + +<p>At this moment the hound, who had been leisurely jogging along in the +rear, disdaining to join in the race in which his dog of a master and I +had engaged, came up, and dashing quickly on to the river's edge, set up +a most dismal howling. The Colonel dismounted, and clambering down the +bank, which was there twenty feet high, and very steep, shouted out:</p> + +<p>'The d—d Yankee has swum the stream!'</p> + +<p>'Why so?' Tasked.</p> + +<p>'To cover his tracks and delay pursuit; but he has overshot the mark. +There is no other road within ten miles, and he must have taken to this +one again beyond here. He's lost twenty minutes by that maneuver. Come, +Sandy, call on the dog, we'll push on a little faster.'</p> + +<p>'But he tuk to t'other bank, Cunnel. Shan't we trail him thar?' asked +Sandy.</p> + +<p>'And suppose he found a boat here,' I suggested, 'and made the shore +some ways down?'</p> + +<p>'He couldn't get Firefly into a boat—we should only waste time in +scouring the other bank. The swamp this side the next run has forced him +into the road within five miles. The trick is transparent. He took me +for a fool,' replied the Colonel, answering both questions at once.</p> + +<p>I had reined my horse out of the road, and when my companions turned to +go, was standing at the edge of the bank, overlooking the river. +Suddenly I saw, on one of the abutments of the bridge, what seemed a +long, black log—strange to say, <i>in motion!</i></p> + +<p>'Colonel,' I shouted, 'see there! a living log, as I'm a white man!'</p> + +<p>'Lord bless you,' cried the planter, taking an observation, 'it's an +alligator!'</p> + +<p>I said no more, but pressing on after the hound, soon left my companions +out of sight. For long afterward, the Colonel, in a doleful way, would +allude to my lamentable deficiency in natural history—particularly in +such branches as bacon and 'living logs.'</p> + +<p>I had ridden about five miles, keeping well up with the hound, and had +reached the edge of the swamp, when suddenly the dog darted to the side +of the road, and began to yelp in the most frantic manner. Dismounting, +and leading my horse to the spot, I made out plainly the print of +Firefly's feet in the sand. There was no mistaking it—that round shoe +on the off fore-foot. (The horse had, when a colt, a cracked hoof, and +though the wound was outgrown, the foot was still tender.) These prints +were dry, while the tracks we had seen at the river were filled with +water, thus proving that the rain ceased while the overseer was passing +between the two places. He was then not far off.</p> + +<p>The Colonel and Sandy soon rode up.</p> + +<p>'Caught a living log! eh, my good fellow?' asked my host, with a laugh.</p> + +<p>'No; but here's the overseer as plain as daylight; and his tracks not +wet!'</p> + +<p>Quickly dismounting, he examined the ground, and then exclaimed:</p> + +<p>'The d—l! it's a fact—here not four hours ago! He has doubled on his +tracks since, I'll wager, and not made twenty miles—we'll have him +before night, sure! Come, mount—quick.'</p> + +<p>We sprang into our saddles, and again pressed rapidly on after the dog, +who followed the scent at the top of his speed.</p> + +<p>Some three miles more of wet, miry road took us to the run of which the +Colonel had spoken. Arrived there, we found the hound standing on the +bank, wet to the skin, and looking decidedly chop-fallen.</p> + +<p>'Death and d—n!' shouted the Colonel; 'the dog has swum the run, and +lost the trail on the other side! The d—d scoundrel has taken to the +water, and balked us after all! Take <a name="Page_32" id="Page_32"></a>up the dog, Sandy, and try him +again over there.'</p> + +<p>The native spoke to Cæsar, who bounded on to the horse's back in front +of his master. They then crossed the stream, which there was about fifty +yards wide, and so shallow that in the deepest part the water only +touched the horse's breast, but it was so roiled by the recent rain that +we could not distinguish the foot-prints of the horse beneath the +surface.</p> + +<p>The dog ranged up and down on the opposite bank, but all to no purpose: +the overseer had not been there. He had gone either up or down the +stream—in which direction, was now the question. Calling Sandy back to +our side of the run, the Colonel proceeded to hold a 'council of war.' +Each one gave his opinion, which was canvassed by the others, with as +much solemnity as if the fate of the Union hung on the decision.</p> + +<p>The native proposed we should separate—one go up, another down the +stream, and the third, with the dog, follow the road; to which he +thought Moye had finally returned. Those who should explore the run +would easily detect the horse's tracks where he had left it, and then +taking a straight course to the road, we could all meet some five miles +further on, at a place indicated.</p> + +<p>I gave in my adhesion to Sandy's plan, but the Colonel overruled it on +the ground of the waste of time to be incurred in thus recovering the +overseer's trail.</p> + +<p>'Why not,' he said, 'strike at once for the end of his route? Why follow +the slow steps he took in order to throw us off the track? He has not +come back to this road. Six miles below there is another one leading +also to the railway. He has taken that. We might as well send Sandy and +the dog back at once, and go on by ourselves.'</p> + +<p>'But if bound for the Station, why should he wade through the creek +here, sis miles out of his way? Why not go straight on by the road?' I +asked.</p> + +<p>'Because he knew the dog would track him, and he hoped by taking to the +run to make me think he had crossed the country instead of striking for +the railroad.'</p> + +<p>I felt sure the Colonel was wrong, but knowing him to be tenacious of +his own opinions, I made no further objection.</p> + +<p>Directing Sandy to call on Madam P—— and acquaint her with our +progress, he then dismissed the negro-hunter, and we once more turned +our horses up the road.</p> + +<p>The next twenty miles, like our previous route, lay through an unbroken +forest, but as we left the water-courses, we saw nothing but the gloomy +pines, which there—the region being remote from the means of +transportation—were seldom tapped, and presented few of the openings +that invite the weary traveler to the dwelling of the hospitable +planter.</p> + +<p>After a time the sky, which had been bright and cloudless all the +morning, grew overcast and gave out tokens of a coming storm. A black +cloud gathered in the west, and random flashes darted from it far off in +the distance; then gradually it neared us; low mutterings sounded in the +air, and the tops of the tall pines a few miles away, were lit up now +and then with a fitful blaze, all the brighter for the deeper gloom that +succeeded. Then a terrific flash and peal broke directly over us, and a +great tree, struck by a red-hot bolt, fell with a deafening crash, +half-way across our path. Peal after peal followed, and then the +rain—not filtered into drops as it falls from our colder sky, but in +broad, blinding sheets, poured full and heavy on our shelterless heads.</p> + +<p>'Ah! there it comes!' shouted the Colonel. 'God have mercy upon us!'</p> + +<p>Suddenly a crashing, crackling, thundering roar rose above the storm, +filling the air, and shaking the solid earth till it trembled beneath +our horses' feet, as if upheaved by a volcano. Nearer and nearer the +sound came, till it seemed that all the legions of darkness were +unloosed in the forest, and were mowing down the great pines as the +mower mows the grass with big scythe. Then an awful, sweeping crash +<a name="Page_33" id="Page_33"></a>thundered directly at our backs, and turning round, as if to face a +foe, my horse, who had borne the roar and the blinding flash till then, +unmoved, paralyzed with dread, and panting for breath, sunk to the +ground; while close at my side the Colonel, standing erect in his +stirrups, his head uncovered to the pouring sky, cried out:</p> + +<p>'<span class="smcap">Thank God, we are saved</span>!'</p> + +<p>There—not three hundred yards in our rear, had passed the +<span class="smcap">Tornado</span>—uprooting trees, prostrating dwellings, and sending many a soul +to its last account, but sparing us for another day! For thirty miles +through the forest it had mowed a swath of two hundred feet, then moved +on to stir the ocean to its briny depths.</p> + +<p>With a full heart, I remounted, and turning my horse, pressed on in the +rain. We said not a word till a friendly opening pointed the way to a +planter's dwelling. Then calling to me to follow, the Colonel dashed up +the by-path which led to the mansion, and in five minutes we were +warming our chilled limbs before the cheerful fire that roared and +crackled on its broad hearth-stone.</p> + +<p>The house was a large, old-fashioned frame building, square as a +packing-box, and surrounded, as all country dwellings at the South are, +by a broad, open piazza. Our summons was answered by its owner, a +well-to-do, substantial, middle-aged planter, wearing the ordinary +homespun of the district, but evidently of a station in life much above +the common 'corn-crackers' I had seen at the country meeting-house. The +Colonel was an acquaintance, and greeting us with great cordiality, our +host led the way directly to the sitting-room. There we found a bright, +blazing fire, and a pair of bright, blazing eyes, the latter belonging +to a blithesome young woman of about twenty, with a cheery face, and a +half-rustic, half-cultivated air, whom our new friend introduced to us +as his wife.</p> + +<p>'I regret not having had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. S—— before, but +am very happy to meet her now,' said the Colonel, with all the +well-bred, gentlemanly ease that distinguished him.</p> + +<p>'The pleasure is mutual, Colonel J——,' replied the lady, 'but thirty +miles in this wild country should not have made a neighbor so distant as +you have been.'</p> + +<p>'Business, madam, is at fault, as your husband knows. I have much to do; +and besides, all my connections are in the other direction—with +Charleston.'</p> + +<p>'It's a fact, Sally, the Colonel is the d——st busy man in these parts. +Not content with a big plantation and three hundred niggers, he looks +after all South-Carolina, and the rest of creation to boot,' said our +host.</p> + +<p>'Tom will have his joke, madam, but he's not far from the truth.'</p> + +<p>Seeing we were dripping wet, the lady offered us a change of clothing, +and retiring to a chamber, we each appropriated a suit belonging to our +host, giving our own to a servant to be dried.</p> + +<p>Arrayed in the fresh apparel, we soon rejoined our friends in the +sitting-room. The new garments fitted the Colonel tolerably well, but +though none too long, they were a world too wide for me, and, as my wet +hair hung in smooth, flat folds down my cheeks, and my limp shirt-collar +fell over my linsey coat, I looked for all the world like a cross +between a theatrical Aminadab Sleek and Sir John Falstaff, with the +stuffing omitted. When our hostess caught sight of me in this new garb, +she rubbed her hands together in great glee, and, springing to her feet, +gave vent to a perfect storm of laughter—jerking out between the +explosions:</p> + +<p>'Why—you—you—look jest like—a scare-crow.'</p> + +<p>There was no mistaking that hearty, hoidenish manner; and seizing both +of her hands in mine, I shouted: 'I've found you out—you're a +'country-woman' of mine—a clear-blooded Yankee!'</p> + +<p>'What! <i>you</i> a Yankee!' she exclaimed, still laughing, 'and here with +this horrid 'seceshener,' as they call him.'</p> + +<p>'True as preachin', ma'am,' I replied, adopting the drawl—'all the way +from<a name="Page_34" id="Page_34"></a> Down East, and Union, tu, stiff as buckram.'</p> + +<p>'Du tell!' she exclaimed, swinging my hands together as she held them in +hers. 'If I warn't hitched to this ere feller, I'd give ye a smack right +on the spot. I'm <i>so</i> glad to see ye.'</p> + +<p>'Do it, Sally—never mind <i>me</i>,' cried her husband, joining heartily in +the merriment.</p> + +<p>Seizing the collar of my coat with both hands, she drew my face down +till my lips almost touched hers, (I was preparing to blush, and the +Colonel shouted, 'Come, come, I shall tell his wife,') but then, turning +quickly on her heel, she threw herself into a chair, exclaiming, 'I +wouldn't mind, but the <i>old man would be jealous;</i>' and adding to the +Colonel, 'You needn't be troubled, sir; no Yankee girl will kiss <i>you</i> +till you change your politics.'</p> + +<p>'Give me that inducement, and I'll change them on the spot,' said the +Colonel.</p> + +<p>'No, no, Dave, 'twouldn't do,' replied the planter, 'the conversion +wouldn't be genuwine—besides, such things arn't proper, except with +blood-relations—and all the Yankees, you know, are first-cousins.'</p> + +<p>The conversation then subsided into a more placid mood, but lost none of +its genial good-humor. Refreshments were soon set before us, and while +partaking of them I gathered from our hostess that she was a Vermont +country-girl, who, some three years before, had been induced by liberal +pay, to come South as a teacher. A sister accompanied her, who, about a +year after their arrival, had married a neighboring planter. Wishing to +be near the sister, our hostess had also married and settled down for +life in that wild region. 'I like the country very well,' she added; +'it's a great sight easier living here than in Vermont; but I do hate +these lazy, shiftless, good-for-nothing niggers; they are <i>so</i> slow, and +<i>so</i> careless, and <i>so</i> dirty, that I sometimes think they will worry +the very life out of me. I du believe I'm the hardest mistress in all +the district.'</p> + +<p>I learned from her that a majority of the teachers at the South are from +the North, and principally, too, from New-England. Teaching is a very +laborious employment there, far more so than with us, for the +Southerners have no methods like ours, and the same teacher usually has +to hear lessons in branches all the way from Greek and Latin to the +simple A B C. The South has no system of public instruction; no common +schools; no means of placing within the reach of the sons and daughters +of the poor even the elements of knowledge. While the children of the +wealthy are most carefully educated, it is the policy of the ruling +class to keep the great mass of the people in ignorance; and so long as +this policy continues, so long will that section be as far behind the +North as it now is in all that constitutes the elements of prosperity +and true greatness.</p> + +<p>The afternoon wore rapidly and pleasantly away in the genial society of +our wayside friends. Politics were discussed, (our host was a Union +man,) the prospects of the turpentine crop talked over, the recent news +canvassed, the usual neighborly topics touched upon, and—I hesitate to +confess it—a considerable quantity of corn-whisky disposed of, before +the Colonel discovered, all at once, that it was six o'clock, and we +were still seventeen miles from the railway station. Arraying ourselves +again in our dried garments, we bade a hasty but regretful 'good-by' to +our hospitable entertainers, and once more took to the road.</p> + +<p>The storm had cleared away, but the ground was heavy with the recent +rain, and our horses were sadly jaded with the ride of the morning. We +therefore gave them the reins, and as they jogged on at their leisure, +it was ten o'clock at night before we reached the little hamlet of +W——Station, in the State of North-Carolina.</p> + +<p>A large hotel, or station-house, and about a dozen log-shanties made up +the village. Two of these structures were negro-cabins; two were small +groceries, in which the vilest alcoholic compounds were sold at a bit +(ten cents) a glass; <a name="Page_35" id="Page_35"></a>one was a lawyer's office, in which was the +post-office, and a justice's court, where, once a month, the small +offenders of the vicinity 'settled up their accounts;' one was a +tailoring and clothing establishment, where breeches were patched at a +dime a stitch, and payment taken in tar and turpentine; and the rest +were private dwellings of one apartment, occupied by the grocers, the +tailor, the switch-tender, the post-master, and the negro <i>attachés</i> of +the railroad. The church and the school-house—the first buildings to go +up in a Northern village, I have omitted to enumerate, because—they +were not there.</p> + +<p>One of the natives told me that the lawyer was a 'stuck-up critter;' 'he +don't live; he don't—he puts-up at th' hotel.' And the hotel! Would +Shakspeare, had he known of it, have written of taking one's <i>ease</i> at +his inn? It was a long, framed building, two stories in hight, with a +piazza extending across its side, and a front door crowded as closely +into one corner as the width of the joist would permit. Under the +piazza, ranged along the wall, was a low bench, occupied by about forty +tin wash-basins and water-pails, with coarse, dirty crash towels +suspended on rollers above them. By the side of each of these towels +hung a comb and a brush, to which a lock of every body's hair was +clinging, forming in the total a stock sufficient to establish any +barber in the wig business.</p> + +<p>It was, as I have said, ten o'clock when we reached the station. +Throwing the bridles of our horses over the hitching-posts at the door, +we at once made our way to the bar-room. That apartment, which was in +the rear of the building, and communicated with by a long, narrow +passage, was filled almost to suffocation, when we entered, by a cloud +of tobacco-smoke, the fumes of bad whisky, and a crowd of drunken +chivalry, through whom the Colonel with great difficulty elbowed his way +to the counter, where 'mine host' and two assistants were dispensing +'liquid death,' at the rate of ten cents a glass, and of ten glasses a +minute.</p> + +<p>'Hello, Colonel! how ar' ye?' cried the red-faced liquor-vender, as he +caught sight of my companion, and—relinquishing his lucrative +employment for a moment—took the Colonel's hand.</p> + +<p>'Quite well, thank you, Miles,' said the Colonel, with a certain +patronizing air, 'have you seen my man Moye?'</p> + +<p>'Moye, no! What's up with him?'</p> + +<p>'He's run away with my horse, Firefly—I thought he would have made for +this station. At what time does the next train go up?'</p> + +<p>'Wal, it's due half arter 'leven, but 'taint gin'rally 'long till nigh +one.'</p> + +<p>The Colonel was turning to join me at the door, when a well-dressed +young man of very unsteady movements, who was filling a glass at the +counter, and staring at him with a sort of dreamy amazement, stammered +out: 'Moye—run—run a—way, zir! that—k—kant be—by G—d. I +know—him, zir—he's a—a friend of mine, and—I'm—I'm d—d if he an't +hon—honest.'</p> + +<p>'About as honest as the Yankees run,' replied the Colonel: 'he's a d—d +thief, sir!'</p> + +<p>'Look here—here, zir—don't—don't you—you zay any—thing 'gainst—the +Yankees. D—d if—if I an't—one of 'em mezelf—zir,' said the fellow +staggering toward the Colonel.</p> + +<p>'<i>I</i> don't care <i>what</i>, you are; you're drunk.'</p> + +<p>'You lie—you—you d—d 'ris—'ristocrat—take that,' was the reply, and +the inebriated gentleman aimed a blow, with all his unsteady might, at +the Colonel's face.</p> + +<p>The South-Carolinian stepped quickly aside, and dexterously threw his +foot before the other, who—his blow not meeting the expected +resistance—was unable to recover himself, and fell headlong to the +floor. The Colonel turned on his heel, and was walking quietly away, +when the sharp report of a pistol sounded through the apartment, and a +ball tore through the top of his boot, and lodged <a name="Page_36" id="Page_36"></a>in the wall within +two feet of where I was standing. With a spring, quick and sure as the +tiger's, the Colonel was on the drunken man. Wrenching away the weapon, +he seized the fellow by the necktie, and drawing him up to nearly his +full hight, dashed him at one throw to the other side of the room. Then +raising the revolver he coolly leveled it to fire.</p> + +<p>But a dozen strong men were on him. The pistol was out of his hand, and +his arms were pinioned in an instant; while cries of 'Fair play, sir!' +'He's drunk!' 'Don't hit a man when he's down,' and other like +exclamations, came from all sides.</p> + +<p>'Give <i>me</i> fair play, you d—d North-Carolina hounds,' cried the +Colonel, struggling violently to get away, 'and I'll fight the whole +posse of you.'</p> + +<p>'One's 'nuff for <i>you</i>, ye d—d fire-eatin' 'ristocrat,' said a long, +lean, bushy-haired, be-whiskered individual who was standing near the +counter: 'ef ye wan't ter fight, <i>I'll</i> 'tend to yer case to onst. Let +him go, boys,' he continued as he stepped toward the Colonel, and parted +the crowd that had gathered around him: 'give him the shootin'-iron, and +let's see ef he'll take a man thet's sober.'</p> + +<p>I saw serious trouble was impending, and stepping forward, I said to the +last speaker: 'My friend, you have no quarrel with this gentleman. He +has treated that man only as you would have done.'</p> + +<p>'P'raps thet's so; but he's a d—d hound of a Seseshener thet's draggin' +us all to h—l; it'll do th' cuntry good to git quit of one on 'em.'</p> + +<p>'Whatever his politics are, he's a gentleman, sir, and has done you no +harm—let me beg of you to let him alone.'</p> + +<p>'Don't beg any thing for me, Mr. K——' growled the Colonel through his +barred teeth, 'I'll fight the d—d corn-cracker, and his whole race, at +once.'</p> + +<p>'No you won't, my friend. For the sake of those at home you won't,' I +said, as I took him by the arm, and partly led, partly forced, him +toward the door.</p> + +<p>'And who in h—l ar ye?' asked the 'corn-cracker,' planting himself +squarely in my way.</p> + +<p>'I'm on the same side of politics with you, Union to the core!' I +replied.</p> + +<p>'Ye ar! Union! Then giv us yer fist,' said he, grasping me by the hand, +'by——it does a feller good to see a man dressed in yer cloes thet +haint 'fraid ter say he's Union, so close to South-Car'lina, tu, as this +ar! Come, hev a drink: come, boys—all round—let's liquor!'</p> + +<p>'Excuse me now, my dear fellow—some other time I'll be glad to join +you.'</p> + +<p>'Jest as ye say, but thar's my fist, enyhow.'</p> + +<p>He gave me another hearty shake of the hand, and the crowd parting, I +made my way with the Colonel out of the room. We were followed by Miles, +the landlord, who, when we had reached the front of the entrance-way, +said: 'I'm right sorry for this row, gentlemen; but th' boys will hev a +time when they git together.'</p> + +<p>'Oh! never mind,' said the Colonel, who had recovered his coolness; 'but +why are all these people here?'</p> + +<p>'Thar's a barbecue cumin' off to-morrer on the camp-ground, and the +house is cram full.'</p> + +<p>'Is that so?' said the Colonel, then turning to me he added, 'Moye has +taken the railroad somewhere else; I must get to a telegraph-office at +once, to head him off. The nearest one is Wilmington. With all these +rowdies here, it will not do to leave the horses alone—will you stay +and keep an eye on them over to-morrow?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, I will, cheerfully.'</p> + +<p>'Thar's a mighty hard set round har now, Cunnel,' said the landlord; +'and the most peaceable git inter scrapes ef they han't no friends. +Hadn't ye better show the gentleman some of your'n, 'fore you go?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, yes, I didn't think of that. Who is here?'</p> + +<p>'Wal, thar's Cunnel Taylor, Bill Barnes, Sam Heddleson, Jo' Shackelford. +Andy Jones, Rob Brown, and lots of others.'</p> + +<p>'Where's Andy Jones?'</p> + +<p>'Reckon he's turned in; I'll see.' As the landlord opened a door which +<a name="Page_37" id="Page_37"></a>led from the hall, the Colonel said to me: 'Andy is a Union man, but +he'd fight to the death for me.'</p> + +<p>'Sal!' called out the hotel-keeper.</p> + +<p>'Yas, massa, I'se har,' was the answer from a slatternly woman, awfully +black in the face, who soon thrust her head from the door.</p> + +<p>'Is Andy Jones har?' asked Miles.</p> + +<p>'Yas, massa, he'm turned in up thar on de table.'</p> + +<p>We followed the landlord into the apartment. It was the dining-room of +the hotel, and by the dim light which came from a smoky fire on the +hearth, I saw it contained about a hundred people, who, wrapped in +blankets, bed-quilts and traveling-shawls, and disposed in all +conceivable attitudes, were scattered about on the hard floor and +tables, sleeping soundly. The room was a long, low apartment—extending +across the whole front of the house—and had a wretched, squalid look. +The fire, which was tended by the negro-woman, (she had spread a blanket +on the floor, and was keeping a drowsy watch over it for the night,) had +been recently replenished with green wood, and was throwing out thick +volumes of black smoke, which, mixing with the effluvia from the lungs +of a hundred sleepers made up an atmosphere next to impossible to +breathe. Not a window was open, and not an aperture for ventilation +could be seen!</p> + +<p>Carefully avoiding the arms and legs of the recumbent chivalry, we +picked our way, guided by the negro-girl, to the corner of the room +where the Unionist was sleeping. Shaking him briskly by the shoulder, +the Colonel called out: 'Andy! Andy! wake up!'</p> + +<p>'What—what the d——l is the matter?' stammered out the sleeper, +gradually opening his eyes, and raising himself on one elbow, 'Lord +bless you, Cunnel, is thet you? what in——brought <i>you</i> har?'</p> + +<p>'Business, Andy. Come, get up, I want to see you, and I can't talk +here.'</p> + +<p>The North-Carolinian slowly rose, and throwing his blanket over his +shoulders, followed us from the room. When we had reached the open air +the Colonel introduced me to his friend, who expressed surprise, and a +great deal of pleasure, at meeting a Northern Union man in the Colonel's +company.</p> + +<p>'Look after our horses, now, Miles; Andy and I want to talk,' said the +planter to the landlord, with about as little ceremony as he would have +shown to a negro.</p> + +<p>I thought the white man did not exactly relish the Colonel's manner, but +saying: 'All right, all right, sir,' he took himself away.</p> + +<p>The night was raw and cold, but as all the rooms of the hotel were +occupied, either by sleepers or carousers, we had no other alternative +than to hold our conference in the open-air. Near the railway-track a +light-wood fire was blazing, and, obeying the promptings of the frosty +atmosphere, we made our way to it. Lying on the ground around it, +divested of all clothing except a pair of linsey trowsers and a flannel +shirt, and with their naked feet close to its blaze—roasting at one +extremity, and freezing at the other—were several blacks, the +switch-tenders and woodmen of the station—fast asleep. How human beings +could sleep in such circumstances seemed a marvel, but further +observation convinced me that the Southern negro has a natural aptitude +for that exercise, and will, indeed, bear more exposure than any other +living thing. Nature in giving him such powers of endurance, seems to +have specially fitted him for the life of hardship and privation to +which he is born.</p> + +<p>The fire-light enabled me to scan the appearance of my new acquaintance. +He was rather above the medium height, squarely and somewhat stoutly +built, and had an easy and self-possessed, though rough and unpolished +manner. His face, or so much of it as was visible from underneath a +thick mass of reddish gray hair, denoted a firm, decided character; but +there was a manly, open, honest expression about it that won your +confidence in a moment. He wore a slouched hat and a suit of the +ordinary<a name="Page_38" id="Page_38"></a> 'sheep's-gray,' cut in the 'sack' fashion, and hanging loosely +about him. He seemed a man who had made his own way in the world, and I +subsequently learned that appearances did not belie him. The son of a +'poor white' man, with scarcely the first rudiments of book-education, +he had, by sterling worth, natural ability, and great force of +character, accumulated a handsome property, and acquired a leading +position in his adopted district. Though on 'the wrong side of +politics,' his personal popularity was so great that for several +successive years he had been elected to represent his county in the +State Legislature. The Colonel, though opposed to him in politics—and +party feeling at the South runs so high that political opponents are +seldom personal friends—had, in the early part of his career, aided him +by his indorsements; and Andy had not forgotten the service. It was easy +to see that while two men could not be more unlike in character and +appearance than my host and the North-Carolinian, they were warm and +intimate friends.</p> + +<p>'So, Moye has been raisin h—l gin'rally, Cunnel,' said my new +acquaintance after a time. 'I'm not surprised. I never did b'lieve in +Yankee nigger-drivers—sumhow it's agin natur for a Northern man to go +Southern principles quite so strong as Moye did.'</p> + +<p>'Which route do you think he has taken?' asked the Colonel.</p> + +<p>'Wal, I reckon arter he tuk to the run, he made fur the mountings. He +know'd you'd head him on the traveled routes; so he's put, I think, fur +the Missusippe, where he'll sell the horse and make North.'</p> + +<p>'I'll follow him,' said the Colonel, 'to the ends of the earth. If it +costs me five thousand dollars, I'll see him hung.'</p> + +<p>'Wal,' replied Andy, laughing, 'if he's gone North, you'll need a +extradition treaty to kotch him. South-Car'lina, I b'lieve, has set up +fur a furrin country.'</p> + +<p>'That's true,' said the Colonel, also laughing, 'she's 'furrin' to the +Yankees, but not to the old North State.'</p> + +<p>'D——d if she han't,' replied the North-Carolinian, 'and now she's got +out on our company, I swear she must keep out. We'd as soon think of +goin' to h—l in summer time, as of joining partnership with her. +Cunnel, you're the only decent man in the State—d——d if you +han't—and your politics are a'most bad 'nuff to spile a township. It +allers seemed sort o' queer to me, thet a man with such a mighty good +heart as your'n could be so short in the way of brains.'</p> + +<p>'Well, you're complimentary,' replied the Colonel, with the utmost good +nature, 'but let's drop politics; we never could agree, you know. What +shall I do about Moye?'</p> + +<p>'Go to Wilmington, and telegraph all creation: wait a day to har, then +if you don't har, go home, hire a native overseer, and let Moye go to +the d—-l. Ef it'll du you any good, I'll go to Wilmington with you, +though I did mean to give you secesheners a little h—l here to-morrer.'</p> + +<p>'No, Andy, I'll go alone. 'Twouldn't be patriotic to take you away from +the barbecue. You'd 'spile' if you couldn't let off some gas soon.'</p> + +<p>'I du b'lieve I shud. Howsumdever, thar's nary a thing I wouldn't do for +you—you knows thet?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, I do, and I wish you'd keep an eye on my Yankee friend here, and +see he don't get into trouble with any of the boys—there'll be a hard +set 'round, I reckon.'</p> + +<p>'Wal, I will,' said Andy, 'but all he's to du is—keep mouth shet.'</p> + +<p>'That seems easy enough,' I replied, laughing.</p> + +<p>A desultory conversation followed for about an hour, when the +steam-whistle sounded, and the up-train arrived. The Colonel got on +board, and bidding us 'good-night,' went on to Wilmington. Andy then +proposed we should look up sleeping accommodations. It was useless to +seek quarters at the hotel, but an empty car was on the turn-out, and +bribing one of the negroes, we got access to it, and were soon stretched +at full length on two of its hard-bottomed seats.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39"></a>The camp-ground was about a mile from the station, and pleasantly +situated in a grove, near a stream of water. It was in frequent use by +the camp-meetings of the Methodist denomination, which sect, at the +South, is partial to these rural religious gatherings. Scattered over +it, with an effort at regularity, were about forty small but neat log +cottages, thatched with the long leaves of the turpentine-pine, and +chinked with branches of the same tree. Each of these houses was floored +with leaves or straw, and large enough to afford sleeping accommodations +for about ten person, provided they spread their bedding on the ground, +and lay tolerably close together. Interspersed among the cabins were +about a dozen canvas tents, which evidently had been erected for this +especial occasion.</p> + +<p>Nearly in the centre of the group of huts, a rude sort of scaffold, four +or five feet high, and surrounded by a rustic railing, served for the +speaker's stand. It would seat about a dozen persons, and was protected +by a roof of pine-boughs, interlaced together so as to keep off the sun, +without affording protection from the rain. In the rear of this stand +were two long tables, made of rough boards, and supported on stout +joists, crossed on each other in the form of the letter X. A canopy of +green boughs shaded the grounds, and the whole grove, which was +perfectly free from underbrush, was carpeted with the soft, brown leaves +of the pine.</p> + +<p>Being fatigued with the ride of the previous day, I did not awake till +the morning was well advanced, and it was nearly ten o'clock when Andy +and I took our way to the camp-ground. Avoiding the usual route, we +walked on through the forest. It was mid-winter, and vegetation lay dead +all around us, awaiting the time when spring should breathe into it the +breath of life and make it a living thing. There was silence and rest in +the deep wood. The birds were away on their winter wanderings; the +leaves hung motionless on the tall trees, and nature seemed resting from +her ceaseless labor, and listening to the soft music of the little +stream which sung a cheerful song as it rambled on over the roots and +fallen branches that blocked its way. But soon a distant murmur arose, +and we had not proceeded far before as many sounds as were heard at +Babel made a strange concert about our ears. The lowing of the ox, the +neighing of the horse, and the deep braying of another animal, mingled +with a thousand human voices, came through the woods. But above and over +all rose the stentorian tones of the stump speaker,</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'As he trod the shaky platform,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With the sweat upon his brow.'</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>About a thousand persons were already assembled on the ground, and a +more motley gathering I never beheld. All sorts of costumes and all +classes of people were there; but the genuine back-woods corn-crackers +composed the majority of the assemblage. As might be expected, much the +larger portion of the audience were men; still I saw some women and not +a few children, many of the country people having taken advantage of the +occasion to give their families a holiday. Some occupied benches in +front of the stand, though a larger number were seated around in groups, +within hearing of the speaker, but paying very little attention to what +he was saying. A few were whittling, a few pitching quoits, or playing +leap-frog, and quite a number were having a quiet game of whist, euchre, +or 'seven-up.'</p> + +<p>The speaker was a well-dressed, gentlemanly-looking man, and a tolerably +good orator. He seemed accustomed to addressing a jury, for he displayed +all the adroitness in handling his subject, and in appealing to the +prejudices of his hearers, that we see in successful special pleaders. +But he overshot his mark. To nine out of ten of his audience, his words +and similes, though correct and sometimes beautiful, were as +unintelligible as the dead languages. He advocated immediate, +unconditional secession; and I thought from the applause which met his +remarks, whenever he seemed to make himself understood, <a name="Page_40" id="Page_40"></a>that the large +majority of those present were of the same way of thinking.</p> + +<p>He was succeeded by a heavy-browed, middle-aged man, slightly bent, and +with hair a little turned to gray, but still hale, athletic, and in the +prime and vigor of manhood. His pantaloons and waistcoat were of the +common home-spun, and he used, now and then, a word of the country +dialect; but as a stump-speaker, he was infinitely superior to the more +polished orator who had preceded him.</p> + +<p>He, too, advocated secession as a right and a duty—separation, now and +forever from the dirt-eating, money-loving Yankees, who, he was ashamed +to say, had the same ancestry, and worshiped the same God as himself. He +took the bold ground that slavery is a curse to both the black and the +white, but that it was forced upon this generation before it was born, +by these same greedy, grasping Yankees, who would sell not only the +bones and sinews of their fellowmen, but—worse than that—their own +souls, for gold. It was forced upon them without their consent, and now +that it had become interwoven with all their social life, and was a +necessity of their very existence, the hypocritical Yankees would take +it from them, because, forsooth, it was a sin and a wrong—as if <i>they</i> +had to bear its responsibility, or the South could not settle its own +account with its Maker!</p> + +<p>'Slavery is now,' he continued, 'indispensable to us. Without it, +cotton, rice, and sugar will cease to grow, and the South will starve. +What if it works abuses? What if the black, at times, is overburdened, +and his wife and daughters debauched? Man is not perfect any +where—there are wrongs in every society. It is for each one to give his +account, in such matters, to his God. But in this are we worse than +they? Are there not abuses in society at the North? Are not their +laborers overworked? While sin here hides itself under cover of the +night, does it not there stalk abroad at noonday? If the wives and +daughters of blacks are debauched here, are not the wives and daughters +of whites debauched there? and will not a Yankee barter away the +chastity of his own mother for a dirty dollar? Who fill our brothels? +Yankee women! Who load our penitentiaries, crowd our whipping-posts, +debauch our slaves, and cheat and defraud us all? Yankee men! And I say +unto you, fellow-citizens,' and here the speaker's form seemed to dilate +with the wild enthusiasm which possessed him, ''come out from among +them; be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing,' and thus saith +the Lord God of hosts, who will guide you, and lead you, if need be, to +battle and to victory!'</p> + +<p>A perfect storm of applause followed. The assemblage rose, and one long +wild shout rent the old woods, and made the great trees tremble. It was +some minutes before the uproar subsided; when it did, a voice near the +speaker's stand called out: 'Andy Jones!' The call was at once echoed by +another voice, and soon a general shout for 'Andy!' 'Union Andy!' 'Bully +Andy!' went up from the same crowd which a moment before had so wildly +applauded the secession speaker.</p> + +<p>Andy rose from where he was seated beside me, and quietly ascended the +steps of the platform. Removing his hat, and passing to his mouth a huge +quid of tobacco, from a tin box in his pantaloons-pocket, he made +several rapid strides up and down the speaker's stand, and then turned +squarely to the audience.</p> + +<p>The reader has noticed a tiger pacing up and down in his cage, with his +eyes riveted on the human faces before him. He has observed how he will +single out some individual, and finally stopping short in his rounds, +turn on him with a look of such intense ferocity as makes a man's blood +stand still, and his very breath come thick and hard, as he momentarily +expects the beast will tear away the bars of his cage and leap forth on +the obnoxious person. Now, Andy's fine, open, manly face had nothing of +the tiger in it, but for a moment, I could <a name="Page_41" id="Page_41"></a>not divest myself of the +impression, as he halted in his walk up and down the stage, and turned +full and square on the previous speaker—who had taken a seat among the +audience near me—that he was about to spring upon him. Riveting his eye +on the man's face, he at last slowly said:</p> + +<p>'A man stands har and quotes Scriptur agin his feller-man, and forgets +thet 'God made of one blood all nations thet dwell on the face of the +'arth.' A man stands har and calls his brother a thief, and his mother a +harlot, and axes us to go his doctrines! I don't mean his brother in the +Scriptur' sense, nor his mother in a fig'rative sense, but I mean the +brother of his own blood, and the mother that bore him; for HE, +gentlemen, (and he pointed his finger directly at the recent speaker, +while his words came slow and heavy with intense scorn,) HE is a Yankee! +And now, I say, gentlemen, d—n sech doctrins; d—n sech principles; and +d—n the man thet's got a soul so black as to utter 'em!'</p> + +<p>A breathless silence fell on the assemblage, as the person alluded to +sprang to his feet, his face on fire, and his voice thick and broken +with intense rage, and yelled out: 'Andy Jones, by ——, you shall +answer for this!'</p> + +<p>'Sartin', said Andy, coolly inserting his thumbs in the armholes of his +waistcoat; 'eny whar you likes—har—now—ef 'greeable to you.'</p> + +<p>'I've no weapon here, sir, but I'll give you a chance mighty sudden,' +was the fierce reply.</p> + +<p>'Suit yourself' said Andy, with perfect imperturbability; 'but as you +han't jest ready, s'pose you set down and har me tell 'bout your +relation: they're a right decent set—them as I knows—and I'll swar +they're 'shamed of you.'</p> + +<p>A buzz went through the crowd, and a dozen voices called out, 'Be civil, +Andy'—'Let him blow'—'Shet up'—'Go in, Jones'—with other like +elegant exclamations.</p> + +<p>A few of his friends took the aggrieved gentleman aside, and, soon +quieting him, restored order.</p> + +<p>'Wal, gentlemen,' resumed Andy, 'all on you know whar I was raised—over +thar in South-Car'lina. I'm sorry to say it, but it's true. And you all +know my father was a pore man, who couldn't give his boys no chance—and +ef he could, thar warn't no schules in the district—so we couldn't hev +got no book-larning ef we'd been a minded to. Wal, the next plantation +to whar we lived was old Cunnel J——'s, the father of this Cunnel. He +was a d—d old nullifier, jest like his son—but not half so decent a +man. Wal, on his plantation was an old nigger called Uncle Pomp, who'd +sumhow larned to read. He was a mighty good nigger, and he'd hev been in +heaven long afore now ef the Lord hadn't a had sum good use for him down +har—but he'll be thar yet a d—d sight sooner than sum on us white +folks—that's sartin. Wal, as I was saying, Pomp could read, and when I +was 'bout sixteen, and had never seed the inside of a book, the old +darkey said to me one day—he was old then, and thet was thirty years +ago—wal, he said to me: 'Andy, chile, ye orter larn to read—'twould be +ob use to ye when you're grow'd up, and it moight make you a good and +'spected man. Now, come to ole Pomp's cabin, and he'll larn you, Andy, +chile.' I reckon I went. He hadn't nothin' but a Bible and Watts' Hymns; +yet we used to stay thar all the long winter evenings, and by the light +of the fire—we war both so durned pore we couldn't raise a candle +atween us—wal, by the light of the fire he larned me, and 'fore long I +could spell right smart.</p> + +<p>'Now, jest think on thet, gentlemen! I, a white boy, and, 'cordin' to +the Declaration of Independence, jest as good blood as the old Cunnel, +bein' larned to read by an old slave, and that old slave a'most worked +to death, and takin' his nights, when he orter hev been a restin' his +old bones, to larn me! I'm d—d if he don't get to heaven for that one +thing, if for nothin' else.</p> + +<p>'Wal, you all know the rest—how, when I'd grow'd up, I settled har, in +the <a name="Page_42" id="Page_42"></a>old North State, and how the young Cunnel backed my paper and set +me a runnin' at turpentinin'. P'r'aps you don't think this has much to +do with the Yankees, but it has a durned sight, as ye'll see raather +sudden. Wal, arter a while, when I'd got a little 'forehanded, I begun +shippin' my truck to York and Bosting; and at last my Yankee factor, he +come out har, inter the backwoods, to see me, and says he: 'Jones, come +North and take a look at us.' I'd sort o' took to him. I'd had lots to +do with him afore ever I seed him, and I allers found him as straight as +a shingle. Wal, I went North, and he took me round, and showed me how +the Yankees does things. Afore I knowed him, I allers thought—as +p'r'aps most on ye do—that the Yankee war a sort o' cross atween the +devil and a Jew; but how do you s'pose I found 'em? I found that they +<i>sent the pore man's children to schule</i>. <span class="smcap">free</span>—and that the +schulehouses war a d—d sight thicker than the bugs in Miles Privett's +beds! and thet's saying a heap, for ef eny on you kin sleep in his +house, excep' he takes to the soft side of the floor, I'm d—d. Yas, the +pore man's children are larned thar <span class="smcap">free</span>!—all on 'em—and they've jest +so good a chance as the sons of the rich man! Now, arter that, do you +think that I—as got all my schulin' from an old slave, by the light of +a borrored pine-knot—der you think that <i>I</i> kin say any thing agin the +Yankees? P'r'aps they <i>do</i> steal—though I don't know it—p'r'aps they +<i>do</i> debauch thar wives and darters, and sell thar mothers' vartue for +dollers—but ef they do, I'm d—d ef they don't send pore children ter +schule—and that's more'n we do—and let me tell you, until we do, we +must count on thar bein' cuter and smarter nor we are.</p> + +<p>'This gentleman, too, my friends, who's been a givin' sech a hard +settin' down ter his own relation, arter they've broughten him up and +givin' him sech a good schulein' for nothin', he says the Yankees want +to interfere with our niggers. Now, thet han't so, and they couldn't ef +they would, 'cause it's agin the Constitution—and they stand on the +Constitution a durned sight solider nor we do. Didn't thar big +gun—Daniel Webster—didn't he make mince-meat o' South-Carolina Hayne +on that ar subject? But I tell you they han't a mind to meddle with our +niggers; they're a goin' ter let us go ter h—l our own way—and we're +goin' thar mighty fast, or I hevn't read the last census.'</p> + +<p>'P'r'aps you han't heerd on th' Ab'lisheners, Andy?' cried a voice from +among the audience.</p> + +<p>'Wal, I reckon I hev,' responded the orator. 'I've heerd on 'em, and +seed 'em, too. When I was North I went ter one on thar conventions, and +I'll tell you how they look. They've all long, wimmin's hair, and thin, +shet lips, with big, bawlin' mouths, and long, lean, tommerhawk +faces—'bout as white as vargin dip—and they all talk through the nose, +[giving a specimen,] and they look for all the world jest like the +South-Car'lina fire-eaters—and they <i>are</i> as near like 'em as two peas, +excep' they don't swar quite so bad, but they make up for that in +prayin'—and prayin' too much, I reckon, when a man's a d—d hippercrit, +is 'bout as bad as swearin'. But I tell you, the decent folks up North +han't ab'lisheners. They look on 'em jest as we do on mad dogs, the +itch, or the nigger-traders.</p> + +<p>'Now, 'bout this secession bis'ness—though tan't no use ter talk on +thet, 'cause this State never'll secede—South-Car'lina has done it, and +I'm raather glad she has, for though I was born thar, I say she orter +hev gone to h—l long ago, and now she's got thar—<i>let her stay!</i> But, +'bout thet bis'ness, I'll tell you a story.</p> + +<p>'I know'd an old gentleman once by the name o' Uncle Sam, and he'd a +heap o' sons. They war all likely boys—and strange ter tell, though +they'd all the same mother, and she a white woman, 'bout half on 'em war +colored—not black, but sorter half-and-half. Now, the white sons war +well-behaved, industrious, hard-workin' boys, who got 'long <a name="Page_43" id="Page_43"></a>well, +edicated that children, and allers treated the old man decently; but the +mulatter fellers war a pesky set—though some on 'em war better nor +others. They wouldn't work, but set up for airystocrocy—rode in +kerriges, kept fast hosses, bet high, and chawed tobaccer like the +devil. Wal, the result was, <i>they</i> got out at the elbows, and 'cause +they warn't gettin' 'long quite so fast as the white 'uns—though that +war all thar own fault—they got jealous, and one, on 'em, who was +blacker nor all the rest—a little feller, but terrible big on +braggin'—he packed up his truck one night, and left the old man's +house, and swore he'd never come back. He tried ter make the other +mulatters go 'long too, but they put thar fingers ter thar nose, and +says they: 'No you don't!' <i>I</i> was in favor o' lettin' on him stay out +in the cold, but the old man was a bernevolent old critter—so <i>he</i> +says: 'Now, sonny, you jest come back and behave yourself, and I'll +forgive you all on your old pranks, and treat you jest as I allers used +ter; but, ef you won't, why, I'll make you—that's all!'</p> + +<p>'Now, gentlemen, that querrelsome, oneasy, ongrateful, tobaccer-chawin', +high-bettin', hoss-racin', big-braggin', nigger-stealin', +wimmin-whippin', yaller son of the devil, is South-Car'lina; and ef she +don't come back and behave herself in futur', I'm d—d ef she won't be +ploughed with fire, and sowed with salt, and—Andy Jones will help ter +do it.'</p> + +<p>The speaker was frequently interrupted in the course of his remarks by +uproarious applause—but as he closed and descended from the platform, +the crowd sent up cheer after cheer, and a dozen strong men, making a +seat of their arms, lifted him from the ground, and bore him to the head +of the table, where dinner was in waiting.</p> + +<p>The whole of the large assemblage then fell to eating. The dinner was +made up of the barbecued beef and the usual mixture of viands found on a +planter's table, with water from the little brook hard by, and a +plentiful supply of corn-whisky. (The latter beverage, I thought, had +been subjected to the rite of immersion, for it tasted wonderfully like +water.)</p> + +<p>Songs and speeches were intermingled with the masticating exercises, and +the whole company were soon in the best of humor.</p> + +<p>During the meal I was introduced by Andy to a large number of the +'natives,' he taking special pains to tell each one that I was a Yankee, +and a Union man, but always adding, as if to conciliate all parties, +that I was also a guest and a friend of <i>his</i> very particular friend, +'that d—d seceshener, Cunnel J——.'</p> + +<p>Before we left the table, the secession orator happening near, Andy rose +from his seat, and extended his hand to him, saying:</p> + +<p>'Tom, you think I 'sulted you—p'r'aps I did—but you 'sulted my Yankee +friend har, and your own relation, and I hed to take it up, jest for the +looks o' the thing. Come, thar's my hand; I'll fight you ef you want +ter, or we'll say no more 'bout it—jest as you like.'</p> + +<p>'Say no more about it, Andy,' said the gentleman, very cordially; 'let's +drink and be friends.'</p> + +<p>They drank a glass of whisky together, and then leaving the table, +proceeded to where the ox had been barbecued, to show me how cooking on +a large scale is done at the South.</p> + +<p>In a pit about eight feet deep, twenty feet long, and ten feet wide, +laid up on the side with stones, a fire of hickory had been made, over +which, after the wood had burned down to coals, a whole ox, divested of +its hide and entrails, had been suspended on an enormous spit. Being +turned often in the process of cooking, the beef had finally been 'done +brown.' It was then cut up and served on the table, and I must say, for +the credit of Southern cookery, that it made as delicious eating as any +meat I ever tasted.</p> + +<p>I had then been away from my charge—the Colonel's horses—as long as +seemed to be prudent. I said as much <a name="Page_44" id="Page_44"></a>to Andy, when he proposed to +return with me, and turning good-humoredly to his reconciled friend, he +said:</p> + +<p>'Now, Tom, no secession talk while I'm off.'</p> + +<p>'Nary a word,' said Tom, and we left.</p> + +<p>The horses had been well fed by the negro who had them in charge, but +had not been groomed. Andy, seeing that, stripped off his coat, and, +setting the black at work on one, with a handful of straw and +pine-leaves commenced operations on the other, and the horse's coat was +soon as smooth and glossy as if recently rubbed by an English groom.</p> + +<p>The remainder of the day passed without incident till eleven at night, +when the Colonel returned from Wilmington.</p> + +<p>Moye had not been seen or heard of, and the Colonel's trip was +fruitless. While at Wilmington, he sent telegrams, directing the +overseer's arrest, to the various large cities of the South, and then +decided to return, make some arrangements preliminary to a protracted +absence from the plantation, and proceed at once to Charleston, where he +would await replies to his dispatches. Andy agreed with him in the +opinion that Moye, in his weak state of health, would not undertake an +overland journey to the free States, but would endeavor to reach some +town on the Mississippi, where he could dispose of the horse, and secure +a passage up the river.</p> + +<p>As no time was to be lost, it was decided that we should return to the +plantation on the following morning. Accordingly, with the first streak +of day, we bade 'good-by' to our Union friend, and started homeward.</p> + +<p>No incident worthy of mention occurred on the way, till about ten +o'clock, when we arrived at the home of the Yankee schoolmistress, where +we had been so hospitably entertained two days before. The lady received +us with great cordiality, forced upon us a lunch to serve our hunger on +the road, and when we parted, enjoined on me to leave the South at the +earliest possible moment. She was satisfied it would not for a much +longer time be safe quarters for a man professing Union sentiments. +Notwithstanding the strong manifestations of loyalty I had observed +among the people, I was convinced that the advice of my pretty +'countrywoman' was judicious, and I determined to be governed by it.</p> + +<p>Our horses, unaccustomed to lengthy journeys, had not entirely recovered +from the fatigues of their previous travel, and we did not reach our +destination till an hour after dark. We were most cordially welcomed by +Madam P——, who soon set before us a hot supper, which, as we were +jaded by the long ride, and had fasted for twelve hours on bacon +sandwiches and cold hoe-cake, was the one thing needful for us.</p> + +<p>While seated at the table, the Colonel asked:</p> + +<p>'Has every thing gone right, Alice, since we left home?'</p> + +<p>'Every thing,' replied the lady, 'except,' and she hesitated as if she +dreaded the effect of the news; 'except—that Juley and her child have +gone.'</p> + +<p>'Gone!' exclaimed my host, 'gone where?'</p> + +<p>'I don't know. We have searched every where, but have found no clue to +them. The morning you left, Sam set Juley at work among the pines; she +tried hard, but could not do a full task, and at night was taken to the +cabin to be whipped. I heard of it, and forbade Sam's doing it. It did +not seem to me to be right to punish her for not doing what she had not +strength to do. When she was released from the cabin, she came to thank +me for having interfered for her, and talked with me awhile. She cried +and took on fearfully about Sam, and was afraid you would punish her on +your return. I promised you would not, and when she left me, she seemed +more cheerful. I supposed she would go directly home, after getting her +child from the nurse's quarters; but it appears she then went to +Pompey's, where she staid till after ten o'clock. Neither she nor the +child have since been seen.'</p> + +<p><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45"></a>'Did you get no trace of her in the morning?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, but soon lost it. When she did not appear at work, Sam went to her +cabin to learn the cause, and found the door open, and her bed +undisturbed. She had not slept there. Knowing that Sandy had returned, I +sent for him, and with Jim and his dog, he commenced a search. The hound +tracked her directly from Pompey's cabin to the run near the lower +still. There all trace of her disappeared. We dragged the stream, but +discovered nothing. Jim and Sandy then scoured the woods for miles in +all directions, but the hound could not recover the trail. I hope +otherwise, but I fear some evil has befallen her.'</p> + +<p>'Oh! no, there's no fear of that,' said the Colonel; 'she is smart—she +waded up the run far enough to baffle the dog, and then made for the +swamp. That is why you lost her tracks at the stream. Rely upon it, I am +right; but she shall not escape me.'</p> + +<p>We shortly afterward adjourned to the library. After being seated there +a while, the Colonel, rising quickly, as if a sudden thought had struck +him, sent for the old preacher.</p> + +<p>The old negro soon appeared, hat in hand, and taking a stand near the +door, made a respectful bow to each one of us.</p> + +<p>'Take a chair, Pompey,' said Madam P—— kindly.</p> + +<p>The black meekly seated himself, when the Colonel asked: 'Well, Pomp, +what do you know about Jule's going off?'</p> + +<p>'Nuffin', massa; I 'shures you, nuffin'. De pore chile say nuffin' to +ole Pomp 'bout dat.'</p> + +<p>'What did she say?'</p> + +<p>'Wal, you see, massa, de night arter you gwo 'way, and arter she'd +worked hard in de brush all de day, and been a strung up in de ole cabin +for to be whipped, she come to me wid her baby in her arms, all a-faint +and a-tired, and her pore heart clean broke, and she say dat she'm jess +ready to drop down and die. Den I tries to comfut her, massa; I takes +her up from de floor, and I say to har dat de good Lord he pity her—dat +he doan't bruise de broken reed, and woan't put no more on har dan she +kin b'ar—dat he'd touch you' heart, massa—and I toled har you's a +good, kine heart at de bottom—and I knows it, 'case I toted you 'fore +you could gwo, and when you's a bery little chile, not no great sight +bigger'n her'n, you'd put your little arms round ole Pomp's neck, and +say dat when you war grow'd up, you'd be bery kine to de pore brack +folks, and not leff 'em be 'bused like dey war in dem days.'</p> + +<p>'Never mind what <i>you</i> said,' interrupted the Colonel, a little +impatiently, but showing no displeasure; 'what did <i>she</i> say?'</p> + +<p>'Wal, massa, she took on bery hard 'bout Sam, and axed me ef I raily +reckoned de Lord had forgib'n him, and took'n him to heseff, and gib'n +him one of dem hous'n up dar in de sky. I toled har dat I <i>know'd</i> it; +but she say it didn't 'pear so to har, 'case Sam had a been wid har out +dar in de woods, all fru de day; dat she'd a <i>seed</i> him, massa, and +dough he hadn't a said nuffin', he'd looked at har wid sech a sorry, +grebed look, dat it went clean fru har heart, till she'd no strength +leff, and fell down on de ground a'most dead. Den she say big Sam come +'long and fine har dar, and struck har great, heaby blows wid de big +whip!'</p> + +<p>'The brute!' exclaimed the Colonel, rising from his chair, and pacing +rapidly up and down the room.</p> + +<p>'But p'raps he warn't so much ter blame, massa,' continued the old +negro, in a deprecatory tone; 'may be he s'pose she war shirking de +work. Wal, den she say, she know'd nuffin' more, till byme-by, when she +come to, and fine big Sam dar, and he struck har agin, and make her gwo +to de work; and she did gwo, but she feel like as ef she'd die. I toled +her de good ma'am wudn't leff big Sam 'buse har no more 'fore you cum +hum, and dat you'd hab 'passion on har, and not leff har out in de +woods, <a name="Page_46" id="Page_46"></a>but put har 'mong de nusses, like as she war afore.</p> + +<p>'Den she say it 'twarn't de work dat trubble har—dat she orter work, +and orter be 'bused, 'case she'd been bad, bery bad. All she axed was +dat Sam would forgib har, and cum to har in de oder worle, and tell har +so. Den she cried, and took on awful; but de good Lord, massa, dat am so +bery kine to de bery wuss sinners, he put de words inter my mouf, and I +tink dey gabe har comfut, fur she say it sort o' 'peared to har den dat +Sam <i>would</i> forgib har, and take har inter his house up dar, and she +warn't afeard ter die no more.</p> + +<p>'Den she takes up de chile and gwoes 'way, 'pearin' sort o' happy, and +more cheerful like dan I'd a seed har eber sense pore Sam war shot.'</p> + +<p>My host was sensibly affected by the old man's simple tale, but +continued pacing up and down the room, and said nothing.</p> + +<p>'It's plain to me, Colonel,' I remarked, as Pompey concluded, 'she has +drowned herself and the child—the dog lost the scent at the creek.'</p> + +<p>'Oh! no,' he replied, 'I think not. I never heard of a negro committing +suicide—they've not the courage to do it.'</p> + +<p>'I fear she <i>has</i>, David,' said the lady. 'The thought of going to Sam +has led her to it; yet we dragged the run, and found nothing. What do +you think about it, Pompey?'</p> + +<p>'I dunno, ma'am; but I'se afeard ob dat. And now dat I tinks on it, I'se +afeard dat what I tole har put har up to it,' replied the old preacher, +bursting into tears. 'She 'peared so happy like, when I say she'd be +'long wid Sam in de oder worle, dat I'se afeard she's a gone and done it +wid har own hands. I tole har, too, dat de good Lord oberlooked many +tings dat pore sinners does when dey can't help 'emseffs, and it make +har do it, oh! it make har do it!' and the old black buried his face in +his hands, and wept bitterly.</p> + +<p>'Don't feel so, Pomp,' said his master <i>very</i> kindly. 'You did the best +you could; no one blames you.'</p> + +<p>'I knows <i>you</i> doan't, massa—I knows you doan't, and you's bery good +notter; but oh!' and his body swayed to and fro with the great grief; 'I +fears de Lord do, massa, for I'se sent har to him wid har own blood and +de blood of dat pore, innercent chile on har hands. Oh! I fears de Lord +neber'll forgib me—neber'll forgib me fur <i>dat</i>.'</p> + +<p>'He will, my good Pomp, he will!' said the Colonel, laying his hand +tenderly on the old man's shoulder. 'The Lord will forgive you, for the +sake of the Christian example you've set your master, if for nothing +else;' and then the proud, strong man's feelings overpowering him, his +tears fell in great drops on the breast of the old slave, as they had +fallen there when he was a child.</p> + +<p>Such scenes are not for the eye of a stranger, and turning away, I left +the room.</p> + +<p>The family met at the breakfast-table at the customary hour on the +following morning; but I noticed that Jim was not in his accustomed +place behind the Colonel's chair. That gentleman exhibited his usual +good spirits, but Madam P—— looked sad and anxious, and I had not +forgotten the scene of the previous evening.</p> + +<p>While we were seated at the meal, the negro Junius hastily entered the +room, and in an excited manner exclaimed:</p> + +<p>'O massa, massa! you muss cum ter de cabin—Jim hab draw'd his knife, +and he swar he'll kill de fuss un dat touch him!'</p> + +<p>'He does, does he!' said his master, springing from his seat, and +abruptly leaving the apartment.</p> + +<p>Remembering the fierce burst of passion I had seen in the negro, and +fearing there was danger a-foot, I rose to follow, saying as I did so:</p> + +<p>'Madam, can not you prevent this?'</p> + +<p>'I can not, sir; I have already done all I can. Go and try to pacify the +Colonel. Jim will die before he'll be whipped.'</p> + +<p>Jim was standing at the farther end <a name="Page_47" id="Page_47"></a>of the old cabin, with his back to +the wall, and the large spring-knife in his hand. Some half-dozen +negroes were in the centre of the room, apparently cowed by his fierce +and desperate looks, and his master stood within a few feet of him.</p> + +<p>'I tell you, Cunnel,' cried the negro, as I entered, 'you touch me at +your peril.'</p> + +<p>'You d—d nigger, do you dare to speak so to me?' said his master, +taking a step toward him.</p> + +<p>The knife rose in the air, and the black, in a cool, sneering tone, +replied: 'Say your prayers 'fore you come ony nigher, for, so help me +God, you're a dead man!'</p> + +<p>I laid my hand on the Colonel's arm, to draw him back, saying as I did +so: 'There's danger in him! I <i>know</i> it Let him go, and he shall ask +your pardon.'</p> + +<p>'I shan't ax his pardon,' cried the black, 'leff him and me be, sar; +we'll fix dis ourselfs.'</p> + +<p>'Don't interfere, Mr. K——,' said my host, with perfect coolness, but +with a face pallid with rage. 'Let me govern my own plantation.'</p> + +<p>'As you say, sir,' I replied, stepping back a few paces; 'but I warn +you—there is danger in him!'</p> + +<p>Taking no notice of my remark, the Colonel turned to the trembling +negroes, and said: 'One of you go to the house and bring my pistols.'</p> + +<p>'You kin shoot me, ef you likes,' said Jim, with a fierce, grim smile; +'but I'll take you to h—l wid me, <i>shore</i>. You knows WE won't stand a +blow!'</p> + +<p>The Colonel, at the allusion to their relationship, started as if shot, +and turning furiously on the negro, yelled out: 'I'll shoot you for +that, you d—d nigger, by——.'</p> + +<p>'It 'pears ter me, Cunnel, ye've hed 'bout nuff shootin' 'round har, +lately; better stop thet sort o' bis'ness; it moight give ye a sore +throat,' said the long, lean, loose-jointed stump-speaker of the +previous Sunday, as he entered the cabin and strode directly up to my +host.</p> + +<p>'What brought you here, you d—d insolent hound?' cried the Colonel, +turning fiercely on the new-comer.</p> + +<p>'Wal, I cum to du ye a naboorly turn—I've kotched two on yer niggers +down ter my still, an' I want ye ter take 'em 'way,' returned the +corn-cracker, with the utmost coolness.</p> + +<p>'Two of my niggers!' exclaimed the Colonel, perceptibly moderating his +tone, 'which ones?'</p> + +<p>'A yaller gal, and a child.'</p> + +<p>'I thank you, Barnes; excuse my hard words—I was excited.'</p> + +<p>'All right, Cunnel; say no more 'bout thet. Will ye send fur 'em? I'd +hev fotched 'em 'long, but my waggin's off jest now.'</p> + +<p>'Yes, I'll send at once. Have you got them safe?'</p> + +<p>'Safe? I reckon so! Kotched 'em las' night, arter dark, and they've kept +right still ever sense, I 'sure ye—but th' gal holes on ter th' young +'un ter kill—we couldn't get it 'way no how.'</p> + +<p>'How did you catch them?'</p> + +<p>'The' got 'gainst my turpentime raft—th' current driv 'em down, I +s'pose.'</p> + +<p>'What! are they dead?' exclaimed the Colonel.</p> + +<p>'Dead? Deader'n drownded rats!' was the native's reply.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48"></a></p> +<h3><a name="WAS_HE_SUCCESSFUL" id="WAS_HE_SUCCESSFUL"></a>WAS HE SUCCESSFUL?</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Do but grasp into the thick of human life! Every one <i>lives</i> +it—to not many is it <i>known</i>; and seize it where you will, it is +interesting.'—<i>Goethe</i>.</p> + +<p>'SUCCESSFUL.—Terminating in accomplishing what is wished or +intended.'—<i>Webster's Dictionary</i>.</p></div> +<p> </p> +<h3>CHAPTER III.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The people are anxious for the <i>detail</i> of sentiments, not for +general results.'—<i>Lamartine</i>.</p></div> + + +<p>Hiram exhibited almost from his boyhood a fondness for female society. +Even when at the district-school, he preferred spending 'noon-time' +among the girls to racing around with the boys, pitching quoits, +wrestling at 'arm's-end,' 'back-hold,' or playing base-ball and goal. +His mother was careful to encourage Hiram's predilections. She remarked +that nothing was so well calculated to keep a young man from going +astray as for him to frequent the society of virtuous females.</p> + +<p>Before Hiram had got into his teens, he appeared to be smitten with at +least half a score of little girls of his own age. As he grew older, his +fondness for the sex increased. I do not record this, as any thing +extraordinary, except that in his case a characteristic selfishness +seemed to be at the bottom even of these manifestations. Hiram was not +influenced by those natural emotions and impulses which belong to youth, +and which, unless kept under proper restraint, are apt frequently to +lead to indiscretions. For there ran a vein of calculation through all +he did, whose prudent office it was to minister to his safety.</p> + +<p>After Hiram joined the church he was regular in his attendance on the +evening meetings. He always went to these meetings with some young girl, +whom, of course, he accompanied home after the services were over. As I +have said, he was a handsome fellow, and bestowed particular care on his +dress and his appearance generally. He was good-natured and obliging, +and withal sensible, so that the young men who envied him and might be +inclined to call him a fop or a dandy, could not prefix 'brainless' to +these epithets and thus ridicule on him. The fact is, he was shrewder +than any of them, and he knew it. They soon discovered it, and so did +the girls, to the utter discomfiture of his rivals.</p> + +<p>At all the village gatherings, including the sewing-societies, and the +lectures, the prayer-meetings, and meetings of Sunday-school teachers, +and so forth, Hiram was not only a favorite, but <i>the</i> favorite with the +other sex. He had a winning, confidential manner, when addressing a +young lady even for the first time, which said very plainly, 'We know +all about and appreciate each other,' and which was very taking. He +assumed various little privileges, such as calling the girls by their +first name, giving notice that a curl was about to fall, and offering to +fix it properly, picking up a bow which had been brushed off, and +pinning it securely on again, holding the hand with a kind and amiable +smile for a brief space after he had shaken it, and sometimes, when he +had occasion to see one of his friends home, keeping her hand in his all +the way after it was placed within his arm.</p> + +<p>You may ask why such liberties were permitted. Simply because they were +so very equally distributed they had come to be regarded as a matter of +course. In fact, Hiram was a privileged person. He was so polite, so +attentive, so considerate, what if he did have his peculiarities—how +ridiculous to make a fuss about such trifles! So the 'trifles' were +acquiesced in. Besides, I am inclined to think each fair one supposed +she was the especial object of Hiram's regard, and that his attentions +to others were mere civilities. I do not say Hiram so announced it. I +know he did not; for he was not a person, even when a youth, to commit +himself foolishly. Yet if they <i>would</i> mistake general po<a name="Page_49" id="Page_49"></a>liteness for +particular attentions, surely it was not his fault—oh! no.</p> + +<p>There were those who refused to give their adherence to Hiram's almost +unlimited sway. And as parties generally proceed to extremes, the girls +who formed the opposition generally declared him to be a pusillanimous, +mean-spirited fellow; they detested the very sight of his smooth, +hypocritical face; he had better not come fooling around them—no, +indeed! Let him attempt it once, they would soon teach him manners. It +is to be observed that these remarks did not emanate from the prettiest +or most attractive girls of the village—all of whom were decidedly and +emphatically on Hiram's side. They seemed to enjoy the excitement under +which their adversaries were laboring, and retorted by exclaiming, 'Sour +grapes!' asserting that those who so shamefully vilified Hiram, would be +glad enough to accept his attentions if—they only had the opportunity.</p> + +<p>Hiram, meantime, pursued the even tenor of his way, secure in his +position, enjoying to the full extent of his selfish nature all his +'blessings and privileges,' for which he thanked God twice daily, +wondering how men could be so blind and misguided as to turn their backs +on religion when there was such happiness and peace in giving up all to +God!</p> + +<p> </p> +<h3>CHAPTER IV.</h3> + + +<p>Mr. Bennett was correct in his surmise that there were two stores in the +little village of Hampton. Of one of these Thaddeus Smith was +proprietor. He was one of the solid men of the place, and had 'kept +store' there for the last forty years, succeeding his father, who was +one of the early settlers in the town. He had continued on with his +customers in the good old fashion, extending liberal credits and +charging a regular, undeviating profit of thirty-three and a third per +cent. About five years previous to Hiram Meeker's leaving school, Mr. +Smith's peace was greatly disturbed by the advent of a rival, in the +person of Benjamin Jessup, who took possession of an advantageous +locality, and after a week's bustle with teams and workmen transporting, +unpacking, and arranging, displayed his name, one fine morning, in large +gilt letters to the wondering inhabitants of Hampton, and under it the +cabalistic words: 'CHEAP CASH STORE.' A large number of handbills were +posted about the village, informing the good people of the opening of +the aforesaid 'cash store,' and that the proprietor was prepared to sell +every variety of goods and merchandise 'cheap for cash or ready pay,' by +which last expression was meant acceptable barter. Of course, the whole +town flocked to inspect Mr. Jessup's stock and price his goods. The +cunning fellow had valued them only at about cost, while he declared he +was making a living profit at the rates charged, and a living profit was +all he wanted. Furthermore, he allowed the highest prices for the +commodities brought in by the farmers, and gave them great bargains in +return. He was especially accommodating to the ladies, permitting them +to tumble his whole stock of dry goods for the sake of selecting a +pretty pattern for an apron, or finding a remnant which they were +'welcome to.'</p> + +<p>Mr. Smith was sadly grieved. Although some very old-fashioned people +stuck sternly to him, refusing to be allured by the bait of great +bargains, and so forth and so forth, yet his store was nearly deserted. +Thaddeus Smith was a perfectly upright man. It is true, he charged a +large profit on his goods—this was because it had always been his +habit, and that of his father before him. But he was accommodating in +his credit and lenient to debtors in default. His word could be relied +on implicitly, and his dealings were marked by scrupulous honesty.</p> + +<p>On this trying occasion he called his son, who was supposed to be his +partner, into consultation, and asked him what he thought of the state +of things.</p> + +<p>'I think this, father,' was the reply, 'that we can not expect to go on +longer in the old style. We must reduce our <a name="Page_50" id="Page_50"></a>profits one half, and to do +this, we must be more particular in our credits, and buy with more care +and of different people. In this way I will engage—by pursuing a +straightforward, energetic course, we shall hold our own against the +cash-man over the way.'</p> + +<p>It was some time before Mr. Smith, Senior, could be persuaded. It was +not just the thing, taking advice from a 'boy,' although the boy was +past thirty, and had a family of his own. He yielded, however, and +Thaddeus, Junior, was permitted to carry out his plan. He made a trip to +New-York and purchased goods, instead of sending an order for them as +had been their habit, where he could find the best bargains at least ten +per cent cheaper than his father was in the habit of buying, came home, +got out handbills in his turn, requesting the people to call at the 'old +stand,' look at the fresh stock, selected personally with great care, +and bought cheap <i>for</i> cash, but which would be sold as usual on +approved credit. This gave the tide a turn in the old direction, and Mr. +Jessup had to set to work anew. He was not a bad man in his way, but +neither was he a good one. He was not over-scrupulous nor severely +honest. His prices varied, so the folks discovered, and he, or rather +his clerks, sometimes made mistakes in the quality of articles sold. +After a while the cash system sensibly relaxed, and at last both +establishments settled down into a severe and uncompromising opposition. +There was a pretty large back country which received its supplies from +Hampton, and so both stores managed to do a thriving trade. The Smiths +retaining as customers the large portion of the staid and respectable +population, while Mr. Jessup's business depended more on his dealings +with the people from the surrounding country. There was a very different +atmosphere around the stores of these two village merchants. The Smiths +were religious people, father and son, not merely so in name, but in +reality. A child could have purchased half their stock on as favorable +terms as the shrewdest man in the place. Mr. Jessup, on the contrary, +varied as he could light of chaps, that is, according to circumstances. +He was, however, an off-hand, free-and-easy fellow, with many generous +qualities, which made him popular with most who knew him. He did not +hesitate to declare that his views on religious subjects were liberal—a +bold announcement for a man to make in Hampton. Indeed, his enemies put +him down for a Universalist, or at best a Unitarian, for which they +claimed to have some reason, since he seldom went to church, although +his wife was a communicant, and very regular in her attendance.</p> + +<p>I have been thus particular in describing the two rival establishments +because Hiram Meeker is to enter one of them. The reader will naturally +suppose there can be little doubt which, and he has a right to exhibit +surprise on learning that Hiram decided in favor of Mr. Jessup. I say +HIRAM decided. His father preferred that he should go with the Smiths. +His mother was of the same opinion, but she permitted her son, who now +was very capable of acting for himself, to persuade her that Jessup's +was the place for him: 'More going on—greater variety of business—much +more enterprise,' and consequently more to be learned. It would be +difficult to follow closely the train of reasoning which led Hiram to +insist so perseveringly in favor of Mr. Jessup. For the reasons he gave +were on the surface, while those which really decided him were keen and +subtle, based on a shrewd appreciation of the position of the two +merchants, and his probable relation to one or the other. With the +Smiths, Hiram saw no room for any fresh exhibition of talent or +enterprise; in the other place he saw a great deal.</p> + +<p>Once decided on, he was speedily settled in his new abode, where he +formed a part of the household of the proprietor, together with the +head-clerk, a 'cute fellow of five and twenty, who was reported to be as +'keen as a razor.' It was evident Mr. Jessup valued him highly, from the +respect he always paid to his advice and from his giving up so much <a name="Page_51" id="Page_51"></a>of +the management of the business to him. Besides, it was rumored he was +engaged to Mr. Jessup's oldest daughter, a handsome, black-eyed girl of +eighteen, a little too old for the 'meridian' of Hiram; but who, with +her mother, was on excellent terms with the Meeker family. The name of +the head-clerk was Pease—Jonathan Pease; but he always wrote his name +J. Pease. There was also a boy, fourteen years old, called Charley, who +boarded at home. This, with Mr. Benjamin Jessup, constituted the force +at the 'cash store.'</p> + +<p>Hiram had taken the place of a pale, milk-and-water-looking youth, with +weak lungs, who had been obliged to quit on account of poor health. This +youth had been entirely under the control of Pease, so much so that he +dared not venture an opinion about his own soul or body till he was +satisfied Pease thought just so. All this helped add to the importance +of the head-clerk, so that even Mr. Jessup unconsciously felt rather +nervous about differing with him. Indeed, Pease was fast becoming master +of the establishment. This Hiram Meeker knew perfectly well before he +entered it.</p> + +<p>When Pease ascertained that Hiram was about to come there as clerk, +without his advice being asked, he regarded it as an invasion of his +rights. He did not hesitate to speak his mind on the subject to Mr. +Jessup. He tried strongly to dissuade him from taking a gentleman-clerk, +and declared it would require an extra boy to wait on him and another to +correct his blunders. It was of no use; Mr. Jessup had not the slightest +idea of the peculiar qualities of Hiram, but he knew if he received him, +it would be the means of making an inroad into the conservative quarter, +and he should secure the trade and influence of the Meekers beside. He +went so far as to explain this to Pease, in the most confidential and +friendly manner; but the latter was not to be persuaded or mollified. As +he could not prevent the advent of Hiram, he resolved to make his +position just as uncomfortable as he possibly could. But he little knew +the stuff he had to deal with.</p> + +<p>The first morning after he had taken possession of his new quarters—his +sleeping-room was over the store—Hiram rose early, and was looking +carefully about the place, when Pease came in and asked him why he did +not sweep out.</p> + +<p>'I have not yet learned the regulations, Mr. Pease, but am ready to +begin any time,' was Hiram's quiet reply.</p> + +<p>Now, Pease had purposely sent Charley away on an early errand, so as to +be able to put this work on the new-comer. He simply replied, in an +arrogant tone, that it was his business every morning to sweep out the +store, and then sand the floors, adding, in order to preserve a +semblance of truth: 'When the boy happens to be here, he will help you.'</p> + +<p>Pease was a little astonished to see how readily Hiram set to work. The +store was not only carefully swept, and the floors sanded, but many +articles which were scattered about were put in their place, and +carefully arranged, so that after breakfast, when Mr. Jessup came in, he +remarked on the neat appearance of the store, without knowing to what it +was owing. Thus was the first attempt of J. Pease to annoy Hiram +completely foiled. Furthermore, Hiram kept on sweeping and sanding, +although Charley was present; indeed, he declined his assistance +altogether, and once, when Mr. Jessup remarked (he had observed to whom +the change in the appearance of the store was due) that it was quite +unnecessary for him to do the boy's work, Hiram quietly answered, that +he much preferred to do it to seeing the store look as it did when he +first came there.</p> + +<p>It took our hero but a short time to familiarize himself with the +minutiæ of Mr. Jessup's business. It was not long before Pease began to +feel that there was a person every way his superior who was fast +acquiring a more thorough insight into affairs than he had himself. He +began to fear that certain private transactions of his own <a name="Page_52" id="Page_52"></a>would not +escape Hiram's observation. He felt magnetically that instead of +bullying and domineering over the new-comer, Hiram's eyes were on <i>him</i> +whatever he did. This was insupportable; but how could he help it? The +more work he imposed on Hiram, the better the latter seemed to like it, +and the more he accomplished.</p> + +<p>'Damn him!' said Pease between his teeth; but cursing did not help the +matter, so Pease discovered.</p> + +<p>By degrees, several young ladies who were not in the habit of calling at +Jessup's began to drop in to look at the dry-goods. It was in vain Pease +stepped briskly forward to wait on them, with his most fascinating +smile; they wanted to see Mr. Meeker. Pease was bursting with rage, but +he was forced to restrain his passion. On one occasion, on seeing two +attractive-looking girls approaching, he sent Hiram to the cellar to +draw a gallon of molasses, and as the weather was cold, he calculated he +would have to wait at least a quarter of an hour for it to run. When the +young ladies entered, they inquired for Hiram; Pease reported Mr. Meeker +as particularly engaged, and offered his services in the most pathetic +manner.</p> + +<p>'Oh! we are in no hurry,' was the reply, 'we can wait.'</p> + +<p>And they did wait, greatly to Pease's disgust, and to Mr. Jessup's +delight, who happened to come in at that moment, for he knew Hiram would +be sure to make some handsome sales to them. At length came poor Pease's +crowning misfortune. Mary Jessup began to give token that she was not +slow to discover Hiram's agreeable qualities, and his superiority in +every respect over his rival. Now, if there is any one thing which the +sex admire in a man more than another, it is real ability. Mary Jessup +was a quick-witted girl herself, and she could not fail to perceive this +quality in Hiram. She had heretofore regarded him as a boy; but the boy +had grown up almost without her observing it, and now stood, with his +full stature of medium hight, admirably proportioned. It was not long +before she consented to accompany Hiram to the Thursday-evening lecture. +What a pleasant walk they had each way, and how gracefully he placed her +shawl across her shoulders. Pease was furious. 'How absurd you act,' +that was all Mary Jessup said in reply to his violent demonstrations, +and she laughed when she said it. What <i>could</i> Pease do for revenge? He +thought, and cogitated, and dreamed over it; it was of no use. He began +to feel himself under the fascination of Hiram's calm, persevering, +determined manner, a manner distinguished by tokens of latent power. For +no one in praising him ever made the ordinary exclamations, 'Such a +smart, energetic fellow,' 'So active and efficient,' 'A driving business +chap.' No; on the contrary, one would set him down as quite the reverse, +for he was always very quiet, never in a hurry, and by no means rapid in +his motions. Yet he impressed you with an idea of his superiority, which +his peculiar repose of manner served to highten. It can easily be +guessed that Mary Jessup and J. Pease quarreled, at last seriously, and +the engagement, if there had been any, was broken. The next evening, on +her return from the sewing-society with Hiram, he ventured to retain her +hand in his, and from that time she felt that there was an +'understanding' between them. She would have found it difficult to say +why, for Hiram had never spoken sentimentally to her. His conversation +was on ordinary topics, yet always in a low, meaning, confidential tone.</p> + +<p>[Has the reader any desire that I should lay bare the innermost thoughts +and feelings of this youth not yet eighteen? Would you like to be told +how curiously he smiled to himself as he continued to sweep out and sand +that little village store? Would you care to know how he gloated over +the discomfiture of his rival? Shall I endeavor to depict his feelings +when he saw he had actually gained the affections of Mary Jessup, for +whom, beyond a sensuous enjoyment of her presence and her society, he +did not care a fig? Shall I explain how, <a name="Page_53" id="Page_53"></a>while acting for his employer +quite as a good, honest man would act, his motive was to serve self and +self only? or shall I permit the reader gradually to acquire a knowledge +of Hiram's characteristics as the narrative proceeds?]</p> + +<p>This brings us to the end of Hiram's first year with Mr. Jessup. He had +accomplished nothing rapidly, but he had kept on accomplishing something +every day. He had not made a single false step. The consequence was, he +had not a single step to retrace. The end of the year found him already +very high in Mr. Jessup's esteem. Hiram had proved his value by +increasing his employer's business at least ten per cent in the village, +while he was daily becoming more popular with all who traded at the +store. To Pease this was an enigma, for Hiram never volunteered to wait +on a customer, when the former was present, and only stepped forward +when specially sought. Even with the young ladies who came to the place, +with whom he was on intimate terms of acquaintance, Hiram found no time +to laugh and talk, although he always managed to say an agreeable word +in a quiet, low tone. Toward Pease, Hiram's conduct was always the same, +perfectly respectful; as if never losing sight of the situation of the +one as head-clerk and of the other as subordinate. But by continually +making himself so useful in the establishment, he was gradually +undermining his comrade's position, and Pease felt his influence +dissolving, he hardly knew how or why; but he felt it all the more +forcibly for not knowing.</p> + +<p>Thus the commencement of the new year found the occupants of the cash +store. Hiram's situation had become very agreeable. He was putting into +practice the theories of his education. He was high in favor with his +employer, and whenever he entered the house, which was but a few steps +from the store, he was greeted by Mary Jessup with that peculiar welcome +so charming between those who love each other, yet which to him was +pleasing only because it gratified his animal nature and his self-love.</p> + +<p>Early in the second year, an incident occurred which served to bring out +Hiram's character, and change decidedly the state of affairs. One +morning, while he was engaged with a customer, Mrs. Esterbrook entered +the store. Now, that lady was the wife of Deacon Esterbrook, one of the +most substantial men of the town, and a strong supporter of the Smiths. +In fact, she had never set foot in Mr. Jessup's place before that +morning, but certain goods, lately ordered by the Smiths, were +unaccountably delayed, while Mr. Jessup's were fresh from the city and +just opened. The dress-maker had been engaged, and could not come again +for she did not know how long, and Ellen must have a nice school-dress +ready forthwith. So the lady determined for once to break over rule, and +step into the opposition store. No doubt the fact that so respectable +and pious a young man as Hiram was a clerk there had its influence in +the decision; it made the place itself more reputable, many said. And +now she came slowly in, a little distrustful, as if entering on +forbidden ground, and expecting to see some extraordinary difference +between the place of business of an ungodly person like Jessup and that +of the honest-minded Smith. Thanks, however, to Hiram's persevering +industry, it was a model of neatness and order, and Mrs. Esterbrook, who +was herself a pattern in that way, found her harsh judgment insensibly +relaxing, as she stepped to the counter where Pease stood, and asked +quite amiably to see some of the best calicoes, just in from New-York. +Pease, the narrow-minded idiot, thought this a good time to play off a +smart trick on one of Smith's regular customers. So he paraded a large +variety of goods before her, and took occasion to recommend a very +pretty article, for which he charged a monstrous price, because he said +it was a very scarce pattern, and it was with great difficulty they had +secured a single piece. As the lady herself could perceive, it had not +been opened before; not a soul in the village had even seen the outside +of it. Now, <a name="Page_54" id="Page_54"></a>it must not be supposed that Mrs. Esterbrook was different +from the rest of her sex, and insensible to the pleasure of having the +first dress cut from the piece. Indeed, she determined, on this +occasion, to take two dresses instead of one; Emily was coming home, and +would want it. Just as Pease was about to measure off the desired +quantity, Mrs. Esterbrook exclaimed:</p> + +<p>'You are sure those colors are fast?'</p> + +<p>'Fast, ma'am! fast as the meeting-house round the corner. We will +warrant them not to run nor change. Why, for color, we have nothing like +it in the store.'</p> + +<p>All this time, Hiram had been serving his customer; but with both ears +and at least one eye attentive to what was going on near him.</p> + +<p>Again Pease commenced to measure, when Hiram stepped deliberately +forward and said:</p> + +<p>'Mr. Pease is mistaken, Mrs. Esterbrook, those colors are <i>not</i> fast.'</p> + +<p>'What the——' hell do <i>you</i> know about it? Pease was going to say; but +he stopped short at the second word, utterly abashed and confounded at +the extraordinary assumption of the junior clerk. Never before had Hiram +made such a demonstration. Now he stood calm and composed, firmly +fortified by the truth. He looked and acted precisely as if he were the +principal, and the objurgation of Pease died on his lips. He attempted +to cast on Hiram a contemptuous glance, as he managed to say:</p> + +<p>'Perhaps you know more about it than I do,' and turned away to attend to +a new-comer.</p> + +<p>'I am much obliged to you, Mr. Meeker, I declare,' said Mrs. Esterbrook.</p> + +<p>'On the contrary, it is I who should be obliged to you for looking in. +You must excuse the mistake. Mr. Pease is not so familiar with calicoes +as I am. But I will now wait on you myself. We have a box of goods in +the back-store, not yet open, and I am sure I can find in it just what +you want.'</p> + +<p>Any one who had seen Hiram's air, and heard him speak, would have taken +him for the proprietor. With what a low, respectful tone he addressed +the lady. How pleasantly it fell on the ear. An immense box of +merchandise to be opened and all the contents overhauled to please her! +Charley was summoned, hammer and hatchet freely used, and the goods +displayed. Hiram, who knew much better what Mrs. Esterbrook wanted than +she knew herself, selected something very acceptable. The price he put +at first cost. Not content with that, he actually sold the lady silk for +a dress, putting it at cost also, and no human being could have been in +better humor than she.</p> + +<p>'I am very sorry, Mrs. Esterbrook, for your disappointment about the +first calico you selected,' continued Hiram. 'I do hope you and other +members of your family will look in often, even if you do not purchase; +it sometimes helps one to form a judgment to look at different stocks. +But I must be perfectly frank with you. We profess to sell cheap, very +cheap, but I can never offer you similar articles at the price you have +these; they are given you precisely at cost, as a slight compensation +for your trouble in having to look a second time. Besides, it is a +matter of mere justice to those worthy people, the Smiths, to say we do +not sell our goods at these prices, and I beg you not to so report it.'</p> + +<p>'What an excellent young man you are,' said good Mrs. Esterbrook, in the +fullness of her heart.</p> + +<p>'My dear madam, really I can not see any special excellence in simply +doing my duty.'</p> + +<p>Hiram smiled one of his amiable, winning smiles, and bowed his new +customer politely out of the store.</p> + +<p>By this time the dinner-hour had arrived. Not a word had been spoken by +Pease to Hiram since the scene just recounted. Not a syllable did he +utter at table. Hiram, on the contrary, entered into familiar +conversation, placid as usual, and enjoyed his dinner quite as well as +he ever had done. When the meal was over, Pease asked Mr. Jessup if he +<a name="Page_55" id="Page_55"></a>would step into the store a few minutes. Mr. Jessup accordingly walked +over.</p> + +<p>'I want to know, Mr. Jessup,' he demanded, when all were together, +including Charley, 'whether you are the owner in here or Hiram Meeker?'</p> + +<p>'Why do you put such a question, Pease?'</p> + +<p>Thereupon Pease told the whole circumstances very much as they occurred. +Mr. Jessup made no reply. He was taken aback himself. Hiram said not a +word.</p> + +<p>'It's so, an't it, Charley?' cried Pease.</p> + +<p>'I've nothing to say about it,' answered the boy. He liked Hiram, and +detested Pease, and was glad to see him humiliated.</p> + +<p>'It is so,' observed Hiram.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jessup was astounded.</p> + +<p>'I shall think the matter over seriously, young men, and make up my mind +about it this evening. Now let us attend to business.'</p> + +<p>Mr. Jessup had decided in his own mind that Hiram's conduct was very +reprehensible—not that he cared about Pease being snubbed, <i>that</i> he +rather enjoyed than otherwise, but he thought what Hiram had done would +serve to cast discredit on the establishment. Before, however, deciding +to censure him in presence of his fellow-clerks, he determined to speak +with him privately. He took occasion without the knowledge of Pease, to +ask Hiram to step to the house, and once there, he requested him to give +his version of the affair. Hiram replied that Pease had stated it very +correctly.</p> + +<p>'What could be your object,' asked Mr. Jessup, 'in doing what would +throw disgrace on my store, for you know such an admission would +disgrace us?'</p> + +<p>'To serve your interests, as in duty bound,' replied Hiram.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jessup could not so understand it, and Hiram undertook calmly to +explain how dishonest it was for Pease to do as he did. It had very +little effect on Mr. Jessup. His nerves were too strong to be unsettled +by a moral appeal. He told Hiram he was to blame, and said he should be +obliged to so express himself, when they all met, and he must add a +caution for the future.</p> + +<p>'Fool!' exclaimed Hiram, startled out of his usual calm propriety, 'do +you not comprehend if that woman had gone out of your store with the +calico, that she not only would never enter it again, but she would +publish your name over town as a swindler and a cheat, and you never +would hear the end of it. Pease had charged her double prices, and the +goods would not stand a single washing. And you know whether or not you +are ready to pay off the mortgage Deacon Esterbrook holds on this +house.'</p> + +<p>Mr. Jessup colored deeply. When he purchased his house he left a pretty +large mortgage on it, which the owner had sold to Deacon Esterbrook, who +was a moneyed man, and who now held it quite content with his yearly six +per cent.</p> + +<p>'You seem to interest yourself in my private affairs,' said Mr. Jessup +in a sarcastic tone.</p> + +<p>'Why shouldn't I, sir, so long as I am in your employ,' answered Hiram, +without noticing the irony.</p> + +<p>'You're a devilish strange fellow, any how,' said Mr. Jessup, musingly, +'but I confess I never had a person about me half so useful.'</p> + +<p>'I could be of much more service to you if you would conduct your +business on strict mercantile principles.'</p> + +<p>'Why, what would you have me do different from what I am doing?'</p> + +<p>'I would have every thing done straight and <span class="smcap">honest</span>, Mr. Jessup,' said +Hiram firmly.</p> + +<p>'Do you mean to say I am not honest?'</p> + +<p>'It is not necessary for me to say any thing on the subject. I am only +talking about the management of your business. You censure me for not +standing still and seeing one of your neighbors grossly cheated, by +which you would have lost some of the best customers in town, to say the +least. By taking the course I did, I saved the credit of the concern +instead of injuring it, and I even spoke <a name="Page_56" id="Page_56"></a>of it as a mistake of Pease, +instead of a deception.'</p> + +<p>Mr. Jessup was already convinced, as indeed, his petulance proved, that +Hiram was right, but he had some pride in not appearing to yield too +soon.</p> + +<p>'I understand the matter better now, and really, Hiram, you did just +about the right thing, that's a fact. Honesty is the best policy, after +all. I shall tell Pease he did very wrong to attempt any of his tricks +on such a person as Mrs. Esterbrook, and in future—'</p> + +<p>'In future one of us must be an absentee from the premises,' said Hiram +coolly.</p> + +<p>'Why, what do you mean?'</p> + +<p>'Just this. Pease's year is up next week, and then one of us must +leave.'</p> + +<p>Mr. Jessup fell into a brown study. He reflected on the admirable manner +Hiram had performed his duties; he could not shut his eyes to the fact +that several excellent customers had been secured through his influence; +he considered the respectability of the Meeker family, and called to +mind how indifferent Mary had become to Pease, while she seemed +gratified when Hiram was near. Again, Pease, when measured by Hiram's +more comprehensive tact and shrewdness, seemed a booby, a nobody, and +Mr. Jessup wondered how he ever acquired such an influence over him, and +he was the more disgusted with himself the more he thought about it.</p> + +<p>'It is working right, after all,' he said to himself. 'I shall be well +rid of Pease, and Hiram shall take his place.' Then rising from his +seat, he observed: 'I will think the matter over carefully, and you +shall have my decision on the day. Now set to work as if nothing had +happened.'</p> + +<p>Hiram went back to the store as certain of the fate of Pease as if he +was himself to decide it. 'Check-mated'—something like that passed from +his lips. His countenance, however, gave no sign of triumph, nor, +indeed, of any feeling.</p> + +<p>In the evening Mr. Jessup announced that, after due consideration, he +was of opinion the conduct of Pease was so censurable that the +interference of Hiram was very proper, if not, indeed, praiseworthy.</p> + +<p>'Perhaps you would like to settle with me?' said Pease ferociously.</p> + +<p>'Just as you please,' replied Mr. Jessup.</p> + +<p>'Well, I guess I have staid about long enough in this place when I've +lived to see you coming the honest dodge so strong as that—darned if I +han't!'</p> + +<p>Next week Pease had quit, and Hiram Meeker was head-clerk.</p> + +<p>Great was the astonishment through the town when it was ascertained that +Pease had been 'discharged from Jessup's store for cheating'—so the +story went. Mr. Jessup was too shrewd not to make the most of the +circumstance. He declared, in his off-hand manner, that he never +professed to have the strait-laced habits of some people; he confessed +he did not like a fellow the less for his being 'cute in a trade, and +eyes open, but when it came to lying and cheating, then any of <i>his</i> +folks must look out if he caught them at it, that's all.</p> + +<p>With most of the people this frank, open avowal was very convincing; but +there were certain obstinate persons such as are every where to be +found, and who are fond of going against the general opinion, who did +not hesitate to declare this was all gammon. They knew Jessup too well +to 'allow' he cared any thing about it, not he. Nothing but the fear of +that honest young Meeker led to the disgrace of Pease, who no doubt +would now be made the scape-grace for all Jessup's shortcomings in the +store-way. So it went. But in the balance of accounts Jessup was a great +gainer. Of course, numerous were the questions put to Hiram. He +preserved great discretion—would say little. It did not become him to +speak of Mr. Jessup's private matters. Good Mrs. Esterbrook was not +silent, however. The story was repeated and repeated. It reached the +parsonage; it found its way among the customers of the Smiths. Mrs. +Esterbrook felt herself a good deal raised in her own importance, that +the <a name="Page_57" id="Page_57"></a>head-clerk of a store she was never in before should be summarily +dismissed for misconduct toward her. She began rather to like that Mr. +Jessup, (the calicoes and silk proved such bargains, and just what she +wanted,) a man to do as he did was not so very far out of the way, and +as for his wife, she was a charming woman, she always said so. Mary, +too, what a sweet girl! Well, she should at least divide her custom +between the two stores if the Deacon was willing—and the Deacon was +willing, for he wanted Jessup to do sufficiently well to keep up his +interest money prompt. Not only did Mrs. Esterbrook call frequently, but +so did many others of the Smith faction. I need not say that Hiram was +indefatigable. He secured the services of a nice, active young fellow, +whom he took great pains to teach, and every thing went on like +clock-work. Mr. Jessup was content, for he saw he was constantly gaining +custom, but, in fact, he was a good deal confused, and hardly felt at +home in his own place, so completely did Hiram bring it under his own +control.</p> + +<p>The first thing he undertook was an entire overhauling of the stock, and +a close examination of its value. Then he insisted, yes, insisted that +the prices should be marked in plain figures on the goods, so every body +could see for themselves.</p> + +<p>Jessup remonstrated: 'Thunder! what will become of us at this rate? I +tell you there are some it won't do to be frank with. Even old Smith +never undertook to expose his marks!'</p> + +<p>'The very reason why we should do so,' said Hiram. '<i>We</i> are honest.'</p> + +<p>I wish you could have heard the tone in which Hiram said that, and have +seen the expression of his countenance. It made Jessup's flesh creep, he +did not know why. So Hiram, as usual, had his own way, and overhauled +every thing. Lots of old goods piled away out of sight, as unsalable, +were brought forward, carefully examined, and marked down, on an +average, to half cost. Then appeared hand-bills to the effect that Mr. +Jessup had determined, prior to getting in a complete new, fresh, +fashionable lot of dry goods, to dispose of the stock on hand at a +tremendous sacrifice. These were sent all over the country into the +adjoining villages, every where within twenty miles. How the people +rushed to buy, and when they came, and found really that great bargains +were to be had, they resolved to come again when the new goods should +arrive.</p> + +<p>Thus Hiram triumphed. In six months after J. Pease left, Benjamin +Jessup's store was <i>the</i> store of Hampton, and Benjamin Jessup himself +on the road to prosperity and wealth.</p> + +<p>Hiram Meeker was sitting alone in his room over the store, late one +evening. He had been with Mr. Jessup a year and eleven months. Another +month, and the second year would be completed.</p> + +<p>'I believe,' so ran the current of his thoughts, 'I have learned pretty +much all there is to be found out here; have not done badly, either. +Cousin Bennett's advice to mother was right. I am not ready to go to +New-York yet. There is much country knowledge to be gained. Let me see, +I will drive over to Burnsville next week. Joel Burns is carrying every +thing before him, they say. All sorts of business. A first-class man; +neither a Smith nor a Jessup. I met Sarah Burns last week at a party +over at Croft's—lovely girl. I think Burnsville will suit me.'</p> + +<p>Thereupon Hiram Meeker took up his Bible, which lay on the table near +him, drew himself a little closer to the fire, moved the lamp into a +convenient position, and read one chapter in course; it was in +Deuteronomy. Then he kneeled in prayer for about five minutes. As soon +as he had finished, he went to bed, equally satisfied with his labors +and his devotions; complacently he laid his head on the pillow, and was +soon asleep,</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>'I <i>am</i> sorry to go, Mr. Jessup, but I have my fortune to make yet, you +know, and I must look a little to my own interests.'</p> + +<p>'Yes, but confound it, Meeker, what is it you want? I expected to raise +<a name="Page_58" id="Page_58"></a>your salary; in fact, it's no account what you charge me, you mustn't +go, that's settled.'</p> + +<p>'Indeed I must.'</p> + +<p>'Why, what is the matter? If you say so, I will take you into +partnership, though you are not one and twenty. Really, Hiram, don't +leave us in this way.'</p> + +<p>'I repeat, I am sorry to do so, but as I have no intention of living in +Hampton, it is now time I should quit.'</p> + +<p>'But what on earth am I to do without you?'</p> + +<p>'Persevere in the course you are now pursuing. Stick honestly to good +principles, Mr. Jessup, and you will continue to prosper.'</p> + +<p>'Damn it, I know better,' exclaimed Jessup pettishly; 'I mean—I swear I +don't know what I mean, [Hiram's cold blue eye was fixed calmly on him,] +cussed if I do; but I say 'tan't honesty which has done the thing for +me. No; old Smith is honest—so is his son; I respect both of them for +being so, yes I do. You are honest, too, Hiram; straight as a +shingle—have always found you so; but I can't tell why, yours seems +another sort of honesty from Smith's honesty, and that's a fact.'</p> + +<p>Benjamin Jessup had a dim perception of the truth, but the more he tried +to explain, the more he floundered, till Hiram came to his relief and to +his own also, for he did not greatly enjoy the comparison Jessup was +attempting to institute.</p> + +<p>'I think I understand you. The fact is, in the management of your +business, I have endeavored to combine what tact and shrewdness I am +master of with scrupulous fair dealing and integrity.'</p> + +<p>'That's it, Hiram, now you've hit it, but it's the shrewdness that's +done the work. Oh! I shall never get a man who can fill your place.'</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In due course, Hiram left for Burnsville. The prayers and good wishes of +the village went with him. Mary Jessup was disconsolate; but why? Hiram +had never committed himself. All the girls said: 'What a fool she is to +think he was going to marry any body older than himself!' and they +laughed about Mary Jessup.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="NEWBERN_AS_IT_WAS_AND_IS" id="NEWBERN_AS_IT_WAS_AND_IS"></a>NEWBERN AS IT WAS AND IS.</h3> + + +<p>That part of North-Carolina borders on the Sound, has within the past +six months became the theatre of events of the most exciting nature, in +which Newbern, its principal town, has borne a prominent part.</p> + +<p>It may be interesting to review its history. The earliest notice of it +dates back to the explorations of Raleigh's colony in 1584, when they +visited an Indian town named Newsiok, 'situated on a goodly river called +the Neus,' but the adventurers did not examine the river, and more than +a century elapsed before any further record of the visit of white men +occurred. The north-eastern counties had, however, been partially +settled by refugees from Virginia, where in the absence of law and +gospel they became as degraded a community as there was on the +continent. Their descendants have, to a considerable extent, overrun the +South to the Mississippi and on to Texas.</p> + +<p>But it was the good fortune of the counties on the Neuse to derive their +immigrants from and to have their institutions formed by a better class +than the inferior families of Virginia, further degraded by a residence +in Eastern North-Carolina, at that period known as the harbor for rogues +and pirates.</p> + +<p>The earliest settlers on the Neuse were French Huguenots, who first +located on the James River, in Virginia, but were afterwards induced by +the proprietors of Carolina to accept grants of land in what is now +known as Carteret County, to <a name="Page_59" id="Page_59"></a>which place they removed in 1707. In 1710 +a colony from Switzerland and Germany, under the management of Baron de +Graffenreid and Louis Michell arrived, and were settled between the +Neuse and the Trent, and in the triangle formed by these rivers, laid +out a town with wide streets and convenient lots, which in remembrance +of the capital in the Old World, was called New-Bern.</p> + +<p>The settlers who already resided north of New-Bern soon rebelled against +their local government, and by continued depredations on the Indian +tribes in their vicinity at last brought on a fearful war, during which +a large part of both the white and red men were exterminated, so that +many of the poor Swiss and German Protestants found they had only +escaped their vindictive persecutors at home to find a bloody grave in +the forests of Carolina.</p> + +<p>After the surrender of their grant to the crown by the lords proprietors +of Carolina, in 1729, a better state of affairs succeeded, and a more +energetic government, with its blessings and prosperity was the result. +The country was then settled and Newbern gradually rose to be a place of +importance, and subsequently the capital of the province.</p> + +<p>The first printing-press in the province was established in 1764, and +the first periodical, <i>The North-Carolina Magazine</i>, issued the same +year, but it is doubtful if any book excepting the State laws was ever +published there. A public school was incorporated the same year, and +Newbern became the principal seat of education and social intelligence +in the province. As the seat of government and the residence of the +royal Governors, it attracted much wealth, and developed a degree of +culture which it has retained to a later day.</p> + +<p>Arthur Dobbs, for a long period the Colonial Governor, was at this time +closely identified with the history of Newbern. He was 'by birth an +Irishman, and by nature an aristocrat.' He died at an advanced age in +1764.</p> + +<p>In 1765, William Tryon succeeded Dobbs as Governor of North-Carolina. He +first resided at Brunswick, on the Cape Fear River, then a town of note, +but now a complete ruin, and where among its remains are still seen the +massive walls of St. Philip's Church, built by his request, at the +expense of the British government.</p> + +<p>As Newbern was a more central position, and possessed more social +advantages, Tryon took up his abode there, not, however, till he had +made himself odious by irritating the people of the western part of the +province into a rebellion, and had butchered many who were contending +only for justice and their rights.</p> + +<p>Tryon was aristocratic, tyrannical, and vindictive. To gratify his pride +he conceived the idea of erecting a magnificent palace, and to obtain an +appropriation from the Provincial Assembly he exhausted all his promises +and intrigues. In this effort on the legislators he was aided by the +blandishments of his lady and her sister, Miss Wake, relatives of Lord +Hillborough, and he was finally successful. The result was, that he +erected in Newbern, in 1770, the most elegant and expensive building on +the continent, the cost of which was far beyond the resources of the +province. The plans of it, which are still preserved, show that the old +descriptions of its splendor are not overwrought. Its foundations can +still be traced, and a part of one of the wings, though in a dilapidated +state, is yet in existence.</p> + +<p>A Provincial Congress was held at Newbern, in August, 1774, of which +John Harvey was President. In April, 1779, they elected delegates to the +famous Continental Congress which met at Philadelphia, and Newbern was +for some time the most important place in the province.</p> + +<p>During the Revolution, the State was twice invaded by the British, and +many towns suffered severely, but Newbern being remote from the seat of +war, did not particularly feel its effects.</p> + +<p>It is somewhat strange that in Newbern secession once found its +strongest opposition, and finally its death-blow.<a name="Page_60" id="Page_60"></a> It will be +recollected that North-Carolina once extended to the Mississippi, and +included all of what is now the State of Tennessee, the whole of which +territory was ceded to the United States in 1784. It was then partially +settled, and before the general Government had accepted the grant, the +residents established a temporary government, and formally seceding from +North-Carolina, formed 'the State of Franklin.'</p> + +<p>On the 1st of June, 1785, the Legislature assembled at Newbern, when +Governor Martin addressed them on this subject. Declaring that 'by such +rash and irregular conduct a precedent is formed for every district and +even for every county in the State, to claim the right of separation and +independence for any supposed grievance as caprice, pride, and ambition +may dictate, thereby exhibiting to the world a melancholy instance of a +feeble or pusillanimous government, that is either unable or dares not +restrain the lawless designs of its citizens,' he advocated putting down +the movements by force if necessary. But the leaders were not to be +dissuaded from their ambitious purpose, and being joined by a few +adjoining counties in Virginia, they elected General Sevier, a hero of +the Revolution, as Governor, and the insurrection assumed a formidable +shape. But the old State met the trouble energetically, and after +exhausting all proper conciliatory measures, Sevier, with several of the +leaders, was arrested, their councils became divided, and the rebellion +was crushed. The leaders asked and obtained pardon, and an act of +amnesty was passed, so that in the subsequent political changes the +matter was forgotten.</p> + +<p>For a long period Newbern has been the residence of wealthy and +influential families. George Pollock, a descendant of one of the +original proprietors, who died some thirty years ago, dwelt there. He +owned immense tracts of the best land in the State, and over a thousand +slaves.</p> + +<p>There, too, was the home of Judge Gaston, a learned lawyer and a most +estimable man, who, though a Roman Catholic, was respected by all sects +and conditions, even in those days of fierce sectaries. John Stanly for +a long time gave celebrity to Newbern as a lawyer and legislator, his +oratorical powers being second to those of no man in the State. He was +the father of Edward Stanly, now appointed to act as military Governor +of the State.</p> + +<p>The country around Newbern was originally moderately fertile, but much +of it has become exhausted by reason of improper tillage. The forests +which were once a vast extent of stately pines, and from which great +quantities of turpentine and tar were for a century and a half exported, +are now little better than barren fields. Pine lumber and staves have +long been a large article of export, which with corn and cotton make up +nearly all the articles sent abroad. But the pines are now nearly +exhausted, the trade in naval stores and lumber lessened, and in +consequence a better state of agriculture has commenced. It is found +that by the aid of fertilizers good crops of cotton can be raised on the +pine lands and the fields kept in an improving condition. For the last +thirty years it can hardly be said that the town has improved; indeed, +as a whole it has hardly held its own. Still it is a place of wealth and +comfort. There is an air of respectability in its ancient and stately +buildings, its wide streets, and abundant shade-trees, and it is as +healthy as any Southern town can be.</p> + +<p>Some twenty years ago Newbern had what no other Southern town possessed, +a commerce of its own, that is, vessels built, owned, and sailed by its +own people. Many of these—then engaged in the West-India trade—were +partly manned by slaves who belonged to the proprietors of the vessel or +its captain, and at times, when other seamen could not be procured, +these slaves were allowed to make a voyage to a Northern port, but as +their value yearly augmented, and the risk of their suddenly +disappearing, not again to visit 'Dixie,' increased in a corresponding +ratio, they <a name="Page_61" id="Page_61"></a>gradually retired to other duties where their services were +less precarious.</p> + +<p>And here I will relate an anecdote which an old salt once told me when I +was strolling along the wharves of this ancient town in his company.</p> + +<p>In consequence of a bar, or 'swash,' which stretches inside Ocracoke +Inlet, (at that time the only passage to the sea,) the vessels take in +but a part of their cargoes at Newbern, while lighters with the +remainder accompany them across the 'swash,' where the lading is +completed. Quite a number of small craft are thus constantly employed, +and they are generally manned and commanded by slaves. In this trade was +once engaged 'Jack Devereaux,' an intelligent black man who formerly +belonged to the Devereaux family—one of the F.F.s of Newbern—but who +had latterly become the property of H—— & C——, a mercantile firm +then doing a flourishing business there. He was captain of a famous +lighter, which for its enormous carrying capacity had received the +cognomen of 'Hunger and Thirst.' In due time the firm of H—— & +C——dissolved, and C—— 'moved West,' leaving an undivided half of +Captain Jack in the hands of his attorney. Jack had sailed the craft 'on +shares,' and compromised his services by monthly wages to his masters, +and so had gradually accumulated some hundreds of dollars. Not fancying +his new share-holder, he concluded to invest his hard-earned dollars in +his own bone and muscle, or in other words, buy half of himself. After +considerable higgling, he made the bargain, paying five hundred dollars +for the share. On the next trip to the bar, as the entrance to the sea +is usually called, there came up one of those sudden hurricanes known as +a Southeaster, whose force nothing can withstand. The small craft was +foundered, and Jack, after floating for a long time on a plank, finally +drifted on to a sand-spit, and was saved.</p> + +<p>Finding a passage home, he landed on the 'old County Wharf,' a +melancholy, disheartened, and depressed individual, and without +conferring with a single person, made his way to the attorney, from whom +he had so lately purchased himself, and by dint of persuasion succeeded +in having the trade canceled and his money returned. Jack was then +himself again. He recounted over and over his adventures by flood and +field to his wondering friends, and said no man, white or black, could +imagine the trouble he felt when floating on that plank, the waves +breaking over him every moment, when he considered he had just bought +half of 'dat nigger' that was now going to destruction, and paid all the +money he had for him. But he had 'traded back,' and then if he was +drowned, 'he wouldn't lose a cent by it.' It was long after this event +when he told me he would never again risk a cent in 'nigger' property, +it was too 'onsartin' entirely. Jack was a good deal of a wag, and told +this story with a gusto I can not describe.<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> But if Captain Jack is +still on this 'side of Jordan,' he has doubtless ere this found 'nigger' +property still more 'onsartin.'</p> + +<p>Let us, however, turn from the past to the present condition of affairs +in Newbern. Secession would never have originated there. When +South-Carolina passed its act of folly and madness, it met with a firm +opposition from the old Whig party, which still had here a vital +existence. Every exertion was made throughout the State to repel the +insidious influences of the demagogues of South-Carolina and Virginia, +and but for the Jesuitical management of the politicians at Richmond, +the 'Old North' would have remained loyal. But all the efforts of the +true Union men could not avail in warding off the storm that swept over +the South; and the Convention at Raleigh passed, or rather was forced to +assent to, the Act of Secession, on the twentieth of May, 1861. In +August the fortifications below Newbern were commenced, and continued +for some months, and well garrisoned, till they were sup<a name="Page_62" id="Page_62"></a>posed capable +of defending the town against any force that might be brought against +it. General Burnside, however, attacked them on the fourteenth of March, +1862, and after a sharp battle the rebels fled, and he occupied the old +place as a military conquest. All the wealthy and prominent citizens +fled, and have not returned.</p> + +<p>The present condition of things will not long continue; a more permanent +government, either civil or military, will soon be established, and with +it must come a new era which will settle for all time the destiny of +Newbern.</p> + +<p>Should the leading men of the town and all Eastern North-Carolina make +an effort and throw off the incubus that slavery has for a century +placed over it, a bright career of prosperity would open before them. A +new emigration, bringing energy and industry, would restore their +worn-out lands, drain their swamps, educate their youth, and make +Newbern echo with the hum of manufactures and commerce. The enterprise +of such a people would soon open a channel from the Neuse to Beaufort +harbor, and so avoid the shoals and dangers of Ocracoke and Hatteras, +and with the present railroads, make it the port of exchange for a wide +extent of country. The times are propitious; already the true men of the +State—and their name is legion—are anxiously awaiting the fall of +Richmond, when they will decide for the old flag and the Union, never +again to repudiate it.</p> + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + +<h3><a name="OUR_BRAVE_TIMES" id="OUR_BRAVE_TIMES"></a>OUR BRAVE TIMES.</h3> + + +<p>I wonder if we, as a people, have any conception of the grandeur and +glory of the Times in which we are living; if we at all appreciate the +importance of the history which is being lived all around us; if we feel +the colossal magnitude of the every-day events which so crowd upon us +that we have hardly time to grasp them; if we are fully aware of the +infinite possibilities of what has been so well called this 'fearfully +glorious present'? I think not, and I do not know that it is possible +for us to do so. Only when we look back upon it from the hight of the +far-off future, shall we see the country through which we are journeying +in all its grand, sweeping outlines, its majestic proportions, and its +imperial tints of coloring. The days of peace and tranquillity in a +nation as in a life are robed in colors sweet and grateful to the +eye—softened hues of green and gold—but the days of war and +tribulation are days of scarlet and crimson, and all that can be seen in +heaven and earth is black and flame; but the days when Right achieves +great triumphs, even through bloodshed and desolation, are days of +imperial purple, hues royal in their magnificence. Thank Heaven that, +through the days of blood and black, we have at last reached the purple +days of life as a nation. A little more than a year of war, and now the +skies are brightening. Thank God! for they have been black, black, black +with horror and suffering and crime. And yet such a year as this, I am +almost persuaded, is worth a score of years of peace. It certainly has +achieved more for truth and humanity and God than the score of years +which preceded it. As a nation, we had become almost despicable. Such +supple, yielding slaves of 'Democratic' demagogues; such cringing, +fawning, knee-bending, hand-kissing agents of the diabolical, traitorous +Slave-Power; such apologists and supporters of Wrong; such +pusillanimous, weak-hearted advocates of the unpopular Right; such +slaves to Cotton and its threats, that we had almost lost the God-given +independence of American freemen, and seemed—thank God! events have +proved only <i>seemed</i>—to be entirely given up to money and mechan<a name="Page_63" id="Page_63"></a>ics, +to have become, indeed, a nation of peddlers. So much so, indeed, that +our prophets were stoned in their own lands, our apostles stricken down +in the national councils, and the few voices that were raised for God +and humanity, from out the miry slough of a trafficking age, were almost +unheard in the general din which went up from all the nations, and the +burden of whose song seemed to be: 'There is no God but Cotton, and we +are all his prophets.' But the moment the first gun was fired, how all +this changed! How regally the whole nation rose up! How magnificently +she threw off the garment of rags and filth which had hidden her fair +proportions, and donned the imperial toga of humanity, and wrapping the +rich folds of the gorgeous mantle around her, stood out before the world +in all the dignity of freedom and virtue—a form which made the whole +earth glad and the heavens clap their hands in exultation. What giant +leaps the nation made in manhood and heroism, strides following each +other thick and fast, until the most cynical of the doubters of humanity +began to open their eyes, and acknowledge that they would not have +thought her capable of such unexampled deeds. The national heroism which +the Northern people have displayed is indeed unparalleled. They have +risen up as one man to the support of the Government. They have offered +property and life and the most sacred treasures of the heart upon the +shrine of constitutional liberty. At the sound of the drum, they have +left the farm and the barn, the anvil and the mill, the church and the +forum, and formed into the grand army of invincibles which, at the word +of command, have marched forward, conquering and resistless. They have +borne patiently with delay and defeat, with blunders and crimes, with +humiliation and taxation, and have, in short, proved themselves +<i>Americans</i> worthy of the name. Of course, national heroism has inspired +individual heroism, and to-day the country blazes from frontier to +metropolis with gallant records of daring deeds. Their number is +infinite; they can not be individually remembered, but only massed +together, one sublime mosaic by which the gallantry and heroism of the +free, untrammeled North is proved. We doubt not there is a leaf for each +hero in the heroic record of heaven, and the due share of hero-worship +paid to each by those angels who love to pore over the chronicles of +earth. And we mourn less over the coming of this war at the present time +than we should, did we not perceive that sooner or later it was +inevitable. It was written in the fate-book of God. Never before was war +so emphatically a war of principle. It mitigates the suffering much to +know this. It is something to know that all the brave men who have +fallen have fallen for the right; and when we believe so, we do firmly +believe that their death will give liberty and happiness to millions yet +to be. We can not think but that their lives are well spent. There are +some who are written upon God's muster-scroll as martyrs to liberty. Who +would not esteem it a happiness and a glory to belong to this Old Guard, +who from age to age have rallied and rallied and rallied to the support +of liberty, to the rescue of this holy sepulchre from the hands of +desolators and barbarians, who have ever fought where the fight was +thickest, have ever been the advance-guard of the world in its onward +progress, and been enshrined in the great heart of the world, there to +glow like the stars forever and ever? Is it a hardship to die that one +may live forever? Is it a hardship to die that millions who now live in +wailing and woe, in chains and degradation, may live in happiness and +freedom in all time to come? The voice of the great army of American +freemen rolls back the answer, like the majestic anthem of the sea, No! +a deep, continuous no, which echoes from the broad Atlantic to the +sunset-dyed Pacific, from the summits of Nevada to the great lakes of +the North. Yes, I tell you the whole people feel the depth and +sacredness of this war; they feel it to be, as<a name="Page_64" id="Page_64"></a> Carlyle said of the +French Revolution, 'truth, though a truth clad in hell-fire.'</p> + +<p>Then forward, noble army of the brave and true! Rally and forward, and +forward again, until every Malakoff of Wrong is reduced, and every +suffering Lucknow of our country hears the slogan of deliverance. You +have glorious successes to cheer you now. You can think of Somerset and +Donelson, and all the glorious battles of the war—of forts taken, of +enemies driven, of towns evacuated, of the great cities of the enemy in +our hands, of all the stirring, glorious successes of our army and our +flag—and even had you none of these to think of, you could think of our +cause, and this would be enough. Then let the bugles sound, the trumpets +clang, the drums beat, the cannons roar, and we will march, and rally, +and forward, and charge and charge and charge, until victory or death +crown our labors; and if death to us, so let it be—it will be victory +to our successors. This is the spirit of our Northern army. Sing +plaudits to it, ye sons of song. Let your eloquence be inspired by it, +ye golden-mouthed men—ye Everetts and Sumners. Write of them, ye gifted +who would live in the coming time. Weave garlands for them, ye +white-handed and lily-browed. Write anthems and oratorios for them, ye +men of music. Pray for them, each and all of you, night and day, with +heart and voice. But we can not, if we would, overlook the desolation +which the war has brought and must bring upon our favored land. We can +not conceal from ourselves the fact that, end when it will, or how it +may, it must bring desolation to thousands of happy households, and +inflict never-healing wounds upon thousands of happy hearts. For every +man who falls in battle some one mourns. For every man who dies in +hospital-wards, and of whom no note is made, some one mourns. For the +humblest soldier shot on picket, and of whose humble exit from the stage +of life little is thought, some one mourns. Nor this alone. For every +soldier disabled; for every one who loses an arm or a leg, or who is +wounded or languishes in protracted suffering; for every one who has +'only camp-fever,' some heart bleeds, some tears are shed. In far-off +humble households, perhaps, sleepless nights and anxious days are +passed, of which the world never knows; and every wounded and crippled +soldier who returns to family and friends, brings a lasting pang with +him. Oh! how the mothers feel this war! If ever God is sad in heaven, it +seems to me it must be when he looks upon the hearts of mothers. We who +are young, think little of it, know nothing of it; neither, I think, do +the fathers or the brothers know much of it; but it is the poor mothers +and wives of the soldiers. God help them! But the theme is too sad—let +us leave it. And amid this wild rush of war, let us not forget our +individual duties and responsibilities. Carlyle truly says: 'Each of us +here, let the world go how it will, and be victorious or not victorious, +has he not a little life of his own to lead? One life—a little gleam of +life between two eternities—no second chance to us for evermore.' Let +us not forget the loves, the amenities and charities of social life. Let +us not forget that the education of the world must go on as ever, that +the great virtues of charity and self-denial must more than ever be +exercised, and that the discipline and perfection of our own characters +is as ever our grand life-work. Then let the angry waves of tumult dash +up and froth at our feet, let the skies blacken and the tempest roar, +God is over all. This one thing we are to remember, and be cheerful. +Browning says:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'God's in his heaven—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">All's right with the world.'</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65"></a></p> +<h3><a name="THE_CRISIS_AND_THE_PARTIES" id="THE_CRISIS_AND_THE_PARTIES"></a>THE CRISIS AND THE PARTIES.</h3> + + +<p>From two points of view, the great and preëminently <i>American</i> nation +vibrates at present in a crisis of immense historical significance. The +first is, that of the war between the United and so-called Confederate +States, which is virtually a strife between Free Labor seeking to +enlarge its sphere and retain its power against agricultural aristocracy +maintained by slave labor. All the energies and theories of industrial +progress, of science, and of constant intellectual development; in a +word, all that is most characteristic of 'the spirit of the Nineteenth +Century,' is enlisted on the one side; all that is fading out and +wearing away, with all that characterizes the unwisest conservatism has +taken its last stand on the other. It is the old story of 'the +generation which comes and of that which goes,' reduced to the intense +form of a fierce fight. All of this—but little understood within a very +few years—has been of late made generally intelligible on this side of +the border, thanks, perhaps, as much to Mr. Hammond's word 'mudsill' as +to any other cause. In the short sentence which declared that there +should always exist, in every community, one ever-sunken and permanently +degraded class, the great point of difference between the South and +North was set forth in a form intelligible to the humblest capacity, and +it <i>was</i> understood—how well has been shown in many a bloody field.</p> + +<p>The other crisis in which we are at present involved is domestic and +purely political. It is the growth of opposing political parties, and +its existence is undoubtedly to be regretted, if we take only a +<i>superficial</i> view of the causes of its birth. We could all wish for +some time to come—perhaps forever—to see only a single Union-party, +with all men, looking neither to the right nor the left, pushing +steadily on to the great goal of unity, commercial development, and +social progress. But we forget that so surely as night follows day, even +so surely, in every community, will there be a conservative section and +a progressive; the 'extreme right' of the former consisting of frozen +conservatives, advocating the preservation of every antiquated evil, +because it has acquired in their eyes a halo of 'respectability,' while +on the 'extreme left' of their opponents will be found the radical +innovators, for whom no extravagance of reform is too great; so that as +each molecule or group of atoms has its positive and negative electrical +point, and as each atom in turn obeys the same law, so we see the +positive and negative poles of North and South again reflected in the +rapidly increasing divisions among us of Conservatives, who, by a +singular fatality, still indicate the plebeian origin which they would +now so gladly disown by the term Democrats; and, on the other hand, of +Republicans, nick-named at present Radicals—somewhat unjustly; since +the term is strictly applicable only to a very limited portion of their +number.</p> + +<p>There were men of high intelligence among the founders of the <i>old</i> +Democratic party; men who understood in many respects the true interests +of humanity and its inevitable tendency, under the influences of free +labor, free schools, and science. But with the masses, it owed its +growth to the old assumed 'natural antagonism' of labor to capital, or +of 'the poor against the rich.' It was essentially the same party as +that which was played upon by low demagogues like Cleon in the old Greek +day; by men who stirred up the poor and ignorant against the privileged +and rich, for their own selfish advantage. Of late years, more +enlightened and intelligent views have prevailed in all parties, and the +Cleons of the present day have been compelled to adventure more and more +among the lowest and most ignorant for dupes. For the workman <a name="Page_66" id="Page_66"></a>is +gradually learning with his employer that there is a harmony of +interests and a gradual adjustment of the prices allotted to the +relative values of time, labor, brains, and capital, and that the most +serious obstacle to this adjustment is, the keeping up of a constant +warfare between laborers and employers. It is the skilled <i>employé</i> who +becomes himself the capitalist in due time, under a peaceable and +well-organized system, as labor and brains rise in value, and the +greatest impediment to his rise is a settled state of war between +himself and the employer. Education and political equality, the +competition of capital, and the ever-increasing appreciation of +intelligence, are constantly promoting this harmony and enabling labor +to secure its rights.</p> + +<p>It is easy to see how the ancient Democracy, or rather its leaders, +having for many years held political supremacy and shared the spoils, +actually took the place of their opponents, and, in their decline, +naturally enough, formed a coalition with the intensely aristocratic +South. Meanwhile, what became of the once aristocratic Opposition, with +its 'silk-stocking gentry,' as they were termed? Like the Democracy, it +died a natural death, so far as the active enforcement of its principles +was concerned, after those principles had no longer a foundation in the +social developments of the age. Here and there, an old and incurable +devotee to mere forms or party shibboleth, who could not comprehend the +new order of thought, went over to the 'Democratic' conservatives. Of +such were the old gentlemen who, in Philadelphia, voted for the white +waistcoat and immaculate snowy neck-tie of James Buchanan. They fled to +their ancient foes, that they might die happily in the holy odor of +respectability, quite ignorant that a new gospel of what may be termed +Respect Ability was being preached, and building up a higher and grander +order of nobility than they had ever dreamed of.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the arrogance of the South and its desperate struggle to +secure political preponderance, by extending slavery to the territories, +developed in the North a free-soil and free-labor party, which received, +most appropriately, the name of Republican. The doctrine of free-labor +being intimately allied to every other form of social freedom, and of +active thought and social science, had a natural affinity for +'intellect.' The old Opposition, which had boasted, or been taunted +with, possessing 'all the dignity,' including that of superior culture, +swelled the ranks of this new party with writers and thinkers of +eminence. So it grew in power, taking in, of course, many varied +elements, both good and bad.</p> + +<p>As might have been expected, the proper conduct of the war, and the +disposal of the enemy in case of victory, soon led to decided +differences between the Democracy, who could not—owing to ancient +custom—throw aside their love for the name, or their antipathy to the +new doctrines which threatened their power. The mass of them had grown +up in firm alliance with the South, and duped and cat's-pawed as they +had been—irritated as they were at the treachery of their old allies +and despite the noble service which many of them rendered, in fighting +the common foe—many have never been able to hate <i>ab imo pectore</i> the +men of that false and foul feudal party which, when the rupture fairly +came, expressed for their old allies a scorn and contempt deeper even +than they felt for 'the Abolitionists.' In vain the South protested +fiercely that it meant disunion and nothing but disunion, and made its +words good by offering, both in Europe and in its own press, to +sacrifice, if need be, even slavery, rather than be longer bound to the +North; still, the remaining ultra Democracy could not, would not, even +now <i>will not</i> believe that the South would or could be so unfriendly. +It was this hope of compromise and conciliation which lost us forts, and +ships, and millions of dollars in munitions of war; for it was said: +'The South is only boasting, and must not be driven to extremes.' With +eyes wide <a name="Page_67" id="Page_67"></a>open to the thefts, the Democratic leaders smiled a languid, +cowardly assent, and let the enemy prepare for war. And war came. It +might have been prevented; it might, beyond all doubt, have been limited +and crushed; but the hand of the braggart South had been so long on the +throat of the doughfaces, that they dared not move, and the doughfaces +were in power. The country at large has had to pay dearly for that old +doughface love for the South; it is paying every day in lives and money.</p> + +<p>Even now, it is amazing to see how the leaders among the Democracy, +while pecking the South with the bill, continue to fondle it with the +wing. Again and again, since the war began, they have humiliated the +North and encouraged the desperate foe by efforts at peace-parties, +conciliations, outcries for amnesty, and entreaties not to 'exasperate' +the enemy. They have urged and advocated the maintenance of slavery, the +great cause of Southern arrogance and secession, with as much zeal as +any Southron of them all, and fiercely deprecated any allusion to a +subject which can no more he kept from consciousness than can a deadly +and madly irritating cancer. Every suggestion, even the mildest and most +equitable, for arranging this difficulty, has been stigmatized by them +as out of place and time, while their press has, without exception, as +we believe, given currency to statements denouncing directly as +swindlers and prostitutes the innocent and well-meaning men and women +who went South with the sole object of clothing, nursing, and teaching +the disorganized masses of blacks set free by our army. In all of this, +we have a melancholy illustration of the difficulty with which +unthinking men of the blind mass which rolls itself away into 'parties,' +and follows its leaders, embrace new truths or shake off old habits of +slavery.</p> + +<p>While the modern Democratic party firmly believed—as its majority still +seems to—that all this trouble was caused solely by the Abolitionists, +and simply for the sake of liberating some four millions of blacks, they +had at least some color for their iron conservatism. European humanity +did not agree with us; but we of America are more tropical in our +feelings, and so we made up our minds that it <i>was</i> too bad to cut one +another's throats for the sake of benefiting certain 'fat and lazy +niggers,' who were probably rather better off as chattels than as free +men. But it is not from this point of view that the world is now +beginning to view the subject. Common-sense has ascertained clearly +enough that without the agitation of Abolition, the South would have +become intolerable and tyrannical—it was imperious, sectional, and +arrogant in the days of its weakness, while the Abolitionists scarcely +existed, and given to secession for any and every cause. The insolent, +individual independence which prompted the wearing of weapons, wild law +and wild life, free from mutual social obligations, contained within +itself the germs of withdrawal from a civilized and superior people and +a stable government. For such men, one pretense served as well as +another. They of South-Carolina employed Nullification long before they +dreamed of Anti-Abolition.</p> + +<p>Still more absurd is the 'Democratic' opposition, since Abolition for +the sake of the Negro has been changed into the cry of <i>Emancipation for +the sake of the White Man</i>. Before this cry, before the inevitable and +mighty demand of the free white labor of the future on the territories +of the South, all protestations against 'meddling' with emancipation +shrivel up into trifles and become contemptible. The prayer of the ant +petitioning against the removal of a mountain, where a nation was to +found its capital, was not more verily frivolous and inconsiderable than +are these timid ones of 'let it alone!' And <i>why</i> let it alone? The +Emancipation-for-the-sake-of-the-white-man party, as represented by +President Lincoln's Message, commending remuneration, asks for no undue +haste, no violent or sudden aggressive measures. It is satisfied to let +the<a name="Page_68" id="Page_68"></a> South free itself when it shall be disposed so to do; simply +offering it a kindly aid when this measure shall become popular and +expedient. More than this we have never asked for in these columns; yet +it would be hard to imagine a term of 'newspaper abuse,' which has not +been given us by the 'Democratic' press. Yes, at a time when ninety-nine +men in a hundred in the free States avow that they would like to see +slavery 'out of the way,' if only to avoid the endless war which its +continuance <i>must</i> entail, all mention of it is tabooed by the men who +claim to head the party of the virtual majority! No matter how far off +the friends of Emancipation and of the Administration are willing to +postpone the practical execution of the measure, 'it must not be +mentioned.' For the greater part, these Northern friends of the South at +present still earnestly desire the perpetual establishment of slavery +'on a constitutional basis.'</p> + +<p>The contemptible efforts at Washington to build up a separate and +distinct Democratic party, when no party save that of the Union existed, +will condemn to everlasting opprobrium the Vallandighams, Carlisles, +Garret Davises, and other false friends of freedom, who at such a time +crowded together like hungry political cormorants, to hatch out the egg +of faction, and secure a prospective share of the spoils. Have these +'Conservatives' reflected on the disgraceful show which their names will +make <i>in history</i>, in after-years, when freedom shall have been +proclaimed throughout the land, and when those who opposed its progress +will appear like nothing else than traitors! Heaven help the men who, at +a time when others were gathering in full measure of glory in a holy +cause, were piling up naught but shame for their posterity. For it is +not more certain that God is just, than that the full measure of +iniquity will be heaped upon their names in the after-chronicles of +freedom.</p> + +<p>Even to the present moment, the 'Conservative' alias the +'Democratic'—or the Black, alias the White—party struggles with might +and main to defend and protect its old Southern whippers-in, even at the +risk of dividing and distracting the Union. To effect this, it +has—almost successfully—insolently thrust the Commander-in-chief +forward as <i>its</i> centre, and broadly slandered the Secretary of War and +President in no measured terms, as having toiled to defeat McClellan and +prolong the war. Through all the glossy web of lies, the light of truth +shines or will shine to their disgrace.</p> + +<p>Chiefly and most unwisely is the conservative hand shown at present in +opposition to every proposition for confiscation or punishing the +rebels. After having hurried us by their cowardice and Southern +toad-eating into this war; after urging it by their contemptible +procrastination to its present tremendous proportions, they cry out +'humanity!' for the men who have murdered our relatives, and shake the +Constitution for protection over estates which have been directly used +to contribute to Southern war! While every mail from the South gives +fresh instances of desperation, and while we search in vain for a trace +of proof that there is the slightest hope of reconciliation, we are +still entreated to restore every thing in <i>statu quo ante bellum</i>, and +bear all the results of the war ourselves, as if forsooth we had been +after all in the wrong. And so the Vallandighams and Davises declare +that we were. 'Abolitionism caused it all,' they say, 'nothing but +Abolition.'</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the question urges itself on us every day with more pressing +power, how we are really to settle the whole difficulty? We see but one +course—the 'Northing' of the South. We are content to waive for the +present all theory or project of confiscation, save so far as promoting +the settlement of those soldiers and emigrants who may wish to settle in +the South is concerned. <i>This</i> question demands consideration, and must +have it. Whether the lands to be appropriated for this <a name="Page_69" id="Page_69"></a>purpose come +from rebel estates which have ministered to the war, or whether they are +to be taken from State property, they must be had; for the settlement of +the South and the proper rewarding of the army are matters of paramount +importance. The South can no longer exist in its present social +condition. People who believe, to use the language of their most +respectable journal, the Richmond <i>Whig</i>, that:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Yankees are the most contemptible and detestable of God's +creation; vile wretches, whose daily sustenance consists in the +refuse of all other people; for they eat nothing that any body else +will buy;... who have long very properly looked upon themselves as +our social inferiors, as our serfs:'</p></div> + +<p>People, we say, who believe this of us, must be taught to think +differently and truthfully. If they lived in China, it would be +otherwise; but linked to us as they are, we can no longer tolerate such +outrageous superciliousness as they manifest. Those among them who will +learn, may be taught; those who will not, must be supplanted by people +who are not too proud to work, who do not 'abominate the system of free +schools, because the schools are free,'<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> and revile free labor, +because it consists of 'greasy mechanics, filthy operatives, and +small-fisted farmers.' The task is great; but it must be accomplished. +The war is drawing to an end; but a greater and nobler task lies before +the soldiers and the free men of America—the extending of +<i>civilization</i> into the South. Let us lift our minds above the narrow +limits of 'party,' and realize the mighty work which we have in hand. +Let the introduction of free labor to the South be in future the subject +to which every thinking American mind shall be devoted. Let them stream +in by millions!—the free laborers of all the world!—there is room for +them all; and the right of man to work never yet had such fair and just +opportunity to have justice done it. Agricultural aristocracy, supported +by involuntary servitude and unsupported by manufactures, has been +tried, and found worse than wanting. Let its place be filled as promptly +as possible by that truly higher aristocracy of industry and of culture +which is at present common to Europe and our own portion of America. The +turn of the North to rule has at length come. Let its reign be +inaugurated by great, noble, and philanthropic efforts to extend the +blessings of true civilization to all the continent.</p> +<hr /> + +<h3>I WAIT.</h3> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">I wait—watching and weary, I wait;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">You wander from the way!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">My heart lies open, however late,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">However you delay!</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">I wait—watching and weary, I wait;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">But day must dawn at last!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Together, beyond the reach of fate,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Love shall redeem my past.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">I wait, ah! forever I can wait;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Forever? I am brave:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Time can not fathom a love so great—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">It waits beyond the grave!</span><br /> +</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70"></a></p> +<h3><a name="TAKING_THE_CENSUS" id="TAKING_THE_CENSUS"></a>TAKING THE CENSUS.</h3> + +<p>Moses Grant sat in his vine-grown arbor one fine afternoon in August. A +fine afternoon, I call it—a little sultry, to be sure, which made Moses +Grant's eyes heavy; but the hum of the bees that played around the white +clover-blossoms, and the sound of the leaves as they rustled in the warm +wind, and the richly colored clouds that floated around in the deep, +deep blue of the summer sky, and a thousand other things which I will +not pause to note, but which every observing reader has noted on many an +August day, made the afternoon I speak of as glorious as any afternoon +could be in all our glorious summer.</p> + +<p>Moses Grant's eyes were heavy—or eye-lids, if the reader should be a +critic. He had brought a book from his daughter's book-case. He +remembered the volume—it was called <i>A Book of a Thousand Stories</i>—as +the one his daughter Mary read aloud one evening, when the witty turns +of speech put all the company into the best of humor. But, somehow, the +wit had now lost its point—the joke had lost its zest—and let him try +as he would to collect his scattered thoughts, and let him set his eyes +on his book never so firmly, his fancy would go on long journeys into +the past, and come back again, wearied more and more with each journey, +till at last it had sunk to rest, and Moses Grant's eyes were closed. +The bees buzzed on, the leaves quivered as before, and the great world +moved in its wonted way, yet our hero did not heed it; the world moved +on just the same, O reader! as it will one day move—one long, long +day—when you and I will not heed it.</p> + +<p>Suddenly Moses Grant heard his name spoken. When aroused, he saw his +neighbor, Johnson, seated in the rustic chair that mated the one in +which he himself sat.</p> + +<p>'Good-day, neighbor Johnson,' said Moses Grant. 'What in the world are +you doing with that great book?'</p> + +<p>'I am taking the census.' And he began turning the leaves as if +searching for a lost place, remarking, laconically: 'Sultry.'</p> + +<p>'Yes, a very close afternoon. But is it ten years since the census was +taken? It seems but as many months. Oh! well, time flies!'</p> + +<p>And he looked at the beautiful sky and at the beautiful landscape, and +lingeringly at his own stately mansion, guarded by venerable trees that +his own hand had transplanted from the forest—and the great truth, +half-realized, yet almost as common as our daily life, that time was +sweeping all things into the dead past, day by day and year by year, +gave him a passing thought of how much he loved them.</p> + +<p>The name of Moses Grant was duly inscribed in the book. Then the +question was asked by neighbor Johnson:</p> + +<p>'When were you born?'</p> + +<p>'In the year 1800—sixty years ago the day before yesterday—though I +declare I forgot all about my birthday.'</p> + +<p>'Well, how much real estate shall I set down to you?'</p> + +<p>'I <i>have</i> said that I owned about fifty thousand dollars in that kind of +property, perhaps a little more, but not half as much as some persons +estimate.'</p> + +<p>'Well, how much personal property?'</p> + +<p>'I guess about twenty thousand will not go far out of the way, reckoning +mortgages and all.'</p> + +<p>After a few minutes, which neighbor Johnson occupied by telling how Sime +Jones tried to get the appointment of census-taker by wriggling about in +an undignified way, and in talking about the prospects of his political +party, the visitor left the old man, (such we have a right to call him +since he has confessed his age,) and the old man (he would not thank us +for using the term so often, for he tries to think he is still +<a name="Page_71" id="Page_71"></a>young—the old man, I must again repeat) fell a thinking. His eyes were +no longer closed, although his book <i>was</i>; he leaned forward in his +rustic chair, and commenced to talk aloud—which is said to be a growing +habit with most old men:</p> + +<p>'Sixty years of human life!' The words were uttered slowly, as though +their full meaning were felt in the speaker's heart. After a little +while they were repeated: 'Sixty years of human life!' There was a +mournfulness in his voice now; it had sunk to the low, tender tones +that, years before, when his faithful wife vanished from earth, revealed +to all his friends that there was sadness in his heart, while there +seemed cheerfulness in his words. 'Welladay!' he continued; 'I have, at +any rate, been a <i>successful</i> man. My business has prospered beyond my +expectations, and I am what people call a rich man. There was a time +when I feared I should come to want; but now, if I could but think so, I +have enough. And mine has been an industrious life. When I was elected +to the State Senate wasn't my name held up in the newspapers as an +example for young men? Wasn't my reputation admitted to be spotless? +Yes, I <i>have</i> been a successful man—more successful than nearly all who +started with me.'</p> + +<p>And he began to look more cheerful and contented. He again looked at his +mansion and broad fields, and again he opened his book. The jokes were +better now than a little while before.</p> + +<p>But the bees buzzed on; the trees sang their old soothing song; the air +remained warm; and soon Moses Grant began to nod assent to his book, +though the matters it contained were not of opinion, but of fancy. By +which I mean that he grew sleepy.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Sudden darkness fell upon the earth. The sun, after sending its rays to +glitter in the river so brightly that Moses Grant put his hand over his +eyes as he looked from his arbor-door, went out, and the blackness of +night wrapped itself about the world. The elms, that had rattled their +deep green leaves in the wind, and the birch, that had so gracefully +bowed its slender, yellowish head, were all colorless now. There was no +storm-cloud to veil the heavens, and yet the sad-faced moon came not out +to remind the world of their lost loves and deferred hopes—nor the +stars, to twinkle in their silence, as though there were a great Soul in +the skies that longed to speak to men, but had no utterance save a +thousand love-lit eyes. All was darkness—dense, universal.</p> + +<p>Yet Moses Grant had sat unmoved in his vine-grown arbor. His soul was +passionless, his face was calm. His book had fallen to the ground, and +his head rested on the back of his chair.</p> + +<p>Suddenly there came a visitor to the arbor. Moses raised his head and +saw a being—whether man or woman I can not tell—with a face, oh! so +bright and calm, with eyes that looked from the deepest soul, and a pure +forehead that spoke of unworldly rest—a face that shone in its own +vista of light when all around was dark. The Presence bore an open book +in its hands, and came and stood before Moses Grant and looked earnestly +into his face.</p> + +<p>'Who are you?' he cried, half in fear, before the calm look of his +visitor, and half in confidence, because of the look of love.</p> + +<p>'I am the census-taker.'</p> + +<p>'No, no; it was he who came a little while ago.'</p> + +<p>'He was one census-taker—he came to learn how much you <i>seemed</i> to +possess; I come to learn your <i>real</i> possessions. I am the real +census-taker.'</p> + +<p>Moses Grant knew not what it meant; he sat speechless, in wonder. He +would have fled, but he knew not where he could flee in the darkness; he +must remain with his strange visitor, as all men must one day stand +alone with an awakened Conscience.</p> + +<p>'When were you born?' asked the Presence.</p> + +<p>'Sixty years ago,' answered Moses.</p> + +<p>'You understand me not. I do not <a name="Page_72" id="Page_72"></a>ask for the time when you were born +into your outward show of life, but when you commenced to live.'</p> + +<p>'Still I do not know your meaning,' said Moses.</p> + +<p>'Then you have not yet been born. You exist—you do not live. Say not +again that you have lived sixty years, for your being has not yet +expanded into life.'</p> + +<p>Oh! what great thoughts and dark memories came into the mind of Moses +Grant! Great thoughts of a nobler life of love than he had ever +known—of realities to which he was fast approaching—and a thousand +dark memories that he had often tried to obliterate from his mind. A +little while before, he thought he possessed a spotless reputation—and +so he did possess a spotless reputation when judged by human law. No man +ever knew him to steal; no man ever knew him to transgress any important +law. Nevertheless, he had had his own ends to gain, and he had gained +them. Yes—we might as well confess it—Moses Grant had lived a selfish +life. He knew how to take advantage of the technicalities of law, and he +knew how to be severe and unmerciful toward the poor. He remembered how, +years before, his son had longed for an education, and how the mother +had pleaded that he might go to school and to college, and how sternly +he said, 'No, I want him in my business;' and he remembered how he kept +him slaving at his uncongenial tasks, how he scolded because he still +pored over his books, until at last the mother had laid the poor boy in +the grave before he had attained to manhood. He remembered how the +mother grew paler day by day—she who had been such a help-meet in all +his selfish schemes of hoarding and saving; how she had talked more and +more about her 'dear lost boy,' till he, Moses Grant, commanded her +never to utter that name again in his presence; how the mother still +faded and faded, till at last she too, was laid in a quiet grave beside +her boy. All this came into the mind of Moses Grant. And then he +remembered how he had taken a poor widow's cottage, because his +mortgage-deed gave him the privilege—he never thought the <i>right</i>—to +take it; he remembered her sad face, that told of silent suffering, when +she moved with her children from the cottage her husband had built. +'How,' he asked, in the silence of his own mind, 'oh! how could they say +my reputation was unspotted?' Yet he had transgressed no outward law, +had forged no mortgage-deed. He only acted like a man who thought that +this world could only be enjoyed when he possessed a title-deed to it +all; like one who thought that above and beyond this world there was +nothing.</p> + +<p>All this time has the Presence stood before Moses Grant, looking into +his troubled face with its piercing eyes, and reading his every thought.</p> + +<p>'Answer me now,' it said, 'have you yet begun to live?'</p> + +<p>Then there was another and greater struggle in the mind of Moses. Pride +said to him: 'Send this intrusive visitor away, or flee yourself.' But +still the visitor stood there, waiting so calmly, and again Moses +realized that the great world had faded from his vision; so he could +neither send away the intruder, nor fly himself. Still those calm eyes +looked into his inmost soul.</p> + +<p>'Oh!' he cried at last, 'you have searched me through and through. No, I +have not lived—I have not been born, I have no life for you to record +in your book. Now, pray leave me—leave me in peace!'</p> + +<p>'That were impossible,' said the Presence, 'you know not peace. You +pride yourself on your possessions; but how can you have life or +possessions, if they are not recorded in my book? The earth, that you +love so well, has faded away. It will return to you for a brief moment, +and then it will fade forever. What you now possess is but a shadow, +like a sun-gilt cloud in a summer sky—changing and changing, and fading +and fading, till at last it disappears. You have, if God wills, a few +more years of <a name="Page_73" id="Page_73"></a>mortal existence, and then, oh! then, you must exchange +shadows for realities.'</p> + +<p>'Leave me, oh! leave me!' cried Moses.</p> + +<p>'Not yet; my mission is not fulfilled. Here in this book your name was +written sixty years age, as one <i>to be</i> born. Here your ledger has been +kept, though you knew it not. Read the pages with your soul, and see how +your account stands.'</p> + +<p>Oh! how dark the page. A line was drawn through the middle, from top to +bottom, and the good deeds were recorded on one side, in letters of +gold, and the bad deeds on the other side in letters of ink. As the +pages were turned, Moses looked eagerly for the bright letters, but they +were few—too few; while every page was almost filled with the black +records of selfish and sinful deeds. Every page made Moses Grant sicker +at heart, and he would gladly have withdrawn his eyes from the book, but +they were riveted, and he could not.</p> + +<p>'O poor man!' exclaimed the Presence, in pity; 'how poor do you find +yourself, you who were a little while ago so rich! But you must read no +more, lest you sink in despair.'</p> + +<p>And the book was closed. Moses Grant said not a word; his heart was too +full to speak—too full of grief—too empty of hope.</p> + +<p>'Despair not,' continued the strange Presence. 'Your record is not yet +completed. You may yet cancel all those black letters by writing golden +ones over them—which is to pray with your remaining strength and days +for forgiveness. You have been a hard, selfish man, for sixty years. +Men, for their own interests, have called you respectable; but before +God you have merited displeasure and disapprobation. In the little time +you have left, perhaps you may not be able to leave the world as pure as +you began it; but you may hope for wonderful mercy and forbearance from +God our Father. Have courage, and faith, and hope, and you will yet be +rich indeed—rich in love and joy and peace undefiled, that fadeth not +away.'</p> + +<p>Then the Presence vanished. Still Moses sat in his chair. But a hand was +laid on his forehead, and he awoke as he heard Mary say: 'Father, supper +is ready.' He drew his hand across his eyes, and arose from his chair. +He looked from his arbor-door. The world was all bathed in the light of +the declining sun. As he came out and looked on the landscape, he +thought that never before had he seen it so dreamy—never before had he +seen it so beautiful and so glorious, for never before had he so felt +the use of this world as a place in which to attain to the good and to +shun the evil, to overcome temptation and to aspire to life.</p> + +<p>His daughter wondered what caused his tone to be so tender that night; +the next day his neighbors wondered that he visited a certain poor, +struggling widow, and gave her the house her husband once owned; and in +the months that have since passed, many a poor family has wondered what +has turned their former oppressor into such a provident friend.</p> + +<p><i>I</i> only wonder that so old and selfish a man could have had so bright +and heavenly a dream.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h3>A SENSIBLE EPITAPH.</h3> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Reader, pass on: ne'er waste your time</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">On bad biography or bitter rhyme:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">For what I <i>am</i>, this cumbrous clay insures,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And what I <i>was</i>, is no affair of yours.'</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74"></a></p> +<h3><a name="THE_PELOPONNESUS_IN_MARCH" id="THE_PELOPONNESUS_IN_MARCH"></a>THE PELOPONNESUS IN MARCH.</h3> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Fair clime I where every season smiles.</span> +</p> +<p> </p> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">There, mildly dimpling, Ocean's check</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Reflects the tints of many a peak</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Caught by the laughing tides that lave</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">These Edens of the Eastern wave.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And if, at times, a transient breeze</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Break the blue crystal of the seas,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Or sweep one blossom from the trees,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">How welcome is each gentle air</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That wakes and wafts the odors there!'</span><br /> +</p> + + +<p>It was with thoughts like these running in our heads, that we found +ourselves, at about half-past four o'clock, on a dark, cloudy, windy +morning, March fifteenth, 18—, rolling slowly along the uneven road +that leads from Athens to the Piraeus. Our guide was Dhemetri, of +course—who ever heard of a guide that was not named Dhemetri? An +excellent guide he was, too, never missing his way, answering correctly +all our questions to which he knew the answers, and fabricating answers +to the rest as near the truth as his moderate knowledge of antiquity +would permit; providing us sedulously with creature comforts, and +besieging our hearts daily with delicious omelettes and endless strings +of figs. Arrived at the Piraeus, we were transferred, with beds, cooking +apparatus, and baggage, to the Lloyd steamer, whose cloud of steam and +smoke was seen dimly in the gray morning. At a reasonable time after the +hour advertised, we sailed into the open bay, passed near enough the +island of Ægina to see the ruined temple on one of its hights—almost to +count its columns—then coasted along the rugged shores of Argolis, +which we eagerly studied with the aid of a map. Here was the peninsula +Methana, and half hiding it, the island Calauria, where Demosthenes put +an end to his life, once the seat of a famous Amphictyony. Then the bold +promontory which shuts in the fertile valley of Troezer, then the +territory of Hermione, stretching between the mountains and the sea. We +touched at Hydhra, famed in the history of the Greek Revolution, a +strange, rambling town, picturesquely situated on a cleft in a bare +island of gray rock, and shortly after at Spetzia, a town of much the +same character; then toward night sailed into the beautiful bay of +Napoli, or Nauplia, once the capital of Greece.</p> + +<p>It had been our intention to procure horses that night, and ride as far +as Mycenæ, but we were too late, so contented ourselves with a walk to +Tiryus, and a rapid examination of its ruins. The massive walls of this +venerable town—they were a wonder in the age of Pericles as in +ours—still stand in their whole circuit, and here and there apparently +in their whole hight. It is a small, steep, mound-like hill—you can +walk around it in fifteen minutes—and within the walls the terraced +slope, thickly sprinkled with fragments of ruins, is grown over with the +tall purple flowers of the asphodel—a fit monument to the perished +city. From the citadel of Tiryus the view over the wide plain of the +Inachus, the broad bay beyond, covered with sails, the bold headland of +Napoli crowned with the ruined castle, the noble citadel of Argos, and +the mountain ranges on every side, made a picture beautiful even under +the dull sky of that March evening. Our walk—quickened by the fear that +the city gates would be found closed—gave us a hearty appetite, and a +classic smack was imparted to our modest viands by the fact that Orestes +himself waited on our table. We slept well, notwithstanding the +uncomfortable reputation of the inn, and set off early the next morning +upon our wanderings.</p> + +<p>Traveling in Greece is no child's play. Roads there are none, except +between some large towns; indeed, the nature of the country hardly +allows of them, as it is made up chiefly of mountain ridges and ravines. +Neither would the poverty-stricken inhabitants be able at <a name="Page_75" id="Page_75"></a>present to +make much use of them. When I expressed to Dhemetri the great benefits I +conceived that roads would confer upon the community, he asked +contemptuously: 'What good would roads be to them, when they have no +carriages?' Inns, too, there are none, or almost none; after leaving +Napoli we found none until we returned to Athens. In their stead, each +village has its <i>khan</i>, a house rather larger than ordinary, and +containing one large unfurnished room for guests. Here a fire is made on +the hearth, (the smoke escaping, or intended to escape, through a hole +in the roof, for chimneys do not exist,) and the traveler pitches his +tent metaphorically in this apartment. The beds, which he carries with +him, are spread on the floor, to do double duty as seats during the +evening and beds by night. Thus the accommodations are reduced to their +lowest terms—shelter and fire; to which add a lamb from the flock, eggs +in abundance, or sometimes a chicken, loaf of bread, or string of figs. +Wine, too, flavored with resin in true classic style, and tasting like +weak spirits of turpentine, is to be had every where. But for any +entertainment beyond this, the host is no-way responsible. If you do not +choose to sleep on the bare floor, you must bring beds and bedding with +you. If you wish the luxury of a knife and fork, you must furnish them +yourself. Kettles, plates, saucepans, cups, coffee, sugar, salt, +candles, all came from that mysterious basket which rode on the +pack-horse with the baggage. Were I visiting Greece again, I would +eschew all these vanities—carry nothing but a <i>Reisesack</i>, or +travel-bag, as the Germans are wont to call every variety of knapsack—a +shawl, and a copy of <i>Pausanias</i>, and live among the Greeks as the +Greeks do; but I was inexperienced then.</p> + +<p>So we set out with great pomp and circumstance, each on his +beast—<i>alogon</i>, the Unreasonable Thing, is the word for horse—while a +fifth, with two drivers, carried our goods. A ride of about three +hours—passing the silent and deserted Tiryus—brought us to the village +of Charváti, the modern representative of the 'rich Mycenae.' Here, +while Dehmetri prepared our breakfast, we followed a villager, who led +us by rapid strides up the rocky hill toward the angle formed by two +mountains. As we rose over one elevation after another, he plucked his +hands full of dry grass and brush, and then leading us into a hole in +the side of the hill, informed us in good classic Greek that it was the +tomb of Agamemnon. It is a large, round apartment, rising to the hight +of forty-nine feet, and of about the same width, the layers of masonry +gradually approaching one another until a single stone caps the whole; +not conical in shape, however, but like a beehive. A single monstrous +stone, twenty-seven feet long and twenty wide, is placed over the +doorway. The whole is buried with earth, and covered with a growth of +grass and shrubs, and a passage leads from it into a smaller chamber +hewn in the solid rock, in which our guide lighted the fuel he had +gathered. The gloomy walls were lighted up for a moment, then when the +fire died away, we returned to the open air. A little further on is the +famous gateway with two lionesses carved in relief above—the armorial +bearings, we may call it, of the city—and in every direction are seen +massive walls, foundation-stones, ruins of gates and of subterraneous +chambers like the first we visited, conical hillocks, probably +containing others in equally good preservation, and other marks of the +busy hand of man—'<i>Spuren ordnender Menschenhand unter dem Gesträuch</i>.' +Sidney Smith says: 'It is impossible to feel affection beyond +seventy-eight degrees or below twenty degrees of Fahrenheit.... Man only +lives to shiver or to perspire.' I think it is so with the sublime and +beautiful, and deeply as I felt in the abstract the privilege I enjoyed +in standing on the citadel of Agamemnon, and seeing the most venerable +ruins that Europe can boast, that keen March wind was too much for me, +and I was not sorry to return to the <a name="Page_76" id="Page_76"></a>khan, where, sitting cross-legged +on the floor, we ate with our fingers a roast chicken dissected with the +one knife of the family, and drank a bumper of resinous wine.</p> + +<p>After dinner we remounted and rode back through the broad plain to +Argos, traversed its narrow, dirty streets, stared at by the Argive +youth, examined its grass-grown theatre, cast wistful eyes at the lofty +citadel of Larissa, which time forbade us to ascend, then wound along +the foot of the mountain-range, saw at a distance on the seashore a spot +of green, which we were told was Lerna, where Hercules slew the hydra, +and near the road an old ruined pyramid, which we afterward examined +more closely, then followed a mountain-path, catching now and then a +glimpse of the bay, following the crest of the ridge into the valley +beyond. On one of the undulations of the path we passed over the site of +an ancient city, evidenced only by that most sure sign, a soil thickly +covered with potsherds. No classic writer mentions it, no inscription +gives it a name; perhaps the careless traveler would pass without a +suspicion that he was treading on the street, or forum, or temple of a +once thriving town. Striking soon into the carriage-road from Napoli to +Tripolitza, and descending into a charming little valley with the +euphonious name of Achladhókamvo, we were not sorry to find a khan, and +take up our quarters for the night. We found the family sitting on the +floor around a fire blazing on a hearth in the middle of a room, and +here we placed ourselves, watching the women spinning and Dhemetri +making his preparations for supper. Out of the afore-mentioned basket +quickly came all the afore-mentioned articles. A lamb was killed, and +shortly an excellent supper was served up to us. Soon the guest-chamber +was announced to be ready for us, a large open room having a fire at one +end, and containing our beds, spread on the floor, a cricket three +inches high, that served as a table, two windows closed by shutters +instead of glass, and a large quantity of smoke.</p> + +<p>The next morning a steep and picturesque path over Mount Parthenion—the +same path, I suppose, on which Phidippides had his well-known interview +with the god Pan—brought us to Arcadia. And at the name of Arcadia let +not the fond mind revert to scenes of pastoral innocence and enjoyment, +such as poets and artists love to paint—a lawn of ever-fresh verdure +shaded by the sturdy oak and wide-spreading beech, watered by +never-failing springs, swains and maidens innocent as the sheep they +tend, dancing on the green sward to the music of the pipe, and snowy +mountains in the distance lending repose and majesty to the scene. +Nothing of this picture is realized by the Arcadia of to-day, but the +snowy mountains, and they, indeed, are all around and near. No, let your +dream of Arcadia he something like this: A bare, open plain, three +thousand feet above the level of the sea, fenced in on every side by +snow-topped mountains, and swept incessantly by cold winds, the sky +heavy with clouds, the ground sown with numberless stones, with here and +there a bunch of hungry-looking grass pushing itself feebly up among +them. Not a tree do you behold, hardly a shrub. You come to a river—it +is a broad, waterless bed of cobble-stones and gravel, only differing +from the dry land in being less mixed with dirt, and wholly, instead of +partly, destitute of vegetation. But your eye falls at last on a sheet +of water—there is surely a placid lake giving beauty and fertility to +its neighborhood. No, it is a <i>katavothron</i>, or chasm, in which the +accumulated waters of the plain disappear. For as these Arcadian valleys +are so shut in by mountains as to leave no natural egress to the water, +it gathers in the lowest spot it can reach, and there stagnates, unless +it can wear a passage for itself, or find a subterraneous channel +through the limestone mountain, and come to light again in a lower +valley. Such a reäppearance we saw near Argos, a broad, swift +stream—the Erasmus—rushing from under a mountain with such force as to +turn mills; it is believed <a name="Page_77" id="Page_77"></a>to come from a <i>kalavothron</i> in the northern +part of Arcadia. And not far from thence a fountain of fresh water +bubbles up in the sea a few yards from the shore; this is traced to a +similar source. In some parts of Greece the remains may still be seen of +the subterranean channels by which in ancient times the <i>katavothra</i> +were kept clear, and thus prevented from overflowing. In this way much +land was artificially redeemed to agriculture.</p> + +<p>If, now, you seek for the dwellers in this paradise, behold them in yon +shepherd and his faithful dog—<i>Arcades ambo</i>—the shepherd muffled +against the searching wind in hood and cloak, under his arm a veritable +crook, while his sheep and goats are browsing about wherever a blade of +grass or a green leaf can be found. His invariable companion is—I was +about to say a tamed wolf; but in reality, an untamed animal of wolfish +aspect and disposition, always eager to make your acquaintance. These +creatures are the torment of the traveler throughout Greece, and most of +all in Arcadia. If on foot, he can pick up a stone, at sight of which +the enemy will beat a hasty retreat. Greece seems to have been +bountifully supplied with loose stones of the right size for this very +purpose, just as the rattlesnake-plant is said to grow wherever the +rattlesnake itself is found. If on horseback, he can easily escape, +although the animal will not scruple to hang to the horse's tail or bite +his heels. Such was Arcadia in March. No doubt, at another season it is +a delightful retreat from the overpowering heat of the Greek summer. It +may have a beauty of its own at that season; but there can be little of +that quiet rural landscape which we call Arcadian.</p> + +<p>After crossing this plain, visiting by the way the ruins of Tegea, which +consisted of a potato-field, sprinkled with bits of brick and marble, +and a medieval church, with some ancient marble built into its walls, we +came to a broad river, the Alpheus, whose water, when it has any, +empties in a <i>katavothron</i> which we left on our right; followed it up in +a southerly direction until we came to a little water in its bed, then +crossing over some rolling land which divides the water-courses of +Arcadia from those of Laconia, we found ourselves in a country of a very +different character. The land was better, and was covered with a low +growth of wood; we could even see extensive forests on the sides of +Parnon. The scenery became highly picturesque, and the weather, although +still rigorous, was more comfortable than in the morning. Night came on +us long before we reached our journey's end, the wayside khan of +Krevatá. There was a little parleying at the door, and Dhemetri seemed +dissatisfied with what he saw, and disposed to carry us on to another +resting-place. But thoroughly benumbed as we were, the blaze of light +that fell upon us from the half-open door quite won our hearts, and we +felt willing to risk whatever discomforts the place might have rather +than go further. As we entered the door, the scene was striking. A large +fire was roaring in the middle of the room, filling it with smoke. On +cushions and scraps of carpet, disposed about the fire, were crouched +six or eight men and women, dressed in their national costume, very +dirty and equally picturesque. Two or three children were among them, or +lay stretched at random on the floor asleep. A large, swarthy man +opposite us held a child of two or three years, now nestling in its +father's arms, now climbing over to its mother, now gazing bashfully and +curiously at the strangers. Basil, ever ready on occasion, seized his +pencil and soon transferred the group to paper, to the admiration of +them all. They moved to right and left as we came in, and made room for +us on the side next the door, where our faces were scorched, Our backs +shivering, and our eyes smarting with the smoke. An old woman who sat +next me eyed us inquisitively, and would gladly have entered into +conversation; but almost our sole Greek phrase, 'It is cold,' (<i>eeny +krió</i>), we had exhausted immediately on entering the <a name="Page_78" id="Page_78"></a>room. Basil +essayed Italian, having a vague idea that it would pass any where in +Greece, as French does in Italy, but with no success. Neither was our +conversation among ourselves brilliant. We were tired, cold, sleepy, and +hungry, and we thought despairingly on the long miles back that we had +last seen our baggage. At length a shout at the door gladdened our +hearts; our beds and that ever-welcome basket were handed in, and +Dhemetri was soon deeply engaged in preparing supper. Meanwhile, a fire +had been built in the upper room, and we went up by a ladder. But here +we were worse off than below. Roof, floor, walls, and (wooden) windows, +all were amply provided with cracks and knot-holes, through which the +wind roved at its will. A wretched fire was smoldering on the hearth, +and a candle was burning in a tin cup hanging by its handle on a nail in +the wall, which, set it where we would, flickered in the wind. And when +our supper came, fricassee, boiled chicken, roast hare, omelette, bread, +cheese, figs, and wine—for such a bill of fare had Dhemetri made ready +for us—we swallowed it hastily, huddled our beds about the fire, +wrapped ourselves in our blankets, and lay down at once. The inquisitive +old lady below, on seeing the extensive preparations for the supper of +three fellow-mortals, was struck with reverence for us, and expressed +her belief that those, who lived on such marvelous and unheard-of +delicacies would never die. We, indeed, had requested Dhemetri to cater +more simply for us; but his professional pride would not suffer it.</p> + +<p>We were right glad when morning came, and after a mug of thick coffee, a +bit of bread, and a handful of figs, we bid farewell to Krevatá with no +regrets. A short ride brought us to the brow of the range on which we +were traveling, and there lay the valley of Sparta at our feet, and +beyond it the Taygetus, if not the highest, the boldest and sharpest +mountain-range in Greece. Its white and jagged crest was still tipped +with clouds, and it appeared to rise from the valley of Sparta in an +almost unbroken ascent to its hight of seven thousand feet. This was the +finest single prospect of our journey; but we gladly left it, after a +short pause, to push on to the warmth and sunshine of the valley below. +The precipitous descent was soon accomplished; we forded the Eurotas, a +broad, clear, shallow stream, the only real river we saw in Greece, and +stood in Sparta, its site marked by a group of low hills and a few +unimportant ruins. The ground is good, and was then green with young +wheat; the valley was sheltered from the winds which had persecuted us +on the highlands, and for a few hours in the middle of the day, the +clouds were scattered, and we basked in the sun's rays. It seemed an +Elysium. A small and thrifty village has recently sprung up south of +this group of hills, still within the limits of the ancient city, and +here we dined in a café (<i>kapheterion</i>) kept by one Lycurgus, not on +black broth, but on roast lamb, omelette, figs, oranges, and wine. +Truly, if national character depended wholly on physical geography, we +should be inclined to look in the valley of the Eurotas for the rich and +luxurious Athens, and seek its stern and simple rival among the bleak +hills and sterile plains of Attica. We had a short ride that afternoon +up the valley of the Eurotas, with a keen north wind in our faces, and +were not sorry to reach Kalyvia at an early hour.</p> + +<p>Dhemetri had sent the pack-horse with our baggage across by a shorter +path, and now announced that we were to sleep to-night in a house +instead of a khan, that the mayor (<i>demarchos</i>) of Kalyvia had consented +to receive us. Great was our exultation at the prospect of spending a +night in this aristocratic mansion, and in truth we found the +accommodations here much the most comfortable—nay, we reckoned them +luxurious—which we had on our journey. We were first shown into a small +room with one glass window, with tight walls, and a chimney. A fire was +burning cheerfully on the hearth—that is to <a name="Page_79" id="Page_79"></a>say, a stone platform +slightly elevated above the floor. The floor around the fire was spread +with mats, and in one corner the lady of the house was—what shall I +say?—squatted upon the floor, engaged in domestic work. Her daughter, a +pretty, blue-eyed maiden, of some fourteen years, named Athena, +(Γλαυκώπις ‘Αθήνα,) was working by her side, and the demarch himself, +with his stalwart son, were similarly seated on the opposite side of the +hearth. Three rough, unpainted stools, an extra luxury for guests, were +brought in for us, and we at once plunged into conversation.</p> + +<p>'<i>Εενυ κριό</i>!' said we.</p> + +<p>'<i>Μάλιστα, μάλιστα, εενυ κριό</i>!' was the prompt reply.</p> + +<p>Stimulated by our success, we made another attempt, and were overwhelmed +by a flood of Romaic, to which we could only nod our heads gratefully, +with 'Málista, málista, charí, charí,' (certainly, certainly, thank you, +thank you.) When we retired to our room, we found our beds laid on a +sort of shelf along the wall, instead of on the floor, and our supper +was served on a table instead of in our laps, as we were used. The +family shook hands with us cordially when we took leave, in the morning, +placing their hands on their hearts.</p> + +<p>This day we rode through a rolling country, quite well watered and +wooded, separating the waters of the Eurotas from those of the Alpheus, +Laconia from Arcadia. As we reached the highest point, and were about to +descend, Dhemetri pointed out a village, distinguished by a single tall, +slender cypress, with the words; 'There is Megalopolis.' This is the +city founded by Epaminondas, almost the only statesman of antiquity who +seems to have had a dim conception of the modern policy of the balance +of power, as a point of union for the jealous and disunited States of +Arcadia, and as a sentinel stationed at a chief entrance to Laconia. The +whole of his great project was not realized, and Megalopolis, instead of +becoming 'the great city' of Arcadia, was only a mate to Tegea and +Mantinea. Even thus, the work was by no means lost; a Spartan army, to +reach Messenia, whose independence was to be secured, must pass through +the territory of Megalopolis, and even a second-rate city would answer +as a guard. But not even Epaminondas could make of Arcadia a first-class +power, and a sufficient counterpoise to Sparta. Megalopolis is now +wholly deserted, and represented only by the little village of Sinanu, +half a mile distant, where we stopped at a khan kept by an old soldier +of Colocotroni, and ran, while dinner was preparing, to examine the +scanty ruins of the great city—interesting only from their association +with a great name.</p> + +<p>Reluctantly, we now turned our backs upon Messene, with its renowned +fortress of Ithome, the sacred Olympia, and the beautiful temple of +Phigalia, and began our homeward journey. Passing over a mountain from +which we had a wide and beautiful view, we rode through a barren and +uninteresting plain to the lonely khan of Frankovrysi, and early the +next day arrived at Tripolitza. We had had a clear sky at Megalopolis +and Frankovrysi, but here, in the high table-land of Arcadia, we found +the self-same leaden sky and bleak winds we left three days before. This +valley or table-land stretches from north to south, nearly divided in +two by the approach of the mountains from east and west. Thus the valley +takes the shape rudely of the figure eight; the southern part, through +one corner of which we had passed before, being occupied by Tegea, the +northern by Mantinea. Tripolitza, to the northwest of Tegea, represents +the ancient Pallantium, the birthplace of Evander. Here Dhemetri brought +us bad news. We had intended to go to Mantinea, thence north through +Orchomenus, Stymphalus, and Sicyon, to Corinth; but the passes, we +learned, were impracticable for the snow, and we must recross Mount +Parthenion, and revisit Achladhokamvo and Argos. First, however, we took +a rapid ride to Mantinea, about eight miles through a level, tolerably +well-cultivated country. At the narrow passage between the mountains, +there <a name="Page_80" id="Page_80"></a>stood in ancient times a grove of cork-trees, called 'Pelagus,' +the sea. Epaminondas, warned by an oracle to beware of the 'Pelagus,' +had carefully avoided the sea. But it was just in this spot that he drew +up his troops for the great battle which cost him his life. When +mortally wounded, he was carried to a high place called +'Skope'—identified with the sharp spur of Mount Mænalus, which projects +just here into the plain, and from this he watched the battle, and here +he died, like Wolfe, at the moment of victory. The well-built walls of +Mantinea still stand in nearly their entire circuit, built in the fourth +century before Christ, after Agesipolis of Sparta had captured the city, +by washing away its walls of sun-burnt brick, and had dispersed the +inhabitants among the neighboring villages. The restoration of the city +was a part of the great system of humbling Sparta, set on foot by +Epaminondas after the battle of Leuctra.</p> + +<p>After spending the night at Achladhokamvo, where we visited the ruins of +Hysiæ close by, we went next day through Argos, passing within sight of +Mycenæ, to Nemea, where, in a beautiful little valley, three Doric +columns, still standing, testify to the former sanctity of the spot. +Then to Kurtissa, the ancient Cleonæ, to pass the night. When Dhemetri +pointed it out to us from the hill above, it looked like a New-England +farm-house, a neat white cottage peeping out from among the trees, and +we rejoiced at the prospect. But lo! the neat white cottage was a +guardhouse, and our khan was the rude, unpainted, windowless barn. It +was, nevertheless, very comfortable. There was a ceiling to the room, +and the board windows were tight. The floor, to be sure, gaped in wide +cracks; but as there was a blazing fire in the room beneath, the cracks +let in no cold air, nothing but smoke, a sort of compensation, as it +seemed, for our having a chimney, lest we should be puffed up with pride +and luxury. For we not only had a chimney, but a table and two stools, +one sitting on an inverted barrel spread with a horse-blanket. Here +Dhemetri concocted for our supper an Hellenic soup, of royal flavor, the +recollection of which is still grateful to my palate. And here a youth, +named Agamemnon, son of George, came and displayed to us his +school-books, a geography, beginning with Greece and ending with +America, where Βοσθονια as put down as capital of Μασσαχοντια. Longing +to hear a Greek war-song, we requested him to sing, at which he warbled +Δεντε παιδες τον Ελλενον to a tune which we strongly suspected he +composed for the occasion, following it up with others, with such +delight that we were fain at last to plead sleepiness and let him +depart.</p> + +<p>We were up betimes the following morning, for we had a long day's work +before us. We were approaching Corinth, and knew that from the +Acrocorinthus, a very high and steep hill over-hanging it, a prospect +was to be had inferior to none in Greece. The morning, though not +actually unpleasant, was chill and hazy, and Dhemetri tried to dissuade +us from wasting the time. But we were determined to see what there was +to be seen, and after a ride of two or three hours over a rough country, +we entered the fortifications of this chief citadel of Greece. It is now +guarded by a handful of soldiers, two or three neglected cannons thrust +their muzzles idly over the rampart, and shepherds with their flocks +roam at will within. A sharp wind was sweeping over the summit, and the +mountains and islands—Parnassus, Cyllene, Helicon, Pentclicon, Salamis, +Ægina—were veiled with a dull, opaque haze. While Basil, with stiff +fingers, was sketching the view from the top, I wandered about with my +other companion, picking spring flowers, reading the descriptions of +Pausanias, and studying the distant landscape. There is a thriving town +at the bottom of the hill, and hither we descended, asking for the inn +(Xenodhekeon) where Dhemetri had told us to meet him. But alas! modern +Corinth can not sustain an inn; and we were obliged to eat our dinner in +a grocery, stared at by all the <a name="Page_81" id="Page_81"></a>youth of Corinth. Half a dozen Doric +columns, belonging to a very old temple, are the only considerable +relics of ancient Corinth. And as we had a long afternoon's work before +us, we set off before twelve. We galloped at good speed across the +Isthmus, about an hour's ride; Dhemetri, who understood the management +of Greek horses, driving us before him like a flock of sheep. We paused +a moment at the Isthmic sanctuary of Poseidon, passed through the +village of Kalamáki, whence steamers run to Athens, then continued along +the shore between Mount Geroneia and the sea, through a low, uneven +country, well grown with pine, heather, arbute, gorse in the full +splendor of its yellow blossoms, and sweet-smelling thyme. The afternoon +was warm and bright. Here and there were flocks of long-haired sheep and +sturdy black goats, cropping the grass and the shrubs, and it was well +in keeping with the scene when we passed a shepherd, with his cloak +thrown carelessly aside, leaning on his crook, and playing a few simple +notes—not a <i>tune</i>—on his flageolet to while away the time. We delayed +half an hour at the miserable hamlet of Kineta, to rest one of the +horses, exhausted with our fast riding, then began the ascent of our +last mountain-pass. A spur of Mount Geroneia runs boldly into the sea, +forming a wall between the territories of Corinth and Megara. It is +called 'Kake-Scala,' 'Bad Ladder,' an odd mixture of Greek and Italian. +Here, as the ancients fabled, dwelt the robber Skiron, plundering and +mutilating all wayfarers, and throwing them into the sea; but Theseus +subdued him and subjected him to a like treatment, and thereafter +traveling was secure. No doubt Theseus crowned his labors by building a +road, as we know one existed here in antiquity, but it has long since +disappeared, and King Otho was then imitating him, as we found, +presently, to our cost. The sun had already set, when the road became +impassable, and shouts from two men some distance above, informed us +that the building of the new road had rendered the old bridle-path +impracticable. We had to urge our horses down a steep, narrow path to +the water's edge, then as the beach was blocked up with huge rocks, to +ride a rod or two through the water, then climb up the steep rocks on +the other side, where one horse slipped and came near tumbling with his +rider into the sea below. Ten minutes later, and we must have returned +to Kineta, or waited an hour or two for the moon, for as soon as we were +over this dangerous spot it became quite dark; but the path was now safe +and easy to find. The full moon was up when we reached the top of the +cliff, and the valley of Megara, the mountains, the bay, and the islands +of Ægina and Salamis lay distinctly before us. We made all speed to +Megara, cheered by the fame of its khan as one of the best in Greece, +and by the certainty that there was now a good road all the way to +Athens.</p> + +<p>It was suggested that we should take a carriage the rest of the way, but +as our horses were hired to Athens, we decided not to incur the extra +expense. Soon after arriving, however, while Dhemetri was making us a +soup, and Diomedes was taking care of our horses, and Epaminondas was +roasting us a joint of lamb, while we were squatting half-asleep on +bolsters on the floor, hugging our knees, looking dreamily at the fire, +and longing for supper and bed, the driver of the carriage came in, and +addressed us in recommendation of his establishment in his choicest +Frank, "<i>Carrozza-very good-ye-e-e-s!</i>' then squatted down on the hearth +beside us, hugged his knees, and looked at the fire with infinite +self-satisfaction. Whether it was his eloquence that prevailed on our +attendants, I know not, but it was determined to provide us with a +carriage the next day, at no extra expense. The day was perfect, and the +luxury of an easy drive of four hours was very grateful to us after our +uncomfortable ride in the Peloponnesus. We dined at Eleusis, and reached +Athens early in the afternoon.<br /><br /></p> + + + + +<h3><a name="ADONIUM" id="ADONIUM">ADONIUM.</a></h3><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82"></a> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Far dimly back in distant days of eld,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">There lived a pretty boy, as parchments tell,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">As formed for love and life in lonely dell,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">With mien as fair as never eyes beheld;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Because who saw, to love him was compelled</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Straightway, so wizardly he wielded Beauty's spell.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">His name Adonis—sad of memory!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Whose life, though fair, his death was fairer still,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">In dying for a cause, or good or ill;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">For he heart-crazed the daughter of the sea,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Who loved him well, though wisely loved not she:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">True hearts are never wise, as worldlings selfish will.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Him Venus loved—Love's cherished creatures they!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">And Venus wooed with perseverance sore,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Till weary was the lad, the wooing o'er;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">And while he, hiding in the forest lay,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">O'ershaded from the sun's unfriendly ray,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Ah me! there came to kill a maddened, foaming boar!</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Oh! see! from limbs too fair for touch of earth,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">As tusk and tusk is savage through them drove,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">While rain their dainty power 'fending strove,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">The pure red liquid life all wasting forth!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">All wasted, lost? Nay! thence, thence took its birth</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;"><span class="smcap">Adonium</span>, eternal bloom of martyred Love!</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Love's martyr is a-bleeding now again;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Sweet Liberty, beloved of earth, doth bleed:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">The maddened, foaming boar hath come indeed,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">And tears our life on many a gory plain;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">But we—as bled the boy—bleed not in vain:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Our blood-drops—our sons—will be Adonium seed!</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Who die for Liberty—they never die!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Adonis, dead for Love, doth live anew!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">They bloom blood-flowers in the tearful dew,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Forever falling on their memory!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">In veins that are and veins that are not to be,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">They ever coursing live, the right, the good, the true!</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Where sinks the martyr's blood within the sod,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">A spirit-plant of universal root,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Divinely radiant, doth upward shoot,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Appealing from a wicked world to God!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">And seen for once, down drops the tyrant's rod;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">For men at last have tasted of a heavenly fruit.</span><br /> +<br /><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83"></a> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">All good and beautiful of soul thus sprung</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">From blood, e'en as the Adonium I sing;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">And where the blood is purest, thence doth spring</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Such flowers as by heavenly bards are sung;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">For since from Christ the fierce blood-sweat was wrung,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Have growths of nobler fruit on earth been ripening!</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="POLYTECHNIC_INSTITUTES" id="POLYTECHNIC_INSTITUTES"></a>POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTES.</h3> + + +<p>There is positively no class of writers entitled to higher praise, or +actuated by nobler motives, than those who are now distinguishing +themselves by their labors for Education. They have laid their hands on +what is to be the great social motive power of the future—the great +subject of the politics of days to come—and are working bravely in the +sacred cause.</p> + +<p>Yet it can hardly be denied that amid the vast mass of every practical +observation and suggestion contained in the educational works with which +we are familiar, or even among the really <i>scientific</i> contributors to +it, there is very little founded on the great social wants and +tendencies of the age. Education is, at present, merely an <i>art</i>; it has +a right, in common with every conceivable department of knowledge, to be +raised to the rank of a <i>science</i>. This can only be done by putting it +on a progressive basis, and placing it in such a position as to aid in +supplying some great demand of the age.</p> + +<p>The great fact of the time is, the advance from mere art upward to +science, from the blossom to the fruit. Practical wants, 'the greatest +good for the greatest number,' the fullest development of free labor, +the increase of capital, the diminution of suffering, the harmony of +interests between capital and labor—all of these are the children of +Science and Facts. During the feudal age, nearly all the resources of +genius—all the capital of the day—was devoted to mere Art, for the +sake of setting off social position and 'idealisms.' As with the +nobility and royalty of England at the present day, society enormously +overpaid what is, or was, really the police—whose mission it was to +keep it in order. But from Friar Bacon to Lord Bacon, a movement was +silently progressing, which the present century has just begun to +realize. This movement was that of the development of all human ability +and natural resources, guided by science. It was a tendency toward the +practical, the positive, which is destined in time to bring forth its +own new art and literature, is breaking away from the trammels of the +old literary or imaginative sway.</p> + +<p>At the present day, up to the present hour, Education—especially the +higher education, destined to fit men for leading positions—is still +under the old literary regime. We laugh when we read of the two first +years of medical study at the school of Salerno being devoted to dry +logic, yet the four years' course at nearly all our modern Universities, +or, in fact, the course of almost any 'high-school,' is as little +adapted to the real wants of the practical leading men of this age as a +study of the Schoolmen would be. The 'literature' of the past still +rules the practical wants of the present. It is not that the study of +the thought of the past is not noble, nay, essential, to the highly +cultivated man; but it should be pursued on a large, scientific scale. +The study of Greek and Latin, as languages, is not so disciplining nor +so valuable as that of the <a name="Page_84" id="Page_84"></a>science of language, as taught by Max +Müller; and if these languages must be learned, (and we do not deny that +they should,) they can better be studied in their relations to all +languages than simply by themselves. And as if to make bad worse, the +genial and strictly scientific use of literal translations, advocated by +Milton and Locke, and generally employed at the Revival of Letters, and +during the days when Europe boasted its greatest classic scholars, is +prohibited. 'A college education' suggests the employment of the best +years of life in studies of little practical use in themselves, and +seldom revived, save for pleasure, after graduation. And even where such +studies are exceptionally practical; nay, where science and a free +choice of languages and literature are left to the somewhat advanced +student, we still find the shadow of the past—of the old, formal, and +rapidly growing obsolete literature—overawing the more enlightened +effort. Deny it as we may, the University is still a feudal institution. +Within the memory of man, there existed in England positively no school +where the would-be engineer or manufacturer could be fitted for his +career and at the same time be 'well educated.' George Stephenson was +obliged to send his son to an 'University,' where some scraps of +practical science—scanty scraps they were—most insufficiently repaid +the expense of education.</p> + +<p>The great want of the age is the Polytechnic School, or more correctly +speaking, of the Technological Institute, in which the labors of the +Society of Arts, aided by the Museum and Library, may serve the two-fold +object of informing the public on all matters of science and industry +and of aiding the School of Industrial Science. Developed on its largest +scale, such an institute should be devoted to the acquisition and +dissemination of all knowledge, but under strictly scientific guidance +and influences. Literature should there be taught historically, in close +connection with mental philosophy, a system which, it may be observed, +results in interesting the pupil more in details than the old plan +devoted to a few mere details ever did. Art should there be taught, not +in rhapsodies over Raphael, Turner, and the favorite fancies of an +individual, but according to its unfoldings in human culture, based on +architecture as an illustrative medium. 'The lines of connection' +between these and the exact sciences should be ever kept in sight, so +that the student may never forget 'the countless connecting threads +woven into one indissoluble texture, forming that ever-enlarging web +which is the blended product of the world's scientific and industrial +activity.'</p> + +<p>The great aim of such an institute should be the aiding of industrial +progress, and the application of generous, intelligent culture to +practical pursuits—the whole to be based on exact science. When we look +into this community, and see the vast demand for talent in its +manufactures, and see how many thousands there are who would gladly be +'liberally educated' men, if the education could only be allied to +practically useful knowledge, we at once feel that the time has come for +the establishment of such institutes. The demand exists on every side; +the supply must come, and that speedily. England, France, and Germany +are rapidly improving their manufactures by scientifically educating +their master-workmen—the Conservatoire des Arts, and Ecole Centrale, of +Paris, the art-schools of the British capital and provinces, the many +museums devoted to scientic collection, are all keeping up their +factories—shall we be behind them? Let Capital consult its interests, +and answer.</p> + +<p>We have been induced to put the query, from a perusal of two pamphlets, +both directly bearing on this subject. The first is the <i>Ninth Annual +Announcement of the Polytechnic College of the State of Pennsylvania, +Session</i> 1861-1862, <i>and Catalogue of the Officers and Students</i>; while +the second sets forth the Objects and Plan of an Institute of +Technology, including a Society of Arts, a Museum of Arts, and a School +of Industrial Science, proposed to be <a name="Page_85" id="Page_85"></a>established in Boston.'<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a> This +latter, it may be added, was prepared by direction of the Committee of +Associated Institutions of Science and Arts, and is addressed to +'manufacturers, merchants, agriculturists, and other friends of +enlightened industry in the commonwealth.'</p> + +<p>The Polytechnic College of Philadelphia, now in its ninth year, is a +truly excellent institution, the practical results of which are shown in +the fact that its students, immediately on graduating, have generally +received appointments as civil and mechanical engineers, or otherwise +stepped at once into active and remunerative employment. Its object, as +we are told, is to afford to the young civil, mining, or mechanical +engineer, chemist, architect, metallurgist, or student of applied +science, every facility whereby he may perfect himself in his destined +calling. It is, in fact, a collection of technical schools, or schools +of instruction in the several departments of learned industry. It +comprises the school of mines, for professional training in +mine-engineering, in the best methods of determining the value of +mineral lands and of analyzing and manufacturing mine products. Also the +schools of civil engineering, of practical chemistry, of mechanical +engineering, architecture, general science, and agriculture. To these is +added a military department, now under superintendence of a former +instructor in West-Point, with the use of the State armory near the +college, generously granted by the State, with a supply of arms. We are +glad to say that in all these schools the instruction is thorough, not +only in theory but in actual <i>practice</i>. The course of the school of +chemistry, for instance, comprehends the principles of the science and +their actual application to agriculture, to the arts, and to analysis; +to the examination and smelting of ores; to the alloying, refining, and +working of metals; to the arts of dyeing and pottery; to the starch, +lime, and glass manufacture; to the preparation and durability of +mortars and cements; to means of disinfecting, ventilating, heating, and +lighting. Its students are also practiced in manipulations, testing in +the arts qualitative and quantitative; in analysis of minerals and +soils, and in many other important practical matters.</p> + +<p>The students of geology and mining, of machinery and metallurgy, make, +with their professors, frequent visits to the many interesting +localities in Pennsylvania or New-Jersey, to the many large +machine-shops with which Philadelphia abounds, visit mines and furnaces, +and are in every way practically familiarized with their future +callings. Instruction in languages and literature, in drawing and in the +elements of practical law is, we believe, given in common to all. It is +the first, we may say, <i>unavoidable</i>, characteristic of a <i>scientific</i> +school, that its work is always well done. Other schools may or may not +be specious contrivances, well or ill managed; but the very nature of +science is to <i>clear itself</i> in whatever it touches, and be honest and +practical. Its tendency is to classify and select, to cast away the +obsolete and test and adopt the new and true. Such is by no means an +exaggerated statement of the real condition of the excellent college to +which we refer, which testifies, by its success, to the excellence of +its plan and the competency of its teachers, especially to the +administrative ability of its worthy President, Dr. Alfred L. Kennedy.</p> + +<p>It can not be denied, that for many years, radicals have inveighed +against 'Greek and Universities,' but it has been in a narrow, vulgar, +and simply destructive manner, with no provision to sub<a name="Page_86" id="Page_86"></a>stitute any +thing better in their place. The growth of science, of the knowledge of +history, of culture in every branch, has, however, of late, so vastly +increased, that the proposition to reform the old system of study is +really one not to tear it down, but to build it up, to extend it and +develop it on a grand scale. Since, for example, the influence of +science has been felt in philology, how inconsiderable do the Bruncks +and Porsons of the old school, appear before the Bopps, Schlegels, +Burnoufs, and Müllers of the new! For as yet, even where here and there +in colleges a liberal and enlightened method is partially attempted, +still the old monkish spirit appears, driving away with something like a +'mystery' or 'guild' feeling the merely practical man, and interposing a +mass of 'dead vocables,' which must be learned by years of labor, +between him and the realization of an education. The young man who is to +be a miner, a cotton-spinner, an architect, or a merchant, may possibly +find here and there, at this or that college, lectures and instruction +which may aid him directly in his future career, but he soon realizes +that the general tendency and tone of the college is entirely in favor +of abstract studies quite useless out in the world, and apart from +preparation for one of 'the three professions.' He himself is as a +'marine' among the regular sailors, a surgeon among 'regular doctors,' +or as a dentist among surgeons. And this in an age when we may say that +what is not to be studied scientifically is not <i>worth</i> studying. As our +principal object in writing these remarks has been to assert that the +Polytechnic Institute, in its either partial or entire form, should +exist entirely independent of all other influences, we might be held +excused from any mention of such scientific schools as are attached to +our Universities. That of Cambridge, Massachusetts, would, however, +deserve special mention, from the celebrity of its teachers. In this +institute, which has between seventy and eighty students, we have a +single school divided into the following departments: that of Chemistry, +under supervision of Professor Horseford, in which instruction is both +theoretical and practical; that of Zoölogy and Geology, in which the +teaching consists alternately of a course of lectures by Professor +Agassiz, on Zoology, embracing the fundamental principles of the +classification of animals as founded upon structure and embryonic +development, and illustrating their natural affinities, habits, +distribution, and the relations which exist between the living and +extinct races, and a course of geology, both theoretical and practical. +To this are added the departments of Engineering under Professor Eustis, +that of Botany, under Professor Gray, that of Comparative Anatomy and +Physiology, under Professor J. Wyman, that of Mathematics, under +Professor Peirce, and that of Mineralogy, under Professor Cooke. It is +needless to speak in praise of a school boasting men of such world-wide +names as teachers, or to commend it as affording facilities for +bestowing a sound education. We do it no injustice, however, in +asserting that its tendency is to develop students of abstract science +and teachers, while the aim of the <i>Polytechnic</i> school proper is, in +addition to this, to supply the manufactures of the country with +<i>working men</i>, and the country at large, including those already engaged +in labor, with technological information of every kind. It should be a +vast reservoir of practical knowledge, where the man of the +'print-works,' in search of a certain dye or of a new form of machinery, +may apply, certain that all the latest discoveries will be found +registered there. It should be a place where capitalists may go as to an +intelligence-office, confident of finding there the assistants which +they may need. It should be, in fact, in every respect, an institute +simply and solely for the people, and for the development of +<i>manufacturing industry</i>. If, as we have urged, it should embrace +eventually thorough instruction in <i>every</i> branch of knowledge, this +should be because experience shows that the most commonplace branches +require the <a name="Page_87" id="Page_87"></a>stimulus of genius, which can only be fairly developed by +universal facilities. No young man, however practical, could have his +<i>Thätigkeit</i> or 'available energy' other than stimulated by even an +extensive familiarity with every detail of philosophy, literature, and +art, provided that these were properly <i>scienced</i>, or taught strictly +according to their historical development.</p> + +<p>It is, therefore, needless to say that we welcome with pleasure the plan +of An Institute of Technology, which it is proposed to establish in +Boston, and which, to judge from its excellently well prepared +prospectus, will fully meet, in every particular, all the requirements +which we have laid down as essential to a perfect Polytechnic Institute. +Indeed, the wide scope of this plan, its capacity for embracing every +subject in the range of science, and of communicating it to the public +either by publication, by free lectures, by a museum of reference, or by +collegiate instruction, leaves but little to be desired. That there is +great need of such an institution in this State is apparent from many +causes. In the words of the prospectus, we feel that in New-England, and +especially in our own Commonwealth, the time has arrived when, as we +believe, the interests of Commerce and Arts, as well as General +Education, call for the most earnest cooperation of intelligent culture +with industrial pursuits. It is no exaggeration to state that probably +no project was ever before presented to the wealthy men of Massachusetts +which appealed so earnestly to their aid or gave such fair promise of +doing good. The institute in question is one which will in every +respect, socially and mentally, elevate the business man or practical +man to a level with the college graduate or the practitioner in the +three learned professions. It will stimulate progress by still further +refining industry, and ally the action of capital to the advance of +intellect. It will perform a noble and distinguished part in the great +mission of the age and of future ages—that of vindicating the dignity +of free labor and showing that the humblest work may be rendered +high-toned and raised to a level with the calling of scholar or +diplomatist through the influence of science. If we were called on to +set forth the noble spirit of the <i>North</i> with all its free labor and +all its glorious tendencies, we should, with whole heart and soul, +choose this magnificent conception of an institute whose aim is to +confer dignity on what the wretched and ignorant slaveocracy believe is +cursed into everlasting vulgarity. It is fitting that this practical and +eminently intelligent and progressive community should build up, on a +grand scale, an institution which will be not only eminently useful and +profitable, but serve as a culminating exponent of the great and liberal +ideas for which the North has already made in every form the most +remarkable sacrifices.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'While the vast and increasing magnitude of the industrial +interests of New-England furnishes a powerful incentive to the +establishment—within its borders of an institution devoted to +technological uses, it can not be doubted that the concentration of +these interests in so great a degree, in and around Boston, renders +the capital of the State an eligible site for such an undertaking. +Indeed, considering the peculiar genius of our busy population for +the Practical Arts, and marking their avidity in the study of +scientific facts and principles tending to explain or advance them, +we see a special and most striking fitness in the establishment of +such an Institution among them, and we gather a confident assurance +of its preëminent utility and success. Nor can we advert to the +intelligence which is so well known as guiding the large +munificence of our community, without taking encouragement in the +inception of the enterprise, and feeling the assurance, that +whatever is adapted to advance the industrial and educational +interests of the Commonwealth will receive from them the heartiest +sympathy and support.'</p></div> + +<p>As we have stated, the plan proposed is to establish an Institution to +be devoted to the practical arts and sciences, to be called the +Massachusetts Institute of Technology, having the triple organization of +a Society of Arts, a Museum or Conservatory of Arts, and a School of +Industrial Science and Art. Under the first of these three +divisions—that of <a name="Page_88" id="Page_88"></a>the Society of Arts—the Institute of Technology +would form itself into a department of investigation and +publication—devoting itself in every manner to collecting and rendering +readily available to the public all such information as can in any way +aid the interests of art and industry. If our manufacturers will reflect +an instant on the vast amount of knowledge relative to their specialties +extant in the world, which they have as individuals great difficulty in +procuring, and which would be useful, but which an Institute devoted to +the purpose could furnish without difficulty, they will at once +appreciate the good which may be done by it. For many years the only +comprehensive summaries of American Manufactures were a German work by +Fleischmann, <i>On the Branches of American Industry</i>, to which was +subsequently added Whitworth and Wallis's Report—drawn up for the +British government, and Freedley's Philadelphia Manufactures—to which +we should in justice add the invaluable series of Hunt's <i>Merchant's +Magazine</i>, and the Patent Office Reports. The community needs more, +however, than books can furnish. It requires the constant accumulation +and dissemination of technological knowledge of every kind. It is +proposed in the new Institute to effect this partly by publication and +in a great measure by the labor of committees, devoted to the following +subjects:</p> + +<p>1. <i>Mineral Materials</i>—having charge of all relating to the mineral +substances used in building and sculpture, ores, metals, coal, and in +fact, all mineral substances employed in the useful arts, as well as +what pertains to mining, quarrying, and smelting.</p> + +<p>2. <i>Organic Materials</i>—embracing whatever is practically interesting in +all vegetable and animal substances used in manufacturing, having in +view their sources, culture, collection, commercial importance and +qualities as connected with manufacturing. This department presents a +vast field of immense importance to every merchant and importer of raw +material.</p> + +<p>3. <i>On Tools and Instruments</i>—devoted to all the implements and +apparatus needed in all processes of manufacture.</p> + +<p>4. <i>On Machinery and Motive Powers.</i></p> + +<p>5. <i>On Textile Manufactures.</i></p> + +<p>6. <i>On Manufactures of Wood, Leather, Paper, India-Rubber, etc.</i></p> + +<p>7. <i>On Pottery, Glass, and Precious Metals.</i></p> + +<p>8. <i>On Chemical Products and Processes.</i></p> + +<p>9. <i>On Household Economy.</i> This department would embrace attention to +whatever relates to warming, illumination, water-supply, ventilation, +and the preparation and preservation of food, as well as the protection +of the public health.</p> + +<p>10. <i>On Engineering and Architecture.</i></p> + +<p>11. <i>On Commerce, Navigation, and Inland Transport.</i> This department +alone, developed in detail, and on the scale proposed, would of itself +amply repay any amount of encouragement and investment. To collect and +classify for the use of the public all available information on the +subject of shipping, the improvement of harbors, the construction of +docks, the location and efficiency of railroads, and other channels of +inland intercourse; 'keeping chiefly in view the economical questions of +trade and exchange, which give these works of mechanical and engineering +skill their high commercial value,' is a project as grand as it is +useful.</p> + +<p>12. <i>On the Graphic and Fine Arts.</i></p> + +<p>Of the importance of the proposed Museum of Industrial Science and Art, +it is needless to speak. It would be for the public the central feature +of the Institute, and of incalculable value not only to it, but to all +engaged in all active industry whatever.</p> + +<p>As regards the School of Industrial Science and Art, with its divisions, +we see no occasion for material cause of difference between its +constitution and <a name="Page_89" id="Page_89"></a>that of the excellent Polytechnic College in +Philadelphia. New departments of instruction could be added as the means +and power of the Institute increased, until it would ultimately form +what the world needs but has never yet seen—a thoroughly <i>scientific</i> +University, in which every branch of human knowledge should be <i>clearly</i> +taught on a positive basis—a school where literature and art would be +ennobled and refined by elevation from mysticism, 'rhapsody,' and +obscurity, to their true position as historical developments and indices +of human progress. We are pleased to see that in the plan proposed, +provision would be made for two classes of persons—those who enter the +school with the view of a progressive scientific training in applied +science, and the far more numerous class who may be expected to resort +to its lecture-rooms for such useful knowledge of scientific principles +as they can acquire without continually devoted study, and in hours not +occupied by active labor.</p> + +<p>This whole plan, though in the highest degree practical, has, it will be +observed, 'no affinity with that instruction in mere <i>empirical routine</i> +which has sometimes been vaunted as the proper education for the +industrial classes'—an absurd and shallow system which has been urged +by quacks and dabblers in world-bettering, and which has been exhausted +without avail in England—the system dear to single-sided Gradgrinds and +illiterate men who grasp a twig here and there without knowing of the +existence of the trunk and roots. It lays down a perfectly scientific +and universal basis, believing that the most insignificant industry, to +be perfectly understood and pursued, must proceed from a knowledge of +the great principles of science and of all truth.</p> + +<p>Under the charge of Professor W.B. Rogers, Messrs. Charles H. Dalton, +E.B. Bigelow, James M. Beebee, and other members of a committee +embracing some of the most public-spirited men of Boston, this plan has +been thus far matured, and now awaits the sympathy, aid, and counsel of +the friends of industrial art and general education throughout the +community. We have gladly set forth its objects and claims, trusting +that it may be fully successful here, and serve as an exemplar for the +establishment of similar institutions in every other State.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="SLAVERY_AND_NOBILITY_vs_DEMOCRACY" id="SLAVERY_AND_NOBILITY_vs_DEMOCRACY"></a>SLAVERY AND NOBILITY vs. DEMOCRACY.</h3> + + +<p>Few political convulsions have hitherto transpired, which have so much +puzzled the world to get at the entire motives of the revolt, as the +present insurrection in this country. Were public opinion to be made up +from the political literature of Great Britain, or its leading journals, +very little certainty would be arrived at as to the merits or demerits +of the attempted revolution. The articles of De Bow's <i>Review</i> smack +little more of a secession origin than the late dissertations on +American politics appearing in the British periodicals. The statements +of most of the leading English journals are quite in keeping. Any one +accustomed to the 'ear-marks' of secession phraseology and declamation +would be at little loss to identify the Southern emissary in connection +with the periodicals and press of the British islands. Hence the +hypocrisy and studied concealment of those hidden motives necessary to +be made apparent, in order to judge of the merits of secession.</p> + +<p>The world has known that for thirty years past there has been a feverish +and jealous discontent expressed in the cotton States. It had its first +ebullition in 1832, when South-Carolina assumed the right to nullify the +revenue laws of Congress. Since that time the North has continually been +accused of an aggress<a name="Page_90" id="Page_90"></a>ive policy. Various extravagant pretenses have +from time to time been raised up by the South, and urged as causes for +dissolving the Union. They have always, until recently, been met by +forbearance and compromise.</p> + +<p>The extension and perpetuation of slavery has been prominent as the open +motive for Southern political activity; and equally prominent as one of +the motives for dismembering the Union. There has been another project, +however, in connection with the attempted dissolution of the Union, of a +most alarming nature: that project was the intended prostration of the +democratic principle in Southern politics. While a privileged order in +government was made the basis of political ambition by the aspirants or +leading spirits, it was also to be made the means of perpetuating the +institution of slavery. Whether these adjuncts, slavery perpetuation, +and government through a privileged class, were twins of the same birth, +is not very material; but whether they existed together as the joint +motive to overthrow the national jurisdiction, involves very deeply the +present and continuing questions in American politics.</p> + +<p>To many gentlemen of intelligence and high standing in the South, the +intended establishment of a different order of government, based on +privilege of class, has appeared to be the ruling motive. They have set +down the expressed apprehension as to the insecurity of slavery as a +hypocritical pretext for revolution; believing that the more absorbing +motive was to establish an order of nobility, either with or without +monarchy. There is some plausibility for giving the ambitious motive the +greater prominence; but a more severe analysis of the whole question +will, it is believed, place slavery perpetuation in the foreground as +the origin of all other motives for the conspiracy.</p> + +<p>In classifying slaveholders, it is undoubtedly true that a small portion +of them were Democrats in principle, and ardently attached to the +National Government—perhaps would have preferred the abolition of +slavery to the subversion of its jurisdiction. Another class, composing +a majority, though distrusting the National Government, connected as it +was and must be with a voting power representing twenty-six or seven +millions of free labor, yet more distrusted the attempt at revolution. +This class saw more danger in the proposed revolt than from continuing +in the Union. Another class were politically ambitious; had ventured +upon the revilement of the Democratic principle; had become +secessionists <i>per se</i>, and were the instruments and plotters of the +treason. This was substantially the condition of public opinion among +slaveholders at the time of the election of Mr. Lincoln to the +Presidency. These three classes, embracing the slaveholders and their +families, composed about one million five hundred thousand of the white +population of the South.</p> + +<p>Of the seven millions non-slaveholding population South, a small portion +was engaged in trade and commerce, and naturally inclined to oppose +secession; but timid in its apprehensions as to protection, was ready to +acquiesce in the most extravagant opinions; in other words, like trade +and commerce every where, too much disposed to make merchandise of its +politics. The balance of the non-slaveholding population, if we except a +venal pulpit and press, had not even a specious motive, pecuniary or +political, moral or social, that should have drawn it into rebellion. It +was a part and portion of the great brother-hood of free labor, and could +not by any possibility raise up a plausible pretense of jealousy against +its natural ally—free labor in the North.</p> + +<p>In estimating the strength of a cause, we are obliged to take into +account the actually existing reasons in favor of its support. Delusion, +founded on a fictitious cause of complaint, is but a weak basis for +revolution. It may have an apparent strength to precipitate revolt, but +has no power of endurance. There is a reflection that comes through +calamity and suffering that rises superior <a name="Page_91" id="Page_91"></a>to sophistry in the most +common minds. If not already, this will soon be the case with the whole +Southern population. The slaveholder and the man of trade and commerce +who feared the tumult, and would have avoided it, will have seen their +apprehensions turned into the fulfillment of prophecy. The +non-slave-holding farmer, mechanic, or laborer, will be made to see +clearly that his interest did not lie on the side of treason. The +political adventurer who planned the conspiracy, is already brought to +see the fallacy of his dream. He may now consider the incongruous +materials of Southern population. He may view that population in +classes. He may contemplate it through the medium of its natural motives +of fidelity to the Government on the one hand, and of its artificial +delusion on the other. He may now go to the bottom of Southern society, +and find in its conflicting elements the antagonistic motives that +render the plans of treason abortive. These will be sure to continue, +and sure to strengthen on the side of fidelity to the National +Government. When the South is made a solid, compact unit in political +motive, it will become so, disarmed of all purposes of treason.</p> + +<p>It has been repeatedly asserted that the South was a political unit on +the question of the attempted revolution. This declaration has been +reïterated by the Southern press, by travelers, and by all the +influences connected with the rebellion. It is not now necessary to +delineate the <i>quasi</i> military organization of the Knights of the Golden +Circle, or their operations in cajoling and terrorizing the Southern +population into acquiescence. Much unanimity through this process was +made to appear on the surface; but it is more palpable to the analytic +mind acquainted with Southern society, that the very means employed to +enforce acquiescence afforded also the evidence that there was a strong +under-current of aversion. Willing apostasy from allegiance to the Union +needed no terrorizing from mobs or murders. The ruffianism of the South +had been fully armed in advance of the full disclosure of the plot to +secede. Loyalty had been as carefully disarmed by the same active +influences. It had nothing to oppose to arms but its unprotected +sentiments. As soon as the law of force was invoked by the conspirators, +the day of reasoning was wholly past. Flight or conformity became the +condition precedent of safety, even for life. The bulk of the Southern +population was as much conspired against as the Government at +Washington; and force against the same population was rigorously called +into requisition to consummate what fraud and political crime had +concocted. This was the boasted unity of the South.</p> + +<p>The inquiry is often made: 'How was it possible to have inaugurated the +rebellion, without the bulk of the slaveholders, at least, acting in +concert?' This inquiry is not easily answered, unless its solution is +found in the fact that slaveholders, through jealousy, had parted with +their active loyalty to the National Government. This was generally the +case. Whilst the bulk of them hesitated for a little to take the fearful +step of revolt, their hesitation was more connected with apprehension of +its consequences than with any attachment to the Government. The +deceptive idea of peaceable secession first drew them within the lines +of the open traitor. The supposed probability of success made them +allies in rebellion. As a general sentiment, they made their imaginary +adieux to the Government of their fathers without apparent regret.</p> + +<p>There has been much misapprehension as to the process of reasoning that +brought slaveholders in the main to repudiate their Government. They +were influenced by no apprehension of present danger to the institution +of slavery. It was something far beyond the power of any party to +stipulate against. Their apprehensions were connected with the laws of +population and subsistence and the certain motive to political +affiliation that underlies the platform of free-labor society. When +indulging in the belief <a name="Page_92" id="Page_92"></a>of peaceable secession, they expressed their +sentiments truly in the declaration that 'they would not remain in the +Union, were a blank sheet of paper presented, and they permitted to +write their own terms.' This declaration merely characterized the +foregone conclusion. It was the evidence of a previous determination, +merely withheld for a season, in order to gain time.</p> + +<p>But to come to a more definite delineation of the reasons that operated +to raise up the conspiracy. There was a partial feud that had long +existed in the mutual jealousies between the slaveholders and +non-slaveholding population. Nothing very remarkable, however, had +transpired to indicate an outbreak. Southern white labor was continually +annoyed with the appellation of 'white trash,' and other contemptuous +epithets; but still was obliged to toil on under the continuous insult. +The habits and usages of slaveholders and their families, indicated by +manners toward white labor, that white labor did not command their +respect. Too many of the accidental droppings of foolish and stupid +arrogance were let fall within the hearing of white labor to make it +fully reconciled to the pretended monopoly of respectability by +slaveholders. Under this corroded feeling, much of the white labor of +the South had emigrated to the free States. In 1850, seven hundred and +thirty-two thousand of these emigrants were living. Their communications +and intercourse showed to their old friends, relatives, and +acquaintances, that they had found homes and friendly treatment on +Northern soil; and in addition thereto, a much better and more +encouraging condition of society for the industrious white man. The +feeling reflected back from the free to the slave States was analogous +to that thrown back from the United States to Ireland. Its effect was +also the same. Under its influence, nearly two millions are now living +in the free States, who are the offshoot and increase of a Southern +extraction. Slaveholders merely complained of this flow of population, +on the ground that it contributed to overthrow the balance of political +power. It would not, perhaps, be amiss to conclude that they saw with +equal clearness the incentives that induced the emigration—a silent +logic of facts against slavery.</p> + +<p>The census statistics, commencing with 1840, have contributed much to +play the mischief with the equanimity of slaveholders. They have always +known that thorough education in the South was mainly confined to their +own families. When, however, the discovery was made public that only one +in seven of the aggregate white population of the South was receiving +instruction during the year, the disclosure became alarming.<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a> It stood +little better than the educational progress of the British Islands, +<a name="Page_93" id="Page_93"></a>which had crept up, under the fight with Toryism, to the alarming +extent of one in eight. That one in four and a half of the aggregate +population of the free States was receiving school instruction, made the +contrast unpleasant to the mind of the slaveholder. He knew that the +fact was 'world—wide,' that slaveholders had always controlled the +policy of Southern legislation. He was aware that slaveholders had made +themselves responsible for this neglect of the children of the South; +and knew also that public opinion would visit the blame where it +legitimately belonged. Pro-slavery sagacity was quick-sighted in its +apprehensions that it could not dodge the inquiry, 'Whence comes this +disparity?'</p> + +<p>The statistics of the two sections presented a still more obnoxious +comparison to the pro-slavery sensibilities, as it respects the physical +condition of the respective populations. The cotton States have mostly +been the advocates of '<i>free trade</i>,' some of them tenaciously so. They +deemed it impossible to introduce manufacturing, to much extent, into +sections where the yearly surpluses in production were wholly absorbed +by investment in land and negroes. The consequence has been, want of +diversified industry and want of profitable occupation for the poorer +classes. In the Northern and in some of the Border States, a different +industrial policy has been pursued. Diversified occupation has raised up +skilled labor in nearly every branch of industry. Notwithstanding the +greater rigor of climate, adult labor on the average, under full and +compensated employment, performs nearly three hundred solid days' work +in the year. The eight millions of white population in the South, in +consequence of this want of profitable occupation, perform much less, +perhaps not one hundred and fifty days' work on the average. The +following table, published in 1856-1857, by Mr. Guthrie, then Secretary +of the Treasury, discloses a condition of things very remarkable; but no +wise astonishing to those who have investigated the causes of the +disparity. The ratio of annual <i>per capita</i> production to each man, +woman, and child, white and black, in the respective States, exclusive +of the gains or earnings of commerce, stood as follows:</p> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="4" summary="Census statistics"> + +<tr><td align='left'>Massachusetts,</td><td align='right'>$166 60</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Rhode-Island,</td><td align='right'>164 61</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Connecticut,</td><td align='right'>156 05</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>California,</td><td align='right'>149 60</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>New-Jersey,</td><td align='right'>120 82</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>New-Hampshire,</td><td align='right'>117 17</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>New-York,</td><td align='right'>112 00</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Pennsylvania,</td><td align='right'>99 80</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Vermont,</td><td align='right'>96 62</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Illinois,</td><td align='right'>89 94</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Missouri,</td><td align='right'>88 66</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Delaware,</td><td align='right'>85 27</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Maryland,</td><td align='right'>83 85</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Ohio,</td><td align='right'>75 82</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Michigan,</td><td align='right'>72 64</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Kentucky,</td><td align='right'>71 82</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Maine,</td><td align='right'>71 11</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Indiana,</td><td align='right'>69 12</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Wisconsin,</td><td align='right'>63 41</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Mississippi,</td><td align='right'>67 50</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Iowa,</td><td align='right'>65 47</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Louisiana,</td><td align='right'>65 30</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Tennessee,</td><td align='right'>63 10</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Georgia,</td><td align='right'>61 45</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Virginia,</td><td align='right'>59 42</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>South-Carolina,</td><td align='right'>56 91</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Alabama,</td><td align='right'>55 72</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Florida,</td><td align='right'>54 77</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Arkansas,</td><td align='right'>52 04</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>District of Columbia,</td><td align='right'>52 00</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Texas,</td><td align='right'>51 13</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>North-Carolina,</td><td align='right'>49 38</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p>It is seen by this table that the income, or product of the +non-slaveholding population South, mainly disconnected as it is with +mechanical industry, is reduced to the extreme level of bare +subsistence, while the population of the States which have introduced +diversified industry stand on a high scale of production. Contrast +Massachusetts and South-Carolina, the two leading States in the +promulgation of opposite theories. These two States have often been +censured for the contumelious manner in which they have sometimes sought +to repel each other's arguments. The one is in favor of 'free trade.' +The other says: 'No State can flourish to much extent without +diversified industry.' The one says: 'Open every thing to free +competition.' The other replies: 'Are you aware that the interest on +manufacturing capital in Europe is much lower; that skilled labor there +is more abundant; and that it would dash to the ground most of the +manufacturing we have started into growth under protection through our +revenue laws?' 'Let it be so,' says Carolina; 'what right exists to +adopt a national policy that does not equally benefit all sections?' +'The very object of the policy,' replies Massachusetts, 'is, that it +<i>should</i><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94"></a> benefit all sections; and the most desirable object of all, in +the eye of beneficence, would be, that it <i>should</i> benefit the laboring +white population of the cotton States, as well as others.' 'But,' says +Carolina, 'this diversified industry can not be introduced, to much +extent, where slavery exists.' 'That is an argument by implication,' +says Massachusetts, 'that you more prize slavery than you do the +interests and welfare of the bulk of your white population.' 'Who set +you up to be a judge on the question of the welfare of any part of the +population South?' says Carolina. 'I assume to judge for myself,' +replies Massachusetts, 'as to that national policy which is designed to +affect beneficially the twenty-seven millions of people who are obliged +to obtain subsistence through personal industry; theirs is the great +cause of white humanity in its shirt-sleeves; and it behooves the +National Government to take care of that cause, and to foster it; and +not to submit to the narrow selfishness of a few slaveholders.'</p> + +<p>It may readily be seen that this controversy, growing out of the +opposite theories of selfish slaveholders on the one hand, and a spirit +of beneficence, blended with the idea of a wide-spread advantage on the +other, not only involves directly the demerits of slavery, in its +prejudicial effect on the non-slaveholding population South, but also +the great question of raising up skilled labor in all the States. It is +thus clearly demonstrated that our national policy should be exempt from +the control of an arrogant and selfish class. Slaveholders have had +little sympathy with the great bulk of the white people in the Union; at +most, they have never manifested it. Few of them can be trusted +politically, where a broad industrial policy is concerned. No one is +better aware than the political slaveholder of the crushing effect of +slavery on the interests of the non-slaveholding population in the slave +States: hence their jealousy of this population as a voting, governing +power. The Southern political mind, connected with slaveholding, is +astute when sharpened by jealousy. There is no phase in political +economy, bearing on the disparity of classes in the South, that has not +been taken into the account and analyzed. The fear with slaveholders has +been, that the great majority, composed of the white laboring population +South, would become able to subject matters to the same scrutinizing +analysis.</p> + +<p>It would be difficult to convince the American people that slavery is +not 'the skeleton in their closet.' Any one who has encountered for +years the pro-slavery spirit; who has watched it through its +unscrupulous deviations from rectitude, morally, socially, and +politically, will have been dull of comprehension not to have +appreciated its atrocious disposition. Its great instrumentality in the +management of Southern masses, consists not only of a disregard, but of +a positive interdict of the principles of civil liberty, in all matters +wherein the prejudicial effects of slavery might directly, or by +implication, be disclosed. It is true, people are permitted to adulate +slavery—so they are allowed to adulate kings, where kings reign. No one +in recent years has been allowed the open expression of opinion or +argument as to the bad effect of a pro-slavery policy on the great +majority of Southern white population. This would bring the offender +within the Southern definition of an 'incendiary,' and the offense would +be heinous. The pro-slavery spirit has always demanded sycophancy where +its strength was great enough to enforce it, and has ever been ready to +invoke the law of force where its theories were contradicted. Even the +fundamental law of the South, contained in Southern State Constitutions +in favor of the 'freedom of speech, and freedom of the press,' is mere +rhetorical flourish, where slavery is concerned. It means that you must +adulate slavery if you speak of it; and woe to the man that gives this +fundamental law any broader interpretation. In its amiable moods, the +pro-slavery spirit is often made to <a name="Page_95" id="Page_95"></a>appear the gentleman. In its angry, +jealous moods, it is both a ruffian and an assassin. Mr. Sumner, of the +Senate, once sat for its picture—twice in his turn he drew it—each +portrait was a faithful resemblance.</p> + +<p>Had we been exempt from slavery and its influences, it is difficult to +conceive what possible pretense could have been raised up for +revolution. What position could have been taken showing the necessity of +disenthrallment from oppressive government? There would have existed no +element of political discontent that could by any possibility have +culminated in rebellion, aside from the active, jealous, and +unscrupulous influence of slaveholders. Rebellion and treason required +the lead and direction of an ambitious and reckless class; a class +actuated by gross and selfish passions, in disconnection with sympathy +for the masses. It required a class stripped and bereft by habits of +thinking of the spirit of political beneficence, devoid of national +honor, national pride, and national fidelity. Nothing less unscrupulous +would have answered to plot, to carry forward, and to manage the +incidents of the attempted dismemberment of the Union. It required +something worse in its nature than Benedict Arnold susceptibility. His +might have been crime, springing from sudden resentment or imaginary +wrong. The other is the result of thirty years' concoction under adroit, +hypocritical, and unscrupulous leaders. The slaveholders' rebellion has +assumed a magnitude commensurate only with long contemplation of the +subject. Making all due allowance for the honorable exceptions, this is +substantially the phase of pro-slavery infidelity to the Union.</p> + +<p>Were further argument needed to establish this position, it is found in +the fact that the seeds of rebellion are wanting in proportion to the +absence of slavery. There is no reason to believe that Kentucky or +Maryland, without slavery, would have been less loyal than Ohio. In +Eastern Kentucky, Western Virginia, Eastern Tennessee, Western +North-Carolina, a small portion of Georgia, and Northern Alabama, the +Union cause finds a friend's country. These sections, in the main, +contain a population dependent upon its own labor for subsistence. +Schooled by diligent industry to habits of perseverance, and learning +independence and manhood by relying on itself, it has preserved its +patriotism and attachment to the Government under which it was born. It +saw no cause of complaint, imaginary or real. Six or seven per cent of +slave population has not proved sufficient as a slave interest, to +prostrate or corrupt its national fidelity, nor to undermine its +national pride. It still retains its representation in Congress against +the influences of surrounding treason. There is a cheering satisfaction +in the belief that this plateau of civil liberty and freedom, even +unassisted, could not have been permanently held in subjection by the +myrmidons of rebellion. The secessionists themselves bestow a high +compliment to the patriotism of this people, when they complain of its +'idolatrous attachment to the old Government.'</p> + +<p>The time has come when the American people, from necessity, must analyze +to their root the whole aptitudes and incidents of slavery. They are now +obliged to deal with it, unbridled by the check-rein of its apologists. +Under the best behavior of slaveholders, the institution could not rise +above the point of bare toleration. There is so much inherent in the +system that will not bear analysis, so much of collateral mischief, so +much tending to overturn and discourage the principles of justice that +ought to be interwoven into the relationships of society, that it is +impossible for the ingenuous mind to advocate slavery <i>per se</i>. It is +not, however, to the bare dominion itself, that the objection is +exclusively raised up. It is the inevitable result of that dominion, in +connection with the worst cultivated passions of human nature, that the +exception is more broadly taken. The dominion of the master over the +slave <a name="Page_96" id="Page_96"></a>involves in a great measure the necessary dominion over the +persons and interests of the balance of society where it exists. The +lust of power on the part of slaveholders, and on the part of the +privileged classes in Europe, in nature, is the same. The determination +through the artificial arrangements of power, to subsist on the toil of +others, is the same. The arrogant assumption of the right to maintain as +privilege what originated in atrocious wrong, is the same. The +disposition to crush by force any attempt to vindicate natural rights, +or to modify the status of society under the severity of oppression, is +the same; and no tyranny has yet been found so tenacious or +objectionable as the tyranny of a class held together by the 'bond of +iniquity.' Our forefathers had a just conception of the nature of the +case, on one hand, when they interdicted by fundamental law the +establishment of any order of nobility. Many of them were sorely +distressed at the contemplation of slavery on the other hand, in +connection with its probable results upon the national welfare. Our +calamity is but the fulfillment of their prophecies. They well knew the +nature of the evil we have to deal with.</p> + +<p>It is matter of astonishment to most minds that slaveholders should have +contemplated the bold venture of subordinating the Democratic principle +in government. It will be less astonishing, however, when it is duly +considered that it is utterly impossible for Democracy and Slavery to +abide long together. The one or the other must ere long have been +prostrated under the laws of population, and it is not very likely that +the twenty-seven millions and their increase would consent to be +subordinated to the policy of three hundred and fifty thousand +slaveholders. Slavery must exist as the ruling political power, or it +can not long exist at all. This the slaveholders well knew; hence the +necessity of fortifying itself through some political arrangement +against the Democratic power of the masses.</p> + +<p>The South-Carolina platform for a new government had close resemblance +to the ancient Roman—a patrician order of nobility, founded on the +interested motive to uphold slavery; but allowing plebeian +representation, to some extent, to the non-slaveholding classes. Others +in the South had preference for constitutional monarchy, with a class of +privileged legislators, and House of Commons, composing a government of +checks and balances, analogous to the English government. Whatever the +plan adopted, the leading idea was to institute a government that should +be impervious, through one branch, to the future influence of the +non-slaveholding majority.</p> + +<p>It is difficult to make entirely clear the ambitious motives and mixed +apprehensions that have combined to precipitate the Southern +slaveholders into rebellion. The defectiveness of the educational system +of the South, and the known responsibility of slaveholders for such +defect and its consequences; the defect in the industrial policy, and +the responsibility of slavery itself for the depressing consequences to +the non-slaveholding population, were fearful charges. A knowledge that +the causes of depression must soon be brought to the examination of +Southern masses, in contrast with a better state of things in the North, +filled the minds of slaveholders with jealous and fearful apprehensions +toward the non-slaveholding population. They knew that its interests +were identified with the Northern educational and industrial policy. +They appreciated fully that through these interests, free labor in the +South had every motive to affinity with the North, educationally, +politically, and industrially. They were astute in the discovery that +under the operation of the Democratic principle, free discussion, and +fair play of reason, the pro-slavery prestige must soon go down in the +South before the greater numerical force of Southern masses. It was, +therefore, not only necessary, as supposed, to overturn the power of the +masses in the South, but also to make them the instruments of <a name="Page_97" id="Page_97"></a>their own +overthrow as to political power.</p> + +<p>The measurable acquiescence of the non-slaveholding population was +indispensable to the revolutionary project. Without it, there was but +little numerical force. It was, therefore, of entire consequence to make +this population hate the North—to hate the National Government, and to +train it for the purposes of rebellion. The press was suborned wherever +it could be. The pulpit manifested equal alacrity, in order to keep pace +with the workings of the virus of treason. Leading men, assuming to be +statesmen and political economists, taxed their ingenuity in the +invention of falsehood. The effort of the press and politicians was +directed to misrepresenting and disparaging the condition of free labor +in the North; whilst the Southern pulpit was religiously engaged in +establishing the divinity of slavery. It would require a volume to +delineate the arts and hypocrisy resorted to, and the false reasoning +employed, to impose upon the masses of white labor South, and to make +them contented with their disparaged condition. It is needless to say, +the work of imposition was too effectually accomplished. It must be +confessed that too much of the non-slaveholding population had been +induced to follow the political Iagos of the South, and thus to assist +the first act in the plan for its own subversion—separation from the +North. The next step in the plan of subversion, the 'abrogation of a +government of majorities,' was carefully kept from the public view.</p> + +<p>The inquiry naturally arises, as to how or why this design for the +arrangement of political power in the Southern Confederacy has been +confined within such narrow degrees of disclosure. The answer is plain. +A bold proposition to change the principles of their government would +have alarmed the people of the South into an intensified opposition. The +politicians of South-Carolina, more open and frank in the exposition of +their views than other leaders in the South, have been obliged to submit +the control of their discretion to the more crafty and subtle influences +of other States. Policy required that the contemplated new form of +government should be confined to the knowledge of the leading spirits +only. It would not bear the hazards of submission to the people as a +basis of revolution. Its success depended upon secresy and coupling the +adoption of the plan with a sudden <i>denouement</i> after revolution. Any +one conversant with the pages of De Bow's <i>Review</i> for the last ten +years, and who has watched the drift of argument in reviling the masses, +and contemning their connection with government; and accustomed also to +the 'accidental droppings' from secessionists in their cups, has had +little difficulty in determining the ultimatum in the designs of +treason. He will have become convinced that it is nothing less than a +warfare against the continuation of Democratic government in the +South—that this warfare is stimulated by the fixed belief that a +government of majorities must be superseded, in order to perpetuate the +institution of slavery.</p> + +<p>Were argument wanting to force this conclusion on the mind, it would be +supplied in the established affinity between the emissaries of secession +in Europe and the virulent haters of Democratic government there found. +The liberalists of England and elsewhere have been sedulously avoided; +not so those who would connive to bring Democratic government into +disrepute. With these last-mentioned classes, the secessionists have met +with a ready sympathy and encouragement, almost as much so, as if +treason in America involved directly the stability of privileged power +on that continent. The Tories of England, the Legitimists of France, the +nauseous ingredients of the House of Hapsburg, the degenerate nobility +of Spain, and from that down to the 'German Prince of a five-acre +patch,' have been the congenial allies of secession emissaries in +Europe. It mattered not to these haters of enfranchised masses <a name="Page_98" id="Page_98"></a>how much +misery might be inflicted on the American people. They cared little for +the anguish of mind that was being every where felt by the supporters of +liberalized opinions. They rejoiced at the supposed calamities of that +government whose beneficent policy had always been to keep the peace, to +avoid the necessity of standing armies, to foster industry and +education, and in addition thereto, to encourage the depressed of Europe +to come and accept homes and hospitable treatment on the soil of the +country. These revilers of Democracy in Europe were long advised with, +were consulted beforehand, and knew the plottings of the pro-slavery +spirit, in its preparation for rebellion. They were indifferent as to +the character or hateful deformity of the agency to be employed, +provided it could be made instrumental in breaking the jurisdiction of a +government, heretofore more esteemed by the enlightened liberalists of +the world than any other that ever existed. Neither the secessionists +nor their co-plotters in Europe required seducing or proselyting. They +stood on the same level of affinity, the moment the secessionists +proposed the overthrow of the Democratic principle. This was the +promise, the condition precedent, and this the basis of alliance between +the plotters of treason in free America and their coädjutors abroad. It +would be both shallow and useless to charge the origin of sympathy with +rebellion projects, expressed by political circles in Europe, to the +mercenary motives of commerce, trade, or manufactures. Those were +standing on a broad foundation of contented reciprocity, and were the +first to dread the tumult that could not fail to prove prejudicial. We +shall hunt in vain to find the motive for European sympathy in +rebellion, elsewhere than in hatred of Democracy. We shall also search +in vain to find the motive for the wide-spread sympathy expressed by the +liberalists of Europe in the Union cause, elsewhere than in their +attachment to liberalized institutions.</p> + +<p>Having glanced at the compound motive for establishing the Southern +Confederacy, that is, slavery perpetuation through prostration of the +Democratic principle, it may not be amiss to refer to the contemplated +management of its <i>politico-economic</i> interests. These were to be built +up, of course; but not through a system of diversified industry; for +free trade, as is well known, would have the effect to prostrate what +little manufacturing had been commenced in the South, and afford a +perpetual bar to the success of future undertakings. It was believed +that the foul elements North and South, and the illicit traders of the +world beside, could be brought together in the business of free trade +and smuggling. The immense frontier would render it impossible for the +Northern States to protect themselves to much extent from illicit trade, +through any preventive service possible to be adopted. The Mexican +frontier would be entirely helpless. Thus reasoned <i>Secesh</i>. This was to +have been the basis of competition with Northern mechanism. The +reasonings of the conspirators were consistent with the merits and +morals of the conspiracy. They calculated upon the active coöperation of +the mercenary in the North, and actually believed that the temptation to +gain would prove predominant over any efforts the Northern Government +could make to protect its revenue policy. They boldly ventured upon the +assumption that the influences of illicit traffic would soon become too +strong to be resisted, and that in this manner, in conjunction with the +agency of 'King Cotton,' the commerce of the North would be transferred +to the South.</p> + +<p>Another item in Southern political economy was the project of reöpening +the African slave-trade. The leaders of the secession programme had made +this a prominent feature in starting the rebellion into growth. The +various phases which this branch of the question afterward underwent, +was owing to the opposition of the Border States. So much were the +people of the Border States averse to being brought into competition +<a name="Page_99" id="Page_99"></a>with slave-breeding in Dahomey, that the original conspirators were +obliged to forego, for a time at least, this incident in the motives of +the earlier revolutionists.</p> + +<p>A government founded on the supremacy of a class, and that class to be +composed of slaveholders; a political economy founded on slave labor, +free trade, illicit trade, and African kidnapping, were associations +that would require great strength and influence to sustain them. The +strongest military organization was therefore contemplated. In this, +much employment could be given to the non-slaveholding masses, while +military qualities of supposed superiority would enable the Southern +Confederacy to enter into a successful contest with the North for +empire. The potency of 'King Cotton' was to be made the powerful agency +with which the rest of the civilized world was to be dragooned into +acquiescence. On this delusive dream was built the fabric of that mighty +empire, whose history, from its origin to its subversion, is nearly +ready to be written.</p> + +<p>It must be acknowledged that the leading influences of the rebellion +were as sharp-sighted as political vice, or political immorality is ever +capable of becoming. Like all other vice, however, it based its +reasonings and supposititious strength exclusively on its powers of +deception, in conjunction with the iniquitous aptitudes of itself and +its coadjutors. It found co-plotters in Mozart Hall, in the stockholders +of the African Slave-trade Association, scattered from Maine to Texas, +and in its suborned press in New-York, Baltimore, Charleston, and +New-Orleans. It had bargained with the politically vitiated portion of +the Northern Democracy for assistance, and had received a wicked though +fallacious assurance from the Northern kidnappers, to the effect, that +the Democracy of the North would neutralize any attempt to oppose +secession by force. They had arranged for their diplomatic influence on +the other side of the Atlantic, and bargained for the subversion of +Democracy in the South. It planned beforehand for arming treason and +disarming the Union, and most adroitly were its plans in this respect +carried into effect. It had gained over to its side most of the Southern +material in the little army and navy of the country, and prepared it for +perfidy, in committing devastation or theft on the public property. Thus +allied and thus equipped, in the confidence of its pernicious strength, +it commenced its warfare on society.</p> + +<p>'How much injury can we inflict upon the North? How much of the debts +owing to Northern citizens can we confiscate? How much property in the +South owned by Northern men can we appropriate? How much can we make +Northern commerce suffer by depression of business, privateering, or +otherwise? To what extent can we paralyze Northern mechanical industry, +subvert Northern trade, and lay it under disabilities? How much can we +distress the laboring classes in England, in France, in other countries +in Europe, whereby we may compel them to clamor for the intervention of +their respective governments against the North, and against its attempts +to uphold the Union?' The whole reasoning of the conspirators was based +on the supposed power, coupled with the intent and effort to inflict +wide-spread and common injury. The scheme and all its contemplated and +attempted incidents of management were such as the pro-slavery spirit in +politics only could engender.</p> + +<p>It required many years of gradual development, in connection with the +ultimate culmination of treason, to shake the confidence of the North in +the disposition of the people of the South. There was, and could be, no +possible intelligent motive for the masses of the South to change their +form of government, or to enter into rebellion against it. The arguments +of the plotters of treason against a 'government of majorities'—the +doctrine of 'State rights,' with the right to secede at the option of a +State—the <i>quasi</i> repudiation of the<a name="Page_100" id="Page_100"></a> 'white trash,' so called, as an +element of political equality, were regarded as the ebullitions of a +politically vitiated class who would be willing to overthrow the +National Government, but who were supposed to be too few in numbers to +taint with poisonous fatality the political mind of the South. It is not +established as yet that the Southern political mind in the main has +become depraved. It is, however, established, that the leading political +influences South have cajoled and terrorized the bulk of the Southern +population into apparent acquiescence in treason. It yet remains to be +seen what disposition will be disclosed by the Southern people, as soon +as protection is guaranteed to them against the tyranny and usurpations +of the rebel influence. It is prophesied that there will be found a +heart in the bulk of the Southern population; that it will still cling +with affection and pride to that government which was their guarantee, +and which no power now on earth is competent to shake. It is not against +the deluded, the timid, or the helpless of the South that we would make +the indictment for political crime. It is the perfidious pro-slavery +spirit in politics that we seek to arraign.</p> + +<p>The analysis of developed motives in which the slaveholders' rebellion +had its origin, must naturally excite the inquiry in the American mind, +as to how far the slaveholding element can be trusted. As a political +force, we find it sowing the seeds of political discontent. As an +anti-democratic element, we find it plotting the overthrow of democratic +government. In its efforts to denationalize republican government in +America, it has not scrupled to seek aid from, and alliance with, the +haters of republican institutions every where. Under such calamitous +teachings as it has inflicted, can we longer conclude that it can, from +its aptitudes and nature, be converted into an element of national +strength? There is a South, and a great South, and would continue to be, +were there not a negro or slaveholder sojourning there. The seven +millions non-slaveholding population in the Southern States have rights, +social and political, based on the motive to maintain republican +government. The Constitution of the Union, as the highest principle of +fundamental law, guarantees in express terms, to every State, the form +of a republican government; and not less by implication, the essential +qualities of an actual one. It matters not how much the non-slaveholding +population of the South may have been deluded, nor how much it may have +been incited, under that delusion, to act as the instrument of its own +overthrow. This population is not less the object of just political +solicitude than any equal number of people North. That its general +education has not been advanced to the appreciative point, is its +misfortune. That it has been surrounded by a pro-slavery influence, +selfish, arrogant, and contemptuous of the interest of the masses, is +equally so. That it has been less favored than its brother-hood of free +labor in the North—that it has been placed under disabilities in the +comparison, are only additional reasons for increased solicitude for the +welfare and future advancement of this portion of Southern population. +While it has been imposed upon, and much of it deluded in its motives to +action, its actual condition is in reality coupled with every natural +incentive to alliance and adhesion to the National Government. It has +drunk the bitter cup of calamity in rebellion. It has tasted the dregs +of treason that lie at the bottom of political vice, and been victimized +by destitution, by the diseases of camp-life, by the casualties of the +battle-field, and by the widowhood and orphanage that have followed the +train of rebellion. This population is a natural element of national +strength, having the same incentives as its brotherhood in the North. +Arms will soon remove the blockade to its intercourse with the North, +and civil liberty once established, will most likely secure it to the +side of national patriotism.</p> + +<p>There is a question of equal magnitude respecting the colored +population, <a name="Page_101" id="Page_101"></a>not only of the South, but of the whole country. It is +involved in the inquiry: Can the colored population be converted into an +element of national strength? Physiologically and mentally, the native +negro race stands as the middle-man in the five races—the Caucasian and +Malay being above, and the American aborigines and the Alforian below. +The mixture of blood with the Caucasian in America, places the negro +element of the United States at least upon a level with the Malay race +in natural powers, and from association, much the superior in practical +intelligence. Notwithstanding the crushing laws designed by slaveholders +to perpetuate the ignorance and helplessness of the negro, he <i>would</i> +improve. Notwithstanding the brutal and studied policy of slaveholders +to slander and disparage the negro capacity for improvement, all the +arts of lying hypocrisy have occasionally been set at naught by some +convincing exhibition of truth, springing from a fair experiment on the +colored man's susceptibilities. The white man's dishonoring inclination +to strike the helpless—made helpless by brutal laws—has occasionally +recoiled in an exposure of the atrocious practice. The late attempt to +introduce a bill into the South-Carolina Legislature, providing for the +sale of the free negroes of the State into slavery, led to a disclosure +worthy of contemplation. The Committee to whom the bill was referred +stated that—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Apart from the consideration that many of the class were good +citizens, patterns of industry, sobriety, and irreproachable +conduct, there were difficulties of a practical character in the +way of those who advocated the bill. The free colored population of +Charleston alone pay taxes on $1,561,870 worth of property; and the +aggregate taxes reach $27,209.18. What will become of the one and a +half millions of property which belongs to them in Charleston +alone, to say nothing of their property elsewhere in the State? Can +it enter into the mind of any Carolina Legislature to confiscate +this property, and pot it in the Treasury? We forbear to consider +any thing so full of injustice and wickedness. While we are +battling for our rights, liberties, and institutions, can we expect +the smiles and countenance of the Arbiter of all events, when we +make war on the impotent and unprotected, enslave them against all +justice, and rob them of the property acquired by their own honest +toil and industry, under your former protection and sense of +justice?'<a name="FNanchor_E_5" id="FNanchor_E_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_E_5" class="fnanchor">[E]</a></p></div> + +<p>This slight exhibition in the Carolina Legislature presents an epitome +of the whole argument of cultivated brutality on the one hand, and of +humane sense and rationality on the other. What were the protection and +sense of justice here spoken of; and what the sequences flowing from +such protection and justice? The whole question is answered in three +words: Improvement, following encouragement. What was the 'robbery' +proposed by the bill, other than the concomitants of slavery, that have +robbed the colored man from generation to generation, not only of his +toil, but of every practical motive <span class="smcap">To Be a Man</span>? It would be needless, +however, to discuss the question of the colored man's capacity to +improve, were it not for considerations that now make it necessary, +under national calamity, to take it into truthful account. The white +man's cultivation of barbarity under the teachings of slaveholders has +hitherto proved an overmatch for the colored man's claims in the +abstract. Things and conditions are now changed. The slaveholders' +rebellion has softened the obduracy of manufactured prejudice, and +necessity has become allied with humanity. Tho pro-slavery spirit in +politics is now discovered to be little short of a demon—a snake's egg +that hatches treason. The American mind is nearly forced to the +conclusion, that as long as colored women are compelled to breed slaves, +their white mistresses will continue to breed rebels. Slavery, of +course, must yield to the necessity of national security. A <a name="Page_102" id="Page_102"></a>remnant may +exist for a while, and linger through modifications of a broken and +hopeless pro-slavery prestige, the duration depending entirely upon the +disposition of slaveholders to become subordinated to law. Perpetuation, +however, has become a word that has no meaning in connection with the +duration of slavery. The word in that sense has become obsolete; and +what shall become of the colored man, and how shall he be treated, is, +and is to be, the sequence of the conspiracy to overthrow the +jurisdiction of the Government. It being established that the +pro-slavery spirit, by nature, is the antagonist of the democratic +principle—the antagonist of the interests of the masses, the hot-bed +for the cultivation of brutality, devoid of fidelity, and a rebel by +practice, it has become an intolerable element of national weakness. We +can not avoid the inquiry, now to be made on the basis of humanity: Can +the colored man, by proper and just encouragement, be converted into an +element of patriotism and national strength?</p> + +<p>What is the solution of the riddle as it respects the strength of +democratic government? It has heretofore been said by the revilers of +the masses in America, that 'for two hundred years the scum, the crime, +and poverty of Europe have been cast upon the shores of the Atlantic.' +It is immaterial to the question of humanity, whether such has been the +seed from which a new nation has been raised up in the wilderness. A few +months since, 'Democracy on its trial,' was the favorite theme of +democracy-haters in Europe. The indictment against our free institutions +was freighted with fearful charges. The government of the Union was a +'delusive Utopia.' 'The people of the North had degenerated into a mob.' +'Society was drifting into the maelstrom of anarchy, and law and order +becoming extinct.' A little time, and an apparently unwarlike people had +changed into an astonishing organization, disciplined for warfare. Seven +hundred thousand bayonets, as if by enchantment, bristled in menace to +the slaveholders' rebellion. The navy-yards and arsenals resounded with +the clang of hammers, and soon the suddenly created armaments appeared +on the waters. Power in finance exhibited by the Government, based on +the confidence and patriotism of the people, was no less astonishing. +New inventions of warfare changed the scoffings in Europe into alarm for +their own security. The trans-Atlantic revilers of republicanism in +America have discovered a people who had a heart in them. Patriotism in +America is reassured of success by the exhibition of a deep-seated +attachment on the part of the Northman to his Government. Seven words +suffice to solve the riddle of free democratic strength—<span class="smcap">the masses converted +into beings of power</span>. This is the theory, the basis, the +strength of free institutions in America. They have no other foundation. +They have nothing else to rely on for enduring support.</p> + +<p>Let the Southern rebel attempt to disguise it as he may, the colored man +of the South is already a patriot on the side of the Union. He has heard +of a people in the North who believed that every human being, by nature, +was entitled '<i>to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness</i>.' He +knows that his oppressor hates this people of the North, and for the +sole reason that they entertain this generous sentiment. While the +Pharisaic theologian of the Southern pulpit is expounding his +Bible-doctrine in justification of kidnapping, and appealing to Heaven +for assistance, the colored man turns in disgust at the impiety, and +turns into secret places to beseech Omnipotence to favor the success of +the national arms. Perhaps there is an interfering Providence already +manifest in results. If the plagues of Egypt had been visited on the +rebellious States by an overruling Power, they would scarcely have +afforded a parallel to the calamity which rebel slaveholders have +inflicted on their country. They have exhausted and destroyed much of +what the long toil of the colored man South had assisted to raise up. +Devas<a name="Page_103" id="Page_103"></a>tation has followed the train of rebellion. The blood of the first +and of the second-born has been the sacrifice on the altar of slavery. +The brutal ruffianism of the pro-slavery spirit has far enough disclosed +its natural aptitudes to have become disgustingly odious in comparison +with the positively better characteristics of the colored man. The rebel +himself has taught a lesson to the world, which he can never unteach. +The twenty-seven millions of free labor in the Union have learned a +lesson through the teachings of slaveholders in rebellion, which they +can not forget. This teaching is nothing less than that the colored man +is capable, by protection and encouragement, of being converted into a +better element of national strength and national prosperity than +slaveholders, as <i>such</i>, would ever become.</p> + +<p>Could any contemplative mind doubt for a moment the ability of the white +population of the Union, if justly disposed, to raise the colored +population of the country, in a short time, to the platform of a decent +respectability? With unjust prejudice laid aside, and the work of +beneficence acquiesced in, no one could reasonably doubt it. Who +deserves best at the hands of the nation's power, the oppressor or the +oppressed? The one that grasps at the throat of the nation and attempts +its overthrow merely to perpetuate his power of oppression, or the other +who is crying to humanity for protection? The voice of nature, if +undefiled, will answer this question on the side of humanity—if not, +<span class="smcap">necessity will</span>.</p> + +<p>The democratic theory which seeks to absolve humanity from oppression, +is not confined to the resistance of a single despot. It goes in the +same degree to a privileged class that arrogates to itself the right to +oppress; nor does it stop at the half-way house of mere negative +protection. It allows in its onward course the full fruition of +'<span class="smcap">equality before the law</span>.' In theory, the law is the sovereign, and we +seek to attach such qualities to that sovereign as are compatible with +the general good of society. That theory places no man above the law, +nor any man below its protection. As soon as the individual in society +is raised to the point of negative protection, he is in a measure +converted into a being of power. He can then appeal to his sovereign, +<span class="smcap">the law</span>, for the vindication of his rights. Experience is continually +demonstrating that men are respected in proportion to their power to +command respect. The very existence of slavery requires and demands the +brutalization of the governing power that upholds it. Were society +absolved from this tyranny, matters would begin to mend. Equalized +protection would be the consequence. Protection, not only to the colored +man, but protection in an almost equal degree to the non-slaveholding +white population, hitherto brought under the ban of disability by a +depressing pro-slavery policy.</p> + +<p>Until recently, when the colored race in the United States was spoken of +in connection with the subject of its release from oppression, it was +subjected to the same arguments that kept the white men in slavery in +olden times. The arguments of slaveholders were never truthful, and only +convenient for themselves. They damaged the slave; they damaged every +collateral interest; they damaged the strength of nationality; and more +than all, they damaged every humane principle of civilization. The whole +reasoning in favor of slaveholding has been a vicious fallacy; and +perhaps the time has come, attended by sufficient calamity, to set the +American population to thinking and acting in the right direction.</p> + +<p>The colored people South are better fitted for freedom than is commonly +imagined. They are quite well skilled in practical industry, more +especially in agricultural pursuits. There are many of them qualified in +skilled labor in the coarser mechanic arts. The whole of this population +has been trained to diligent labor, under habits of continuous toil. It +has acquired patience in performing labor, by the discipline which +unremitting labor gives. The colored man South has not been brought up +in <a name="Page_104" id="Page_104"></a>idleness, or with habits calculated to make him a renegade. Were he +permitted to enjoy the fruits of his industry, there can be no doubt of +his disposition and patience to toil on. In case his rebel master would +not hire him for wages, there would be enough amongst the +non-slaveholding population who would. Production in the South, under +emancipation of the slaves of rebel masters, would not materially fall +off. Give to colored men the fruits of their industry, and many of them +would soon set up for themselves. Perhaps in connection with the soil of +the South, that yields most abundantly in annual value of product, the +rest of the colored population would soon get to emulate the free +colored people of Charleston. The law of subsistence would as much +compel the South to go on without compulsory labor as it does the North, +and there are just as many reasons for it in one section as in the +other; that is, just none at all. Under emancipation, there is little +doubt that actual production could and would soon be put on the +increase, with better distribution of wealth, more widely diffused +comforts, and a broader and better public policy. The only things that +would be curtailed in their proportions would be slave-breeding, +rebel-breeding, and ruffian cultivation.</p> + +<p>It may, perhaps, continue to be easier for a time to strike the colored +man than to strike off his shackles. There is a mean and low side of +humanity, a sort of defiled infirmity, that runs into a disposition to +strike the helpless. This is the bravery of ruffianism. There is apt to +be a shrinking away from duty, when the contest involves a conflict with +arrogant power. This is the cowardice of pusillanimity. The American +citizen has been noted for his superior bravery. He has certainly shown +himself brave in the battle-field, and more brave and determined than +any other nation in the vindication and maintenance of the natural +rights of the white man; but he is not done with the business of +disenthrallment. His language is the language of liberty. It must not, +it will not long continue to be spoken by slaves. This was the meaning +of Jefferson, when he penned the <i>text-words</i> of disenthrallment: 'All +men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable +rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' +Where is to be found the evidence that these rights have been forfeited? +Who dare deny the right of the colored man morally, religiously, or +politically, to assert them? It is true, we have hitherto acted in +defiance of these acknowledged rights. We have outraged them. We have +waged a shameful and shameless warfare against them. The sequences of +that warfare are now upon us. The sin is now being atoned for in blood. +It has not yet been ordained that the principles of injustice should +have permanent duration. If not restrained by humane rationality, they +will culminate in convulsion. The light is now breaking upon the +heretofore obscured vision of the American people. We can now begin to +see with clearness that the colored man's disenthrallment is to become +the white man's future security. This would almost seem to be the +harmony of divine justice in the affairs of men.</p> + +<p>No substantial amelioration in the depressed condition of race or class +has yet been brought about in disconnection with the powerful agency of +such race or class. Human nature forbids it. The selfish tenacity of +advantage, resting on what is misnamed 'vested rights,' but having its +foundation in vested wrongs, yields only on compulsion. It is only when +the depressed race or class, acting in somewhat intelligent concert, +exhibits the disposition to aid in the purposes of protection, that the +mercenary power succumbs to necessity. History furnishes no examples to +the contrary. It may not be impossible that our own times may make +history to corroborate the truth of these premises.</p> + +<p>When it is asserted that the colored man is wanting in bravery, and is +not endowed with the natural courage to <a name="Page_105" id="Page_105"></a>assert and maintain his rights, +we are apt to forget that physical bravery is a thing of cultivation. +There is not the least evidence that, with military discipline and +something to fight for, the colored population of the United States +would not prove as brave as the black regiment of the Revolution. With +such bravery as that regiment exhibited, the four millions and their +prospective increase would require a gigantic force to make profitable +slaves of them. Again, there is something beyond the protection from +domestic violence that demands consideration, in connection with the +military discipline of the colored man. We may reasonably expect that a +large colonization in some quarter will soon take place, and be carried +forward. Education and military discipline, in addition to knowledge in +practical industry, are necessary concomitants to successful +colonization. With these qualities, the colored man will cease to feel +helpless, and be fitted for enterprise, he will have the confidence to +go forward, and the aspirations to impel him. It may be the lot of the +colored man to encounter in some foreign land powers and influences +quite as barbarous as those he has hitherto encountered in the white +man's prejudices. If he is armed for the encounter, he will have little +inclination to shrink from it. Every humane consideration clusters to +the policy of disenthralling the colored man, and of making him a being +of power. Nothing can oppose it but the pro-slavery spirit that seeks to +enslave the American mind to barbarism and the colored millions and +their increase to perpetual bondage.<br /><br /><br /></p> + +<h3><a name="STAG" id="STAG">WATCHING THE STAG</a></h3> + +<h5>[<span class="smcap">an unfinished poem, by fitz-james o'brien.</span>]</h5> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Hela and I lie watching here,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Above us the sky and below the mere.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 20em;">long</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Through distant gorges the <strike>blue</strike> moors loom</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Till the heath looks blue in the endless gloom.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">The eagle screams from the misty cliff,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">With a quivering lamb in his taloned griff.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">And the echoes leap over hill and hollow,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">As the old stag bells to the herd to follow.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">The purpled heather is wet with mist,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Till it shines like a drownèd amethyst,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">And the old, old rocks with furrowed faces</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Start up like ghosts in the lonely places.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">With forefeet crossed, stanch Hela lies</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Watching my face through her half-closed eyes,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 14em;"><strike>us</strike></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"><strike>Between—is—is—stretched</strike> + deer</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">While <sup><b>^</b></sup> I pillow my head on the stiffening <strike>stag</strike></span><br /> +</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106"></a></p> +<h3><a name="LITERARY_NOTICES" id="LITERARY_NOTICES"></a>LITERARY NOTICES.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><span class="smcap">Bayard Taylor's Prose Writing's</span>. Vol. V. A Journey to Central Africa, +with a Map and Illustrations by the Author. New-York: G.P. Putnam. +Boston: A.K. Loring.</p> +</div> +<p>This work deservedly ranks as among the best, if not the best, by Bayard +Taylor. The East, as we feel in his poems, was full of the scenes of his +widely varied travels, that which most aroused his sympathy and stirred +his artistic creative powers, and it is of the East that he speaks most +freely and brilliantly. It was in Central Africa that he encountered his +most thrilling adventures, and forgot, as we can there only do, the +civilization of the Western World. Something we would say of the +beautiful typography and paper of this series. If the term <i>mise en +scène</i> were as applicable to books as to dramas, it might be truely said +of Mr. Putnam's that they appear as well between boards as other works +do upon them.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><span class="smcap">El Dorado. Prose Writings of Bayard Taylor</span>. Vol. IV. New-York: G.P. +Putnam. Boston: A.K. Loring. 1862.</p> +</div> +<p>Possibly some twenty years hence 'El Dorado' will be regarded as by far +the best of Bayard Taylor's works—certain it is that in it he is among +the pioneer describers of a land the early accounts of which will be +carefully investigated and duly honored. In picturing lands, where +others have been noting and sketching before, he is strong indeed who is +not driven into mannerism; but in fresh fields and pastures new there is +less danger of seeing through thrice-used spectacles. It is this +consciousness of being the first that ever burst into their silent seas +that made Herodotus and Tudela and Rubriquis and Mandeville so fresh and +vigorous—and there is much of the same peculiar inspiration due to +first-ness perceptible in this volume, which we cordially commend to all +who would be California-learned or simply entertained. Somewhat we must +say however of the fine paper, exquisite typography, and two neat steel +engravings with which this 'Caxton' edition is made beautiful and most +suitable either for a lady's <i>étagere</i>-book-shelf or the most elegant +library.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><span class="smcap">Les Miserables. I. Fantine. by Victor Hugo</span>. +Translated by <span class="smcap">Charles E. +Wilbour</span>. New-York: Carleton. Boston: Crosby and Nichols. 1862.</p> +</div> +<p>A novel written twenty-five years ago by Victor Hugo is a curiosity. The +present was kept in reserve because the sordid publisher, who had a +contract for all of Hugo's works, would not give the sum demanded—the +author kept raising his price—it was like Nero and the Sybil, or the +converse of the conduct of the damsel who annually reduced her terms to +Martial:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">'Millia viginti quondam me Galla poposcit;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Annus abit: bis quina dabis sestertia? dixit.'</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Finally the publisher died, the work was printed, and its first section +now appears in 'Fantine'—a capital picture of life, manners, customs, +in fact of almost every thing in France in 1817. It deals with much +suffering, many sorrows, as its title indicates—for it is easier to +make sensations out of pains than pleasures, and M. Hugo is preëminently +and proverbially 'sensational.' Still it is deeply interesting, +extremely well managed in all art-details, and above all things, is +extremely humane—as a book by Victor Hugo could hardly fail to be. And +as every page bears the impress of a certain characteristic originality +of thought and of observation, we may safely predict that 'Fantine' will +deservedly prove a success. We like the man<a name="Page_107" id="Page_107"></a>ner in which Mr. Wilbour has +translated it—neither too slavishly nor too freely, but in one word, +'admirably.'</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><span class="smcap">Artemus Ward his book</span>. New-York; Carleton. Boston: N. Williams and +Company. 1862.</p> +</div> +<p>Once in five or six years we have a new humorist—at one time a Jack +Downing, then a Doesticks, then again a Phoenix-Derby. Last on the list +we have 'Artemus Ward,' as set forth in letters to the Cleveland +<i>Plaindealer</i> and <i>Vanity Fair</i>, purporting to come from the proprietor +of a 'side-show,' as cheaper, or less than twenty-five cent exhibitions, +are called in this country. To say that they are excellent, spirited, +and racy—full of strong idioms of language and character, and abounding +in novelties in type which are no novelties to those familiar with +popular life—would be doing them faint justice. They embody a new and +perfectly truthful conception of one of the multitude, and have nothing +that is hackneyed in them.</p> + +<p>It is a great test of real stuff in a writer when he dashes off, or +picks up, phrases which are at once taken up by the people. 'Artemus +Ward' has originated many of these, and is perhaps at the present day as +much quoted 'in the broad and long' as any man in the country. It is +needless to say that all who relish broad eccentric humor will find his +Book very well worth reading. We regret that it does not embrace certain +other excellent sketches which we know he has written, but trust that +these will appear in due time in a second part or in a new edition. The +volume before us is very neatly got up, well illustrated, and tastefully +bound.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Lyrics for <span class="smcap">Freedom and Other Poems. Under the Auspices of the +Continental Club</span>. New-York: Carleton, 413 Broadway, Boston; Crosby and +Nichols.</p> +</div> + +<p>At a regular meeting of the 'Continental Club,' held at their rooms in +New-York, it was resolved and carried that a volume of poems written by +certain of the younger members be published 'under its auspices.' As a +noted Democratic sheet, the Boston <i>Courier</i>, has declined to notice the +volume on the plea that the name of the society from which it sprung +suggested too forcibly the CONTINENTAL MONTHLY, possibly a favorable +mention by us of our young New-York brother-in-literature may seem +partial and too en-famille-iar to be fair. Be this as it may, we can not +resist the expression of the honest conviction, for which we have many a +good indorser, that while it would be a matter of some difficulty to +compile a better collection of lyrics from the vast number which the war +has thus far called forth, its production by a limited number of a +single association is indeed remarkable. There is the right ring and the +true feeling perceptible in all of them; earnest enthusiasm flowing +bravely on the tide of musical words, and a clear conviction of the +justice of our cause springing from liberal and progressive political +views. It is enough indeed to say of most of the lyrics that they are +written from a principle, and with faith in the necessity of +Emancipation, and are not mere war-songs, full of commonplace, as +applicable to one cause as another. They are songs of the American war +of freedom in 1861, and as such will rank high in our literary history.</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><span class="smcap">The Rejected Stone; or, Insurrection versus Resurrection in America</span>. By +a Native of Virginia. Second Edition, Boston: Walker, Wise and Company. +1862.</p> +</div> +<p>We are as gratified at the reappearance of this glorious work as we are +astonished to learn that it has only reached a second edition. As it is +beyond comparison the most remarkable literary result thus far of the +war, as it has made a strong sensation in very varied circles, as it is +a book which has given rise to anecdotes, and as its wild eloquence, +bizarre humor and intense earnestness, have caused it to be read with a +relish even by many who dissent from its politics, we had supposed that +ere this its sale had reached at least its tenth edition. Meanwhile we +commend it to all, assuring them that as a fearless, outspoken work, +grasping boldly at the ex<a name="Page_108" id="Page_108"></a>citing questions of the day, it has not its +equal. We should mention that in the present edition we find given the +name of its author, the well-known and eloquent Rev. Moncure D. Conway, +formerly of Virginia, now of Cincinnati.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><span class="smcap">Our Flag</span>: A Poem in Four Cantos. By T.H. <span class="smcap">Underwood</span>. New-York: Carleton. +Boston: N. Williams. 1862.</p> +</div> + +<p>During the past year Mr. Underwood has published several poems of +remarkable merit, referring to the war. In the present we have a work of +higher ambition, and one which is truly well done. In it the horrors of +slavery, the iniquitous abuses to which it so often gives rise—the +tortures, vengeances, murders, and fiendish punishments, which in their +turn follow the crime—are portrayed with striking truthfulness and real +power. The author is evidently no Abolitionist on hear-say—the whole +poem gives evidence of practical familiarity with 'the institution,' and +the sense of truth has inspired his pen in many passages with wonderful +power. The terrible sufferings of an <i>almost</i> white man and slave as +here portrayed, his revenge and punishment at the stake, are as moving +as they are manifestly true to life. We commend this little +pamphlet-poem to every friend of freedom, and sincerely trust that it +will attain the large circulation which it deserves.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><span class="smcap">Sketches of the Rise, Progress, and Decline of Secession</span>. With a +Narrative of Personal Adventures among the Rebels. By W.G. <span class="smcap">Brownlow</span>, +Editor of the <i>Knoxville Whig</i>. Philadelphia: Geo. W. Childs. 1862.</p> +</div> +<p>A decided character this 'Parson Brownlow,' and a representative man; +truly and bravely American, very Western in his traits; a man fond of +fierce argument and tough antagonisms, and not fearing the death either +by halter or revolver, which he will probably meet some day, for the +sake of Jehovah and his own stern convictions. Not exactly a man of +<i>salons</i> and elegant <i>réunions</i>—yet full of real courtesies and gifted +with the kind heart of a true hater of wickedness, which flashes into +fury at witnessing deeds of cruelty and shame. And he has seen many +such—seen what few have done and lived—he has passed through a life's +warfare with men of his own grim obstinacy without his own honesty and +stern Puritan-like morality. We have followed his course for years—we +have met him 'afore-time,' when quite other subjects of quarrel engaged +him, and could have prophesied then with tolerable accuracy what part he +would play when it came to a question between bayonets and prisons for +the truth.</p> + +<p>As we have hinted, he is a splendid hater, and a ferocious antagonist, a +prince of vituperators and a very vitriol-thrower of savage sarcasms at +his enemies and those of humanity. And why should he not be all of this, +when we consider that in the stage whereon his part of life is played a +more delicate student of all the proprieties would have about the same +chances of success as attended the unfortunate cat which ventured +without claws among panthers. Measure such men by their moral worth and +by the good they do, and do not require of the hard-shell Methodist +preacher and tough polemical grappler with Satan in his most bristly and +thick-skinned Western incarnations that he display too much delicacy. +Those who will read his book may gather from it, beyond the interesting +personal and political narrative of which it consists, many useful and +curious hints as to the social development of America and of what men +the country is truly made. It is a <i>real</i> work—one of value—interesting +to all, and very truly one of the monuments of this war and +of the scenes which preceded it in Tennessee.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109"></a></p> +<h3><a name="EDITORS_TABLE" id="EDITORS_TABLE"></a>EDITOR'S TABLE.</h3> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The proclamation of President Lincoln in reference to General Hunter, +and the bold measures of the latter calling forth Executive +interference, form one of the most interesting episodes of the war of +Freedom. Regarded from the high standpoint whence acts are seen as +controlled by circumstances and formed by events, the conduct of the one +public functionary, as of the other, will appear to the future historian +in a very different light from that in which it has been presented by +either the radical or democratic journals of the day. He will speak of +the one as a military chieftain under the influence of worthy motives, +cutting a Gordian knot which the higher and controlling diplomatic and +executive superior wished should be cautiously untied. The one has acted +with a view to promptly settling a great trouble within his own +sphere—the other wisely comprehending that the action was premature, +has decisively countered it. By attempting to free the slaves, General +Hunter has shown himself a friend of freedom and a man of bold measures; +by annulling his acts Mr. Lincoln has availed himself of an excellent +opportunity of proving to the South and to the world that he is not, as +was said, a sectional or an Abolition President, and that with the +strongest sympathies for freedom, he is determined to respect the rights +even of enemies, and leave behind him a clear record, as one who did +nothing wrongly, and who with keen and wide comprehending glance took in +the times as they were, and acted accordingly.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile to the most prejudiced vision it is apparent that the great +cause of Emancipation has gained vastly by this little struggle between +the shepherd and that unruly member of the flock who <i>would</i> dash a +little too impetuously ahead of his fellows. The proclamation of +President Lincoln contains but cold comfort for the pro-slavery +democracy, although they affect to rejoice over it. In vain may they +declare, as they did of the celebrated 'remunerating message,' that it +is very palatable, and vow that it 'creates fresh hope and gives a new +and needed assurance to the conservative men of the nation.' The sour +faces of their pro-slavery, Southern-adoring, English-ruled, traitorous +friends is an effectual answer to their hypocrisy. We have not forgotten +how warmly the Democratic press indorsed the message of January 6th, or +how the Democratic multitude kicked against it in public meetings.</p> + +<p>Let the Democratic tories of the day who find this message so +consolatory, duly weigh the following extract from it:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'I further make known that whether it be competent for me as +Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy to declare the slaves of +any State or States free, and whether at any time or in any case it +shall have become a necessity indispensable to the maintenance of +the Government to exercise such supposed power, are questions which +under my responsibility I reserve to myself, and which I can not +feel justified in leaving to the decisions of commanders in the +field. These are totally different questions from those of police +regulations in armies and camps. On the sixth day of March last, by +a special message, I recommended to Congress the adoption of a +joint resolution to be substantially as follows:</p> + +<p>"<i>Resolved</i>, That the United States ought to co-operate with, any +State which may adopt a gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to +such State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State in its +discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences, public and +private, produced by such change of system.'</p> + +<p>'The resolution, in the language above quoted, was adopted by large +majorities in both branches of Congress, and now stands an +authentic, definite, and solemn proposal <a name="Page_110" id="Page_110"></a>of the Nation to the +States and people moat immediately interested in the +subject-matter. To the people of those States, I now earnestly +appeal. I do not argue, I beseech you to make the arguments for +yourselves. <i>You can not, if you would, be blind to the signs of +the times</i>. I beg of you a calm and enlarged consideration of them, +ranging, if it may be, far above personal and partisan politics. +<i>This proposal makes common cause for a common object, casting no +reproaches upon any</i>. It acts not the Pharisee. The change it +contemplates would come gently as the dews of heaven, not rending +or wrecking any thing. Will you not embrace it? So much good has +not been done by one effort in all past time as in the providence +of God it is your high privilege to do. May the vast future not +have to lament that you have neglected it.'</p></div> + +<p>If any one can see in this aught save the clearest sympathy with the +gradual advance of Emancipation, he must be indeed gifted with a strange +faculty of perversion. If, however, the Democrats indorse the +President's recommendation and approve the Executive policy of gradual +emancipation for the sake of the white man, why do they continue to +abuse so fiercely presses which agree exactly with the Administration, +and ask for nothing more than a recognition of the great principle and +its realization according to circumstance?</p> + +<p>A more contemptible and pitiable political spectacle was never yet +presented than that which may now be witnessed in the actions and words +of the 'Conservative' Democracy. Driven day by day nearer into their +true light of sympathizers at heart with the enemy—upholding the +institution for which it fights—obliged to bear the odium of its +ancient opposition to protection, disgraced by its enmity to American +manufacturing interests—apologizing in a thousand shuffling, petty ways +for English arrogance—this wretched fragment of a faction, after +assuring the South that the North would not fight, and persuading the +North that the South was quite in the right in every thing, now appears +as constant meddler and mischief-maker in the great struggle going on, +giving to it those elements of darkness, disgrace, and treason which, +unfortunately, are always to be found in the greatest struggles for +freedom and right, and which, when history is written, give such grounds +to the carper, the sophist, and skeptic to ridicule the noblest efforts +of humanity. Such are the self-called Conservatives in this great +battle—men hindering and impeding the great cause, eagerly grasping at +every little premature advance—as in the case of General Hunter's +action, to scream out that all will be lost, and exult over its +correction by the leading power as though they had gained a victory!</p> + +<p>Meanwhile it is a matter of no small import to observe that there has +been a vast increase in the mass of indorsement of General Hunter's +conduct compared to what there would have been a few months ago. However +it interfered with the general policy of the Executive, no one doubts +that as a military and local measure it was eminently wise. Sooner or +later it will be adopted—meanwhile what has been done has been +productive of results which can not be undone. The great cause is the +cause of God—and every struggle only aids it onward.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The London Times of May 10th contained a long editorial leader on +American affairs, beginning in the following manner:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'It will have been noticed as a singular feature of the American +quarrel, that no intervention is thought probable or practicable, +except in favor of the South. Mediation, in whatever form or under +whatever name it is to be offered, is universally taken to imply +some movement in behalf of the Confederates. So completely, indeed, +are the belligerents themselves impressed with this idea, that the +South casts it in our teeth as a scandal and a blunder that no +European arbitration has been yet interposed; while the President +of the Northern States actually proclaims a day of thanksgiving for +the deliverance of the country from 'foreign intervention,' which +he identifies with nothing less than 'invasion.' The instincts of +the combatants have undoubtedly led them to correct decisions on +this point, but the fact is not a little curious. We need not +dissem<a name="Page_111" id="Page_111"></a>ble the truth about certain prepossessions current in +Europe. It is beyond denial that, in spite of the slavery question, +the Southerners have been rather the favorites, partly as the +weaker side, partly as conquerors against odds, and partly because +their demand for independence was thought too natural to be +resisted at the sword's point by a Government founded on the right +of insurrection only. To these merely sentimental and not very +cogent considerations was added the more potent and weighty +reflection that what the Southerners had done no Power, whether +American or European, could succeed in undoing.'</p></div> + +<p>The rest of the article, as the reader may recall, was devoted to +sneering at the North and in commending intervention; the whole being +characterized by an underhand, venomous, and latent treacherous tone, +much more becoming a vindictive and vulgar Oriental than a civilized and +Christian European.</p> + +<p>A little while before the <i>Times</i> leader appeared, the London <i>Morning +Herald</i> had informed the world that</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>France and England suffer more than neutrals ever suffered from any +contest, and both begin to regard the war as interminable and +atrocious.'</p></div> + +<p>It is singular that the great majority of the British press and people +should dare to talk so glibly of intervention in this our civil war, +when we consider what their intermeddling may cost them. Cotton they may +or may not get, but no intervention can compel us to buy their goods, +and, as we have already pointed out in our columns, the entire loss of +the free States market involves a disaster which will be permanent and +terrible. Apart from the danger attendant upon insolently threatening a +nation amply capable of mustering an army of a million on its own +soil—two thirds of them practiced in war—there remains to be +considered the utter loss of all American custom. We buy much more than +any other nation whatever. Worse than this, for Europe, there would +follow Such a development of our home-manufactures as would seriously +threaten to drive England and France from a hundred markets. Let them +think twice ere they intervene. But the people, it is said, are +starving; and it may be, for this is one of the occasional and +unavoidable results of England's endeavoring to become the workshop of +the world. By <i>over-manufacturing</i>, she has brought it to such a pitch +that one fourth of her population live on <i>imported food</i>—such as do +not starve outright—for be it remembered that in Great Britain one +person in eight is buried at the public expense, while one in every +twelve or fourteen is a constant pauper. They are starving at present +more than usual, simply because the North is buying less; but to turn +away any popular opposition to government, and suppress riots, they and +the world are told that the trouble all comes from the closing of +Southern ports and <i>the want of cotton</i>! This, too, when published facts +show that the stock of goods and cotton on hand far exceeds the demand, +and is likely to exceed it for a long time to come. It is not cotton +that England or France want, but <i>customers</i>. How are they to obtain +these? By exasperating their best buyers beyond all reconciliation? The +day that witnesses British or French meddling in our war, sees the +inauguration of such hostility to their manufactures as they little +dream of. There will be leagues formed to enforce this to the letter. It +will be treason to wear an inch of English cloth or of French silk, and +what lie will they say to their starving operatives then?</p> + +<p>Already within the past year, great advances have been made in +manufacturing, especially in silks. A little closing of us up would be +the worst experiment for England that she ever yet tried. She may +possibly get cotton from the South, but not a customer from the North. +You may lead a horse to water, but it is another affair to make him +drink. And no one who can recall the prompt resolve not to use English +goods, and the beginning of leagues to that effect, of which we lately +heard so much, can doubt that in case we hear much more of this +impertinence of intervention, the American market would immediately be +lost to the insolent meddlers.<a name="Page_112" id="Page_112"></a> It is only of late that the free States +have shaken off their Democratic, pro-slavery, anti-tariff tyrants, and +learned to be free. England has groaned and howled at our freedom; now +she goes so far as to threaten; but unless she soon stop <i>that</i>, we +shall promptly show her where the strength lies. While we were under a +half-Southern, half-British tyranny, we could do nothing. And be it +remembered that from the days of the New-York <i>Plebeian</i>, when British +gold was spent literally by the million in this country, to strengthen +the Democratic party and build up free trade, slavery and English +interests always went hand in hand to oppress the interests of American +free labor. But we shall soon change all that. It is in our power to +chastise British impudence most effectually, and we shall probably soon +be called upon to do it, by buying nothing from abroad.</p> + +<p>The inhuman, inconsistent, and cynically selfish conduct of England +toward the North in this war, whenever we have been threatened by +reverses, should not be forgotten. It has been literally devilish in its +grossness and meanness. Whatever wickedness the South has been guilty of +was at least barefaced and bold. The South had not for years labored to +build up an Abolition party in the North, as England did. For well nigh +half a century has England howled, wailed, whined, and canted over +slavery; but at the first pinch of the pocket, away goes the previous +philanthropy, and John Bull stands revealed, the brutal, cruel, +treacherous, lying savage that he is at heart, under all his +aristocratic feudal trash and gilding. Well, we know him at last, and +will <i>remember</i> him. His conduct toward us has put hay on his +horns—<i>foenum habet in cornu</i>—and we shall avoid him. Let the +manufacturers of America watch this intolerably insolent intervention +closely, and lose no opportunity to turn it to their own advantage, that +is to say, to the advantage of the whole nation. Let them, by means of +journal and pamphlet, profusely scattered, explain to the people the +enormous wrong which England is seeking to do us, and the deliberate, we +may truthfully say, the official falsehood on which it is based. They +have it in their power to make our country literally <i>free</i>—will they +hesitate to use that power?</p> + +<p>The reliance of England is, by returning to her sweet, stale flatteries, +after the establishment of the Confederacy, to be friends as of old with +the North. It is, she thinks, easily done. Our servants abroad and their +friends are to be a little more favored with levee tickets and access to +noble society; a few dozen more of the rank and file will be marched +along or 'presented' before her Majesty, and thereby sworn in to endless +admiration of all that is Anglican; venerable gentlemen in white +waistcoats will make sweet speeches, after public dinners, of the beauty +of Union, just as they made them here a year ago, in reference to the +South, when the tiger was on the spring. The old see-saw of 'nations +united in language and customs—brothers at heart,' will be set to +vibrating, and all, as they believe, must jog along merrily as of old. +For it is with a very little regularly organized stuff of this kind, +turned on or off as from a hydrant, and always in dribbling drops at +that, that England has, when necessary, pacified and delighted a great +number of Americans, semi-insane to be received on terms of equality by +the 'higher classes,' whom they worshiped at heart, while they affected +all manner of bold Americanisms to hide the truth. It is time to end all +this. We have come to serious and terrible days, and must be free from +all such flunkeyism. In our hour of trouble, the English press boldly +proclaimed that its sympathy was with the South. Let it be remembered!</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In our June number we gave the Kansas John Brown song, for the benefit +of those who collect the more curious ballads of the war. We are +indebted to Clark's <i>School-Visitor</i> for the following song of the +Contrabands, which originated among the latter, and was first <a name="Page_113" id="Page_113"></a>sung by +them in the hearing of white people at Fortress Monroe, where it was +noted down by their chaplain, Rev. L.C. Lockwood. It is to a plaintive +and peculiar air, and we may add has been published with it in +'sheet-music style,' with piano-forte accompaniment, by Horace Waters, +New-York:<br /><br /></p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>OH! LET MY PEOPLE GO.</b></p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">the song of the contrabands.</span></p> +<p> +The Lord, by Moses, to Pharaoh said: Oh! let my people go;<br /> +If not, I'll smite your first-born dead—Oh! let my people go.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Oh! go down, Moses,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Away down to Egypt's land,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">And tell King Pharaoh</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">To let my people go.</span><br /> +<br /> +No more shall they in bondage toil—Oh! let my people go;<br /> +Let them come out with Egypt's spoil—Oh! let my people go.<br /> +<br /> +Haste, Moses, till the sea you've crossed—Oh! let my people go;<br /> +Pharaoh shall in the deep be lost—Oh! let my people go.<br /> +<br /> +The sea before you shall divide—Oh! let my people go;<br /> +You'll cross dry-shod to the other aide—Oh! let my people go.<br /> +<br /> +Fear not King Pharaoh or his host—Oh! let my people go;<br /> +For they shall in the sea be lost—Oh! let my people go.<br /> +<br /> +They'll sink like lead, to rise no more—Oh! let my people go;<br /> +An' you'll hear a shout on the other shore—Oh! let my people go.<br /> +<br /> +The fiery cloud shall lead the way—Oh! let my people go;<br /> +A light by night and a shade by day—Oh! let my people go.<br /> +<br /> +Jordan shall stand up like a wall—Oh! let my people go;<br /> +And the wails of Jericho shall fall—Oh! let my people go.<br /> +<br /> +Your foes shall not before you stand—Oh! let my people go;<br /> +And you'll possess fair Canaan's land—Oh! let my people go.<br /> +<br /> +Oh! let us all from bondage flee—Oh! let my people go;<br /> +And let us all in Christ be free—Oh! let my people go.<br /> +<br /> +This world's a wilderness of woe—Oh! let my people go;<br /> +Oh! let us all to glory go—Oh! let my people go.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Oh! go down, Moses,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Away down to Egypt's land,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">And tell King Pharaoh</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">To let my people go.</span><br /> +</p> + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + +<p>Speaking of the interview some weeks since between M. le Comte Henri de +Mercier with the extremely 'honorable' J.P. Benjamin, the secession +Secretary of State, the Petersburg (Virginia) <i>Express</i> uses the +following elegantly accurate language:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'It is said that these two distinguished functionaries spoke the +French dialect altogether, the gallant Frenchman not having yet +been enabled to master the good old Anglo-Saxon idiom.'</p></div> + +<p>What, to begin with, is <i>the</i> French dialect? The Provencal, the Gascon, +the Norman, are tolerably prominent French dialects, but which of them +is preëminently <i>the</i> dialect we will not decide—nor why the diplomatic +gentlemen selected a dialect instead of French itself as a medium of +conversation. It is, however, possible that Comte de Mercier having +heard of little Benjamin's antecedents, talked to him in <i>argôt</i> or +thieves' slang. It may be that in the school of Floyd and Benjamin argôt +is <i>the</i> dialect.</p> + +<p>Again, we learn that the gallant Frenchman spoke 'the French dialect' +because he has not as yet mastered 'the good old Anglo-Saxon idiom.' +This is even more puzzling than the dialect-question. Why the +Anglo-Saxon idiom? Suppose Count Mercier wished to say that he was sorry +that his tobacco had been captured by the foe, why should he couch it in +such language as, 'Thá mee ongan hréowan thaet mín <i>tobacco</i> on feónda +geweald feran sceolde'—which is the good <i>old</i> Anglo-Saxon idiom.' We +<i>can</i> imagine that thieves' slang would have the place of honor in +Secessia, but why the old Anglo-Saxon idiom should be so esteemed, +puzzled us for a longtime. At last we hit it. The Southrons have long +been told—or told them<a name="Page_114" id="Page_114"></a>selves—that they are Normans, while we of the +North are Saxon—and hoping to acquire a little Anglo-Saxon +intelligence, prudently begin by studying the language which they +believe is in common use among our literati.</p> + +<p>Seriously, it is not merely to stoop to such small game as the grammar +of a secession newspaper that we notice these amusing mistakes. There +are many persons-we are sorry to say many clergymen among others—here, +even in the free States, who, in attempting to write elegantly, use +words very ridiculously. They say 'dialect' and 'idiom' when they mean +'language;' they use 'donate' for 'give;' 'transpired' for 'happened;' +'paper' for 'newspaper,' and describe various events as taking place in +'our midst'—all because they think that these vulgarisms are really +more correct than the words or terms in common use.</p> + +<p>We wish, however, that Anglo-Saxon—joking apart—were more generally +studied. When we remember that the very great majority of good <i>words</i> +in English are of Saxon origin, and with them all that is characteristic +either in our grammar or modes of expression, it becomes evident that +the most certain and shortest method of arriving at a thorough and +correct comprehension of English is by the study of its most important +element—one which, as a writer has well said, bears the same relation +to our mother-tongue as oxygen does to water. It is not fair to speak as +some do of the Latin and Saxon wings of the English bird—the bird +itself is Saxon—head and tail included. English has been but little +benefited by its Latin and Greek additions—the old tongue had excellent +synonyms or creative capacity like German—to fully equal every new need +of thought.</p> + +<p>The reader who has time for study, would do well to obtain the +Anglo-Saxon Grammar of Louis Klipstein, published by G.P. Putnam, +New-York, which is by far the most practical and easiest work of the +kind with which we are acquainted. A few days' study in it will be time +well invested by any one desirous of really <i>understanding</i> English. +When we reflect that many boys study Latin for years 'because it enables +them to understand the structure and derivation of their own language,' +while the extremely easy Anglo-Saxon is almost entirely neglected, we +smile at the ignorance of the first principles of education which +prevails. But we advise the reader who may have a few shillings and a +few hours to spare to invest them in a 'KLIPSTEIN,' and <i>know</i>—what +very few writers do—something of the roots of English. Our word for it, +he will not regret following the advice.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>We are indebted to a Dawfuskie Island correspondent for the following +details relative to</p> + +<h4>THE FALL OF PULASKI.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Come and dine with me next Sunday in Pulaski?' said the commandant +of a detachment of the Volunteer Engineer corps located on Tybee +Island, one bright morning in the early part of April. As the +invitation was given in all sincerity, and the officer who thus +spoke was assisting in the erection of the batteries commanding +that fort, the question which had so long occupied my mind, as to +when the bombardment would begin, was now, I fondly hoped, near its +solution. Time and again had rumor fixed the period of that event; +but as often were we disappointed. Nor was <i>the</i> day now fixed; at +least, if so, it was not communicated to me; but as the coming +Friday of that week would be the anniversary of the attack on Fort +Sumter, the natural inference was, that on the morning of that day, +we should witness the opening of the long and anxiously-looked for +engagement.</p> + +<p>Sad rumors had come to our camp, that eighteen soldiers who had +gone out skirmishing within the rebel lines, on Wilmington Island, +had been captured, and were prisoners within the walls of Pulaski. +How far this event may have hastened the attack, we know not; but +on Thursday, the tenth, instead of Friday, the eleventh, the +bombardment began, and the thunder of our mortars shook the earth +and rent the heavens with their roar. Pulaski returned the <a name="Page_115" id="Page_115"></a>fire +with a promptness and energy that seemed to bid defiance to our +batteries. Throughout the whole day, the storm beat unceasingly +upon the doomed fort, raining shot and shell like hail against its +walls and upon its ramparts. Solid steel-pointed shot, from +columbiads and Parrotts, aimed with a precision that indicated not +only great skill but a knowledge of the point of danger in the +fort, perforated the walls and buried themselves in the thick and +heavy masonry. Once, twice, thrice, four times was the rebel flag +shot away; but as often was it replaced. At seven o'clock in the +evening, the firing ceased, and there was a lull in the storm, +only, however, to be renewed again at midnight, and kept up at +regular intervals until sunrise, when the engagement increased in +greater vigor than throughout the preceding day.</p> + +<p>The morning was clear and beautiful, but not calm. A stiff breeze +came from the East, as if to bear the terrific reports of the +cannonading to Savannah, whose distant spires and towers gleamed in +the sun. Our blockading fleet, with accompanying transports, lay at +anchor in Tybee harbor. Here and there a gunboat, firing occasional +shots, could be seen moving about in Wilmington sound, while the +Unadilla, Hale, and Western World occupied their positions in +Wright and Mud rivers. Tatnall's fleet was no where to be seen, and +all things in the direction of Savannah seemed as quiet as though +that city was peacefully and securely reposing, as in other days, +under the broad folds of the American Union.</p> + +<p>It was a sad and woful day to the cities of the South, when her +rebel princes renounced their allegiance to the government, and +raised the traitor arm of rebellion against its authority. Imagined +evils, in connection with the Union, were then converted into real +ones, and these have been augmented a thousand-fold in the +severance from that Union. When the South shall 'come to +herself'—if she ever does—like the prodigal son, she will find +her condition quite as pitiable, and in rags and wretchedness, she +will seek her father's house, willing, no doubt, to occupy a +servant's place in the national household. Nor until true and +genuine repentance shall come to her, can she hope for a father's +forgiveness and a prodigal's reception and restoration.</p> + +<p>Boom! boom!! boom!!! as if the last great day of vengeance had +come, and you could hear the screeching of a thousand fiends in the +air hastening to their destiny, come upon the ear, as Tybee utters +her thunders, and pours out her vials of wrath. See that cloud of +dust which shoots up like a volcano, and looks as though the whole +east side of the fort had fallen in! Bolts of iron, like winged +battering-rams, are ploughing fearfully through her belabored side. +Before this cloud has passed away, you see, just above it, another, +not dark and angry, but in appearance white and spherical as the +moon. A shell has exploded, and rained its iron fragments into the +fort.</p> + +<p>It is now past meridian of the second day. Pulaski still fires her +heaviest guns; but at greater intervals. The batteries from Tybee +have obtained so exact a range that nearly every shot does +execution. At length a breach is made in the vicinity of the +magazine. The fate of the fort and all its inmates is now suspended +upon a single, well-directed shot. There is but a step between the +besieged and death, and as all hope of raising the siege is +abandoned, the rebel flag is hauled down, and a white flag of +submission waves in its stead. Pulaski falls, and the day is ours. +The hope of Georgia is gone. In vain did the citizens of Savannah +offer a prize of one hundred thousand dollars for the relief of the +fort. Had that sum been increased to a million, it would have been +quite as unavailing. The same inevitable doom awaits all the other +forts and intrenchments of the rebel confederacy. With some of +these, the event may be delayed; but the day of doom will come, and +the broad flag of the Union will float over every inch of territory +from the hills of the Aroostook to the waters of the Rio Grande.</p> + +<p>Just as the fort struck her flag, an incident occurred which was +somewhat remarkable. A sloop, which had been at anchor in Tybee +harbor, was broken from her moorings by the violence of the wind, +and driven by wind and tide, she floated up the Savannah river. +With her Union down, she passed immediately in front of Pulaski, +and turned into Wright river, where she was run ashore. Twenty +minutes earlier, and she would have been blown to atoms by the guns +of the fort.</p> + +<p>An almost incredible amount of work has been done by our investing +army, in accomplishing this glorious result. Rivers and <a name="Page_116" id="Page_116"></a>creeks had +to be sounded, obstructions removed, roads made through swamps on +marshy islands, where our officers and men had to work day and +night, often up to their waists in mud and water; heavy Parrotts +and columbiads had to be carried by hand across these swamps, and +erected on platforms inundated by rising tides; dykes and ditches +had to be made, while all the time our men were exposed to the fire +of the rebel fleet. When all this was accomplished, and +communication was cut off from Pulaski, then the nearest points on +Tybee were reached by our forces located on that island, and four +or five batteries were planted, which, in turn, have done their +work, and the result shows how wise were the plans and how +successful was the execution. The stars and stripes now float over +Pulaski, and may they never again be polluted by the touch of +traitor hands.</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Those persons who 'collect' street literature (there be such) may be +pleased with the following:</p> + + +<h4>PORTENTOUS PLACARDS.</h4> + +<p class="author"><i>New-York, May, 1862.</i></p> + +<p>Since the publication of the 'Bill-Poster's Dream,' and of the extracts +from Richmond papers containing the prophecies of the handwriting on the +wall relative to the accomplice States of America, few things have so +generally attracted pedestrian attention in our down-town streets as two +enormous placards. The first bore the following legend:</p> + +<h4> +<span class="smcap">there's</span><br /> +A TEMPEST<br /> +BREWING.<br /> +</h4> + +<p>Persons given to cryptical studies were inclined to consider this an +esoteric form of advertisement, intended to convey to the initiated the +information that A. STORM had gone into the beer business. But +conjecture was set at naught by its fellow which appeared at its side on +the day after its posting, in this shape:</p> + +<p class="center"> +VIDELICIT<br /> +Θε Προφεσσορ.<br /> +</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Puncanhed, who was the first to call my attention to the placard, +did so with the following statement:</p> + +<p>''Tan't spelt right—and why couldn't the feller just as well use +the 'good old English' word <i>viz.</i>, as <i>'videlicit?'</i>'</p> + +<p>The query was unanswerable. But having some doubt as to the first +word in the Greek line, by using which instead of the article 'O, +the writer has shown not merely unconsciousness of the Greek +particle, but ignorance of a particle of Greek, I put the first +Hibernian who passed to the test of reading the sentence, which I +am forced to say the indignant Milesian scornfully declined. I +submit the whole question to the researches of your readers. +<span class="smcap">Hemiplegius</span>.</p></div> + +<p>Nay—we know not. 'The Professor' at the Breakfast-Table we do indeed +know, and it is no unwonted thing for us to meet him in Tremont street, +merry and wise as ever. But we have never seen him or any other +Professor 'driven to the wall' in any way whatever; and albeit we +suspect him of a knowledge of whist, we have beheld him pla-carded. We +pass.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Do we say too much when we call the following poem truly beautiful?<br /></p> + + +<h4>WITH FLOWERS.</h4> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">may morning, 1862.</span> +</p> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Reject them not! they come to plead for me;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">When you are cold, 'tis <i>winter</i> in my heart;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Till you are kind, 'sweet May' 'twill never be,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And if you smile, summer will ne'er depart!</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'My heart is weary,—waiting for the May,'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>So</i> sad and weary; will <i>you</i> give it rest?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Not <i>love</i>, but <i>rest</i>: it is not <i>much</i> to say:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">'Poor, tired child! once more be thou my guest.'</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Forgive my wild and wayward words, forgive!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"We are dying of our thirst—'my heart and I!'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Without love's sunshine, who can care to live?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And when love shines, oh I who can bear to die?</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>'Ah! this love!' 'There is not much of it in life,' says Heine; but that +little alone makes life tolerable. Rest, perturbed spirit, rest! In +another land, there is love enough for all.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h4><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117"></a>CHIVALRY</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">by r. wolcott; tenth regiment</span></p> + +<p>Not long ago I happened to be one of a number of fair ladies and brave +men assembled at what is called a 'surprise-party.' It was my fortune to +be the attendant cavalier, for the time, of a damsel of romantic +disposition, and, I fear, of somewhat impaired digestive powers. And she +was lamenting, not boisterously, but in a subdued, conversational +manner, that the good old days were gone, 'the days of Chivalry,' when +my lady had her nice little <i>boo-dwah</i> (for the life of me, I didn't +know whether that was something nice to eat or to wear; but I have since +learned that it is something French, and spelt, <i>b-o-u-d-o-i-r</i>,) and +was waited upon by handsome pages, and took her airing on a dappled-gray +palfrey, attended by trusty and obsequious grooms; when Sir Knight, +followed by his sturdy henchmen, rode forth in gay and gaudy attire, +with glittering helmet and cuirass, and entered the lists, and bravely +fought for his fair lady's fame. She spoke with fervid eloquence, and +with a glibness that betrayed a very recent perusal of the +tournament-scene in <i>Ivanhoe</i>. I was about to reply, and say something +in behalf of modern chivalry; but just then a gentleman claimed her hand +for a quadrille that was forming, and my remarks were cut short.</p> + +<p>If my readers will bear with me, I will attempt to tell them what I was +going to say to my romantic young friend. The days of chivalry are <i>not</i> +gone. Let me remark that this assertion does not apply to the blatant, +nigger-driving article that whilom flourished in Dixie, for that is +about 'played out,' though they still rant and prate about the 'flower +of chivalry.' At Fort Lafayette, there is an herbarium of choice +specimens (rather faded and seedy) of that curious 'yarb;' and at the +old Alton Penitentiary, and at Camp Douglas, Chicago, there are +collections, not so choice and a great deal more seedy. Though +Simon—not he of other notoriety, but another man—Simon Bolivar +Buckner, a sweet-scented pink of Southern chivalry; though he must have +his little fling at us, and call General Grant 'ungenerous and +unchivalrous,' it does not strike me with stunning force that he, +ingrate that he is, and traitor to the government that educated him, is +exactly the one to teach us what chivalry is, or how it ought to treat +vanquished rebels. No, the days of chivalry are <i>not</i> gone. While the +base counterfeit that has so often been thrust upon us by Southern +braggadocios, and indorsed by Northern sneaks and doughfaces, has been +detected, and, thank God! is being thrown out as fast as shot and shell +can knock it out, there never was a greater abundance of the genuine +metal than there is now and here in this land of ours.</p> + +<p>Not alone in war and warlike deeds does modern chivalry show itself. +There is a chivalry in religion, that, in spite of the howlings of +creed-worshipers, dares to throw off the shackles of antiquated and +intolerant dogmas, and believe and teach the religion of humanity, of +'peace on earth and good-will to men.' It is the chivalry in religion +that has smitten and is daily smiting with its gleaming lance the host +of old prejudices, letting in upon us the glorious golden sunshine, +allowing us to revel in it and to see this world as it is, joyous and +beautiful. True, some of the old superstitions that burned the witches +linger in the path, like grim dragons, to frighten us. But they are weak +and toothless, and are fast losing their terrors; and the spirit of +chivalry in religion is marching on, and smiting them one by one, and +one by one they fall. But while men are emancipating themselves from the +ancient errors, it is sad to see that the same bugbears that infested +the path of our great grandparents in the pinafore period of their +existence, are brought to bear upon our children. Especially in +Sabbath-school literature is this manifest. Impossible patterns of piety +and propriety are set before a stout, healthy boy, and he, in the flush +of his lusty life, is taught to believe that the only road to paradise +lies through some pulmonary affection. For the sake of all these dear +little ones, and for the sake of the Master who loved them so well, do +let them have some more natural and healthy mental and moral food!</p> + +<p>And this leads me to speak of literature in general. And have we not a +chivalry here that is working a revolution? And who is the bravest +knight in the field? Who but our own genial Meister Karl-Mace Sloper? +Isn't it glorious though, the way he rides into the lists, and with his +diamond-pointed lance pricks the tender skins of the lackadaisical +poetasters and lachrymose prosy-scribblers of our day! Again, O gallant +leader! smite them again. And fall in, ye who wield the pen! Let the +bugles sound the charge, and let our literature be cleared <a name="Page_118" id="Page_118"></a>of Laura +Matildas and Martin Firecracker Splutters forever!</p> + +<p>We approach now a topic that was once nauseating in the extreme, but +which is now robbed of many of its disagreeable features—medicine. Let +it be understood in the beginning, disciple of Hahnemann, I am not +upholding you and your pellets of sugar; by no means. But there have +been some knights of the pill-box who, without rushing into folly, have +leaped the barriers of ignorance and ancient custom that kept them in an +atmosphere odorous of villainous drugs and combinations of drugs, and, +untrammeled by old traditions, have sought and are seeking milder means +of mitigating our bodily ills. All honor to them. They have driven away +the old doctor of our childhood, whose most pleasant smile resembled the +amiable leer that a cannibal might be supposed to bestow upon a plump +missionary. The old curmudgeon, with his huge bottles of mixtures and +his immense boulders—I beg pardon, I should say, <i>boluses</i> of +nastiness—has vanished like a surly ghost at the approach of daylight, +and in his stead we have a gentleman, placid and self-poised, with a +velvet touch and a face beaming with cheerful smiles. And if they have +not made the measles a luxury, they have given us a syrup that children +are said to cry for.</p> + +<p>In the industrial arts, too, there is a spirit of chivalry that is +marching bravely on, overthrowing old notions. What knight of the olden +time ever did as much for his ladye fayre as he did for all womanity who +wrought out the problem of the sewing-machine? How many aching hands and +eyes and hearts has that little instrument, with its musical +<i>click-click, click-click</i>, relieved! No more songs of the shirt, no +more wearying of hands and curving of spines over the inner vestments of +mankind. We have changed all that. And every stroke of the pioneer's ax, +as he fells the mighty forest-trees, is a blow struck by the honest and +earnest chivalry of labor, battling with wild nature, carving a way for +civilization's triumphal march. And the cheery whistle of the plowboy, +as he drives his team a-field; the ring of the hammer on the anvil; the +clatter of the busy loom; the scream of the locomotive, as it sweeps +over the land, plunging through the mountains and dashing out across the +prairies—all these are the clarion-notes of modern chivalry's bugles, +ringing through the world in joyous and triumphant tones.</p> + +<p>And this war—who shall tell; what historic pen can record its grand and +glorious chivalry? Is not every one, from the pale young student, fresh +from the breast of <i>Alma Mater</i>, to the large-handed and larger-hearted +rustic, with the hay-seed yet in his hair, and the rugged bod-carrier, +redolent of sweat and brick-dust—are not all these, who have come forth +from the field and the workshop, the office and the lecture-room, to +defend the dear old flag, true and gallant knights? There is a boy out +there in the woods, on picket, slowly pacing his lonely beat, with the +tender-eyed stars for company. And as the silent hours pass by, slowly +he turns the leaves of memory's record, lingering over its cherished +pictures, the home-scenes, the fond father and mother, the dear sister, +and the dearer some-one-else's sister. The snapping of a twig startles +him, and hastily brushing away a tear—fond memory's tribute—he +instantly closes the book, and stands, with every sense on the alert, +unflinching, though he knows that each moment may be his last, only +remembering that it is his duty to be faithful, watch well, and fire +low. And though this boy, fair-haired and beardless, may not have passed +the stern ordeal of the battle's fierce shock, though his heart softens +at the thought of his far-off home in the North, yet his young soul is +that of a hero, brave and chivalrous, and in due time his spurs will be +nobly won. Yes, this war is bringing out the grand, heroic traits of our +American character, traits that years of rapid, busy, money-getting life +have thrown into the background, till it really did seem that we were +altogether sordid and selfish.</p> + +<p>In the year that I have been in the service, I have seen and heard of +more individual chivalrous deeds than my romantic and dyspeptic young +friend will find in all the books, from <i>Amadis de Gaul</i> down. Every day +witnesses them. Private letters speak of them as ordinary incidents; a +few get before the public, enjoy a brief newspaper notoriety, and are +forgotten—no, not forgotten entirely; for every brave action lives +somewhere, though it may not be in an official report. A mother's or a +sister's memory cherishes it, and it is handed down to other +generations, an example and an incentive to other brave deeds.</p> + +<p>Then let us have no more sentimental lamentation over the decadence of +chivalry. There is a broad field open to us, for deeds <a name="Page_119" id="Page_119"></a>of chivalrous +daring, now, upon the battle-field, amid the fierce clashing of arms.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'And many a darkness into the light shall leap,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And shine with the sudden making of splendid names.'</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Afterward, when holy peace shall smile again, there are the pulpit and +the rostrum, the workshop and the forest; and whether we wield the pen, +or the hammer, or the ax, according as we strive to make ourselves and +the world better, so shall we bear the palm of chivalry.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The Democratic press made itself convulsively merry over Governor +Andrew, of Massachusetts, for having called out the militia promptly in +the flurry of May 26th. After fairly exhausting its jeering and sneering +on this subject, that portion of the Northern Fourth Estate which would +be termed Satanic and traitorous were it not too utterly white-livered +and cowardly to be complimented with such forcible indices of even bad +character, had a cruel extinguisher clapped upon it on May 29th, by a +letter to the Boston <i>Journal</i> from Lieutenant-Colonel Harrison Kitchie, +A.D.C., in which Governor Andrew is most effectually vindicated by the +simple publication of four telegrams received from Secretary +Stanton—the first two of which were as follows:</p> + +<p class="center">[<span class="smcap">telegram i.-copy</span>]</p> + +<p class="author"><i>'Washington, May 25th, 1862.</i></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">'ToGovernor Andrew</span>: Send all the troops forward that you can +immediately. Banks is completely routed. The enemy are in large +force advancing upon Harper's Ferry.</p> + +<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Edwin M. Stanton</span>,<br /> + 'Secretary of War.'</p> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<p class="center">[<span class="smcap">telegram ii.—copy</span>]</p> + +<p class="author"><i>'Washington, May 25th, 1862.</i></p> + +<p>'<span class="smcap">To the Governor of Massachusetts</span>: Intelligence from various +quarters leaves no doubt that the enemy in great force are +advancing on Washington. You will please organise and forward +immediately all the volunteer and militia force in your State.</p> + +<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Edwin M. Stanton</span>,<br /> + 'Secretary of War.'</p> + +<p>How Governor Andrew could have been true to his duty and have acted +otherwise than he did after receiving such commands, must be settled by +those 'gossips of the mob' who, incapable of appreciating the nobility +of a prompt fulfillment of duty, measure every thing military by the +amount of melo-dramatic <i>denouement</i> to which it leads. We trust that +after this effectual 'counter' we may hear a little less carping at +Governor Andrew, who has shown from the beginning an energy and +perseverance, a promptness in emergency, and a patriotism which, when +the history of this war comes to be written, will reflect the highest +honor upon his name.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>He who sends us the following, is worthy to bear a crow-sier as one of +the Faithful:</p> + +<h4>BOTH BARRELS INTO 'EM:</h4> + +<p>If old Squire Price had any one bump of phrenology developed more than +another, it was <span class="smcap">corvicide</span>, or, +<span class="smcap">kill-crowativeness</span>. From corn-planting to +husking-time, from dewy morn until evening more than due, he might be +seen dodging behind fences, crawling around barns, stalking along in the +high grass, with a long single-barreled old gun, trying to get a shot at +the black thieves of crows that were forever at work on his old, sandy +farm.</p> + +<p>'What cause have you, my aged friend,' Brother Hornblower once said to +him, '<i>What</i> cause have <i>you</i> to molest these birds, as 'toil not, +neither do they spin'?'</p> + +<p>'I tell yer what,' answered the Squire, shaking his head with savage +jerks, 'come down to my house ary moruin' airly, you'll hear <i>caws</i>!'</p> + +<p>Brother Hornblower smiled grimly and walked gently away, after that, to +get the evening paper at the grocery-post-office. He set his face +against jokes—unless they were serious ones.</p> + +<p>Whether it was Brother Hornblower's words, or more crows than usual, the +neighbors around Squire Price's farm were regaled for two days after the +above talk, with such constant explosions of gunpowder that it was +surmised the Squire must have bought 'a hull kag o' powder, and got some +feller to help him shoot.' The consequence of this energy was, that the +persecuted devil's-<a name="Page_120" id="Page_120"></a>canaries flew away to other farms where powder was +scarce-first and foremost descending in flocks on Brother Hornblower's +lands, and digging up his young corn—it was in the month of May—until +even <i>he</i> found cause to go at these birds as don't spin; for he found +out that they toiled most laboriously. Being a man of peaceful +disposition, and opposed to the use of fire-arms, he thought over a plan +by which fire-logs might be used with great advantage to his own +benefit, by destroying a large number of crows at one fell blow. How he +succeeded in this <i>fell</i>-blow, was told a few evenings afterward in the +grocery-post-office, by young Tyler, a promising youth who had not, as +they say of other sad dogs, 'quite got his set yet,' that is, attained +completion in figure and carriage. Seated on the edge of a barrel +half-filled with corn, and cutting a piece of pine-wood to one sharp +point only to be followed by another sharp point, he was talking to +another youth in a desultory manner, about his intentions 'to go by +water,' in old Bizzle's schooner, next trip she took, when Squire Price +came in to get his daily newspaper, <i>The Beantown Democrat</i>.</p> + +<p>'You bin givin' them crows partikler hail, hain't you, Squire?' asked +Tyler the youthful.</p> + +<p>'Wal, about as much as they kin kerry,' answered the Squire. 'They +hain't bin squawkin' round my prem'ses none to speak of lately.'</p> + +<p>'They bin roond Brother Horublower's, thick as pison, though,' said +Tyler. 'He counted on killin' 'bout a milyon on 'em yesserday—on-ly he +didn't quite come it.'</p> + +<p>'Thought he wouldn't never fire no guns at 'em!'</p> + +<p>'Put a couple o' barrils into 'em yesserday.'</p> + +<p>'Why, how you talk! You don't mean it?'</p> + +<p>'Honor bright! He got a big travers on 'em—leastwise, thought he had. +His brindle kaow, she got pizened night afore last, down there in the +woods; couldn't do nuthin with her, and she died same night. So he goes +and skins her, and throws her out into that gully down there, back o' +Bizzle's wood, and says he to me—for I was over there workin' for +him—says he, 'There'll be a power o'crows onto her t'morrer, and I +calc'late I'll fix a few on 'em—I will!' So next mornin'-that was +yesserdoy-we went out bright and airly, and rigged up a kind o' blind at +the side of the gully, right over the old carcass, Then we got our +amminishun all ready—both barrils all loadid.'</p> + +<p>'By jing!' said the Squire, rubbing his hands, 'I wish I'd bin there.'</p> + +<p>'Got all ready. Purty soon up comes one crow, sails round and round, +then two or three more, then a few more; they begun to smell meat. Then +they flew lower and lower; bime by one settles onto an old dead cedar +and begins cawin' for dear life. Then down he comes, then more and more +of 'em. Round they come, cawin' and flappin' their wings, clouds of 'em. +Guess there was 'bout two hundred settled onto that old kaow.'</p> + +<p>'Wish I'd bin there with my gun!' spoke the Squire, intensely excited. +'A feller could have made the most biggest kind of a shot.'</p> + +<p>'Wal, we waited, and waited, till the old kaow was black as pitch with +'em. Then Hornblower he nudges me. We got both barrils all ready—big +loads in 'em. 'Fire!' says he. I braced my leg up agin my barril; he +braced his leg up agin his barril—'</p> + +<p>'W-w-what?' said the Squire.</p> + +<p>'We give the most all-firedest shove—and over we went, barrels, stones, +dirt, and gravil, head-fo'most, spang into them crows and dead kaow! I +tell you, for about five minutes I calc'late I never seed sitch fuss, +feathers, dirt, and gravil, and kaow-beef flyin' as I did then. Things +was mixed up most promiscussedly, you can bet yer life on it! Bime by I +sort o' come to, and when I raised up I found I was sittin' onto four +dead, crushed crows, Brother Hornblower, and kaow-meat gin'rally. So I +dug out and lifted up the game—Brother Hornblower first off. When he +cum round a little, says he:</p> + +<p>"T-T-Tyler, I con-ceive somethin's give way 'bout these parts!'</p> + +<p>"You air about right in your suppostishuns,' says I; 'the gravil bank's +busted, and it's a marcy we an't in kingdom kum!'</p> + +<p>"Don't talk that way,' says he; 'let's go up and fire a cupple barrels +more into the blastid rebbils, fur vengenz.'</p> + +<p>"No yer don't, this mornin', as I knows on,' said I; 'I've got enough +shootin craws your fashun. Next time I go shootin' crows 'long any +boddy, I'm goin' to do it Christian-fashun, with gun-barrils, and not +blastid old flour-barrils filled with gravil. That kind o' shootin' +don't suit my style o' bones—'speehally head-fo'most inter a dead +kaow!"</p> + +<p>'On-ly four crows killt!' said the Squire, <a name="Page_121" id="Page_121"></a>with a groan. 'To think what +a feller might have done, if he had only have spread his-self +judishuslously as he came tumblin' onto 'em spang! Wal!' (looking +cheeringly to young Tyler,) 'you couldn't do more'n fire both barrils +into 'em, ef they was flour-barrils, could you?'</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h4>THE LEGEND OF JESUS AND THE MOSS.</h4> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In the desert of Engedi</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Lies a valley deep and lone;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Softly there the mild air slumbered,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Lovely there the sunlight shone.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In the bosom of this valley,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">By the path that leads across,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Lay a modest velvet carpet</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Of the finest, softest moss.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">But the careless traveler, passing,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Heedless of it went his way;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thus this miracle of beauty</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Lone in hidden glory lay.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Bloom and sunshine, sweeter, brighter,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Him from distant mountains greet;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">On to that the stranger hurries,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Past the moss-bed at his feet.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Then the moss-bed sighed, complaining</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">To the evening dew that fell;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And its tufted bosom heaving,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Thus its 'plains began to tell:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Ah! men love you, bloom and sunshine,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Long its rosy glow to see,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Feed their eyes on luring flowers</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Whilst their feet tread rude on me!'</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Now, when mellow rays of sunset</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Lingered golden on the trees,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Came a weary pilgrim slowly</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">From the bordering forest leas.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">This was <span class="smcap">Jesus</span>, just returning</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">From his fast of forty days;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Worn by Satan's fierce temptations,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">He for rest and comfort prays.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sore his sacred feet are blistered,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Wandering o'er the desert-sands;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Torn and bleeding from the briers,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Sufferings which the curse demands.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">When he came upon the moss-bed,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Soon he felt how cool and sweet</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Lay the soft and velvet carpet</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">'Neath his wounded, bleeding feet.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Then he paused and spake this blessing:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">'Gift of my kind Father's love!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Fret not, little plant, thy record</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Shineth in the book above.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">By the careless eye unheeded,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Bear thy lowly, humble lot;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thou hast eased my weary walking,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Thou art ne'er in heaven forgot.'</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Scarcely had he breathed this blessing</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">On the moss that soothed his woes,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">When upon its bosom gathered,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Budded, bloomed, a lovely rose!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And its petals glowed with crimson</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Like the clouds at close of day;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And a glory on the mosses</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Like the smile of cherubs lay.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Then said <span class="smcap">Jesus</span> to the flower:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">'Moss-rose—this thy name shall be—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Spread thou o'er all lands, the sweetest</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Emblem of humility.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Out of lowly mosses budding,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Which have soothed a pilgrim's pain,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thou shalt tell the world what honor</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">All the lowly, lovely gain.'</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hear his words, ye lonely children,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">By the world unseen, unknown;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wait ye for the suffering pilgrim,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Coming weary, faint, and lone.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Keep your hearts still soft and tender,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Like the velvet bed of moss;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">God will bless the love you render,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">To some bearer of the cross.</span><br /> +</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In our May number we spoke old Englishly of the Boston demoiselle. In +the present number we have:</p> + +<h4>YE PHILADELPHIA YOUNGE LADYE.</h4> + +<p>Ye Philadelphia young ladye 1s not evir of ruddie milke and blonde hew, +like unto hir cosyn of Boston, natheless is shee not browne as a +chinkapinn or persymon like unto ye damosylles of Baltimore. Even and +clere is hir complexioun, seldom paling, and not often bloshing, whyeh +is a good thynge for those who bee fonde of kissing, sith that if ther +mothers come in sodanely ther checkes wyll not be sinful tell-tayles of +swete and secrete deeds. Of whych matter of blushing itt is gretely to +the credyt of the Philadelphienne that shee blosheth not muche, sith +that Aldrovandus, and as methynketh also, Mizaldus in his <i>Mirabile +Centuries</i>, doe affirme thatt not to bloshe is a sign of noble bloods +and gentyl lineage—for itt may bee planely seene that every base-borne +churle's daughter blosheth, if thatt yee give hir a poke under ye chinn, +whereas ye countesse of highe degre only smileth sweetlie and sayth +merily, '<i>Aha! messire—tu voys que mon joly couer est endormy</i>!' for +shee well knoweth that a gentyllman, like ye kynge, can doe noe wronge.</p> + +<p>The Philadelphienne dressyth not in garments like unto Joseph, his cote +of manie <a name="Page_122" id="Page_122"></a>colors, nethir dothe shee put on clothes whych look from afar +off like geographie-mapps, where the hues are as well assortyd as iff a +paint-mill had bursten and scattered the piggments all pele-mele into +everlastynge miscellayneous scatteratioun. For shee doth greately go inn +for subdued ratt-color, milde mouse-tints, temperate tea-caddy tones, +moderate mode—dyes, gentyll gray—shades, tranquill drabb—tinges, +temperate tawny, calm graye, sober ashie, pacifyed slate, mitigated dun, +lenientlie dingie, and blandlie cinereous chromattics, since shee hadd a +Quakir grandmother on the one syde, ande is too superblie proude on the +other, 'to make a pecocke of hirselfe,' as shee wyll telle you whann +thatt yee be spattered with the water whych is jetted from hose over ye +pavementes. Hee thatt woulde see manye of these swete beeings, shoulde +walke in Chestnutt strete whyles thatt shee goeth to shopp, or promenade +in Walnutt strete, on Sundaye. And if he can telle mee of a citie on +earthe where one can see more prettye, tiny feete, in neater shoos or +gaytered bootes, thann hee may then beholde, I wolde fayne knowe where +itt is, thatt I maye go there too.</p> + +<p>Muche loveth shee little tea-parties where onlie girles bee; and to have +ye gentylmen come, aske: 'Damsylle, wherefore walke ye nott in gayer +garmentes?' Soe thatt itt often comes to passe thatt whenn walkyng in ye +Broade Waye of New-Yorke, yee can tell a Philadelphienne by hir sober +yet rich garbe, so that ye Cosmopolite sayth: '<i>Per ma fe!</i> thatt is a +ladye, I know shee is, by the waye shee lookes.' And trulie, as Dan +Chaucer sayeth, shee is one:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Well seemed by her apparaile,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">She is not wont to great travaile,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And whan she kempt is fetously,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And well arraied and richely.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Then hath shee done all her journée,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Gentyll and faire indede is shee!'</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Ye Philadelphia younge ladye loveth to ryde of pleasaunte afternoones +out untoe Pointe Breeze, adown ye Necke, in ye Parke, or along ye +wynding Wissahickon. Peradventure shee goeth whyles with a beau who +speaketh unto hir of love, to whych shee listeneth wyth tendir grace, +and replyeth with art, untill thatt they have builded upp betwene them a +flirtacioun. From tyme to tyme hee makyth a punn, and shee cryeth, +'Shame!' but itt shames him never a whitt or jott—nay, hee goeth on and +maketh yett anothir—ofttimes untill ye horse takyth frighte and runneth +awaie. Yett for all this she liketh hym still, so grete is ye love of +woman and so enduring hir constancye.</p> + +<p>Att other tymes shee ridoth farr and wyde in ye hors-carrs, since in her +natyve towne shee can go manye miles for five cents, and two pence whenn +shee takes ye other carr. Specially doth shee do this on Saturday +forenoons, else weare her neat clothes all in ye evenyng. Then they +speke of the newes of ye daye, and praise General! Mac Lellan, and +gossipp of ye laste greate partie, where Dorsey dyd serve so well ye +terrapines and steamed oysters, and howe thatt itt is verament and trewe +thatt Miss Porridge is to live, after hir marriage, in a howse in Locust +strete, or peradventure in Spruce, or in Pyne, for in this towne all the +stretes are of woode, albeit ye houses are all of bricke.</p> + +<p>Ye Philadelphienne spekythe more slowlie in hir speeche than dothe ye +New-Yorkere, and ever callyth a calf a cäff, and a laugh a läff, which +soundeth far more sweetlie, even like the <i>lingua Toscana in bocca +Romana.</i> Shee loveth ye opera even as shee loveth ye ice-creme, whych +shee buyeth at Mrs. Burns's, or old Auntie Jackson's, where shee often +goeth of warm sumer-nightes. Shee is graceful in hir miene, and gracious +in hir manner—trulie, in all ye worlde I know of none sweeter in this +laste itemm. And thatt shee may ever keepe up hir pleasante fame for +beinge ladyly, gentyll, and fayre, is the herte's prayere of</p> + +<p class='author'><span class="smcap">Clerke Nicholas.</span></p> + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Galli Van T</span> is again active in setting forth the rural trials and +troubles of artists—which it seems are many. Listen!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Continental</span>: 'Twas in the merry summer-tide, some seven years +since, when I went with a friend catching trout and sketching scenery in +the valley of the Connecticut.</p> + +<p>We thought we knew the value of a lovely view.</p> + +<p>We didn't.</p> + +<p>True, we could appreciate it to a dollar, when transferred to canvas. +Otherwise we had much to learn.</p> + +<p>C. Pia, Esq., and myself were hard at it one morning—making such +beautiful sketches, and doing it all with nothing but just a +<a name="Page_123" id="Page_123"></a>lead-pencil and some paper—as a young admirer of our works was wont to +assure her friends. Suddenly appeared a man of great muscle, with pie +dish shirt-collar, and a canister-shot-eyed bull-terrier, gifted with +seven-tiger power of biting.</p> + +<p>'Stop that are!' was his courteous salutation.</p> + +<p>'Stop what?'</p> + +<p>'Stop making them are d—d picters. I don't have no such doings reound +here!'</p> + +<p>I looked at C. Pia—he was venomous and unterrified, and I felt +encouraged. So I firmly asked the intruder what he meant.</p> + +<p>'I mean what I say. There's property there that I'm a goin' to buy. I +know what you're arter. You're makin picters of the place for that are +in-fernal Kernal Smith who owns the land, so's he can show 'em round and +pint out the buildin' lots. And I'll jest lick you like —— if you dror +another line!'</p> + +<p>'See here, young man,' quoth I, 'I've something to say to you. In the +first place you're a scamp who would keep a gentleman from getting a +fair price for his own property. Secondly, you're an ignorant fellow and +don't know what you're talking about. I never heard of your Colonel +Smith—I'm not drawing up real estate lots or plots of any kind. +Thirdly, I solemnly swear by Minos, Alianthus, Rhododendron, +Nebuchadnezzar, and all the infernal gods, that if you touch a hair of +our heads I'll see Colonel Smith—I'll map the whole property and +advertise it in every newspaper in New-York and Boston till it brings +ten thousand dollars an acre. Now sail in—dog or no dog—we'll settle +<i>you</i>, any how.'</p> + +<p>The glare of fury in our visitor's eyes died away as he listened to this +oration.</p> + +<p>'<i>Thunder!</i>' he exclaimed; 'what a lot you city fellers with l'arnin' +into you <i>do</i> know! Ten thousand dollars an acre! Ad-ver-ti-sin'! What +an idee! I guess I'll buy the land on a morgidge right away. <i>Hee, hee, +hee</i>—it's a first-rate notion—and I <i>a-dopt</i> it. Mister, if you want a +drink o' cider, you can get it at that are red house you see down +yander. Good-mornin'!'</p> + +<p>And off he went.</p> + +<p>'You've made that fellow's fortune—when you ought to have caved his +head in,' remarked C. Pia as the two brutes disappeared.</p> + +<p>'It is the mission of the artist to benefit every body except himself,' +I rejoined. And refilling my pipe I went on with my 'picter.'</p> + +<p class='author'>Yours truly,<br /> <span class="smcap">Galli Van T.</span> </p> + +<p>Truly 'Art is—well—a—it's a great thing, and hath its many lights and +shadows,' as Phoenix or some body once ascertained. And we trust that +Galli Van T. will continue to depict the same in his peculiarly +affecting style.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Among the curiosities of literature which the war has brought forth, one +of the most piquant is a little pamphlet entitled, <i>Southern Hatred of +the American Government, the People of the North, and Free +Institutions</i>, recently published by R.F. Wallcut, of Number 221 +Washington street, Boston. It consists entirely of selections from the +columns of Southern newspapers—all of them rabid, and we may very truly +add, ridiculous; especially since the fortunes of war have made so much +of their Bobadil bluster appear like the veriest folly. Many of them are +old acquaintances—who, for instance, can have forgotten the following, +from the Richmond <i>Whig</i>?</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'This war will test the physical virtues of mere numbers. Southern +soldiers ask no better odds than one to three Western and one to +six of the Eastern Yankees. Some go so far as to say that, with +equal weapons, and on equal grounds, they would not hesitate to +encounter twenty times their number of the last.'</p></div> + +<p>As regards those who go so far, it may be remarked that by this time +they have illustrated Father O'Leary's remark of the people who, not +'belaving in Purgathory, wint further and fared worse.' But there is +more of this 'chivalric' spirit in the same article. For instance, it +doubts 'whether any society since that of Sodom and Gomorrah' [Paris is +entirely too mild an example] 'has been <i>more thoroughly</i> steeped in +<i>every</i> species of vice than that of the Yankees.' Infanticide is hinted +at as prevailing as extensively as in China. The Yankees 'pursue with +envy and malignity every excellence that shows itself among them +unconnected with money; and a gentleman there stands no more chance of +existence than a dog does in the Grotto del Cano!'</p> + +<p>The elegance and refinement of the <a name="Page_124" id="Page_124"></a>same editorial from the <i>Whig</i>, +appears from the following. A portion, which we omit, is too foully +indecent for republication:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>' ... The Yankee women, scraggy, scrawny, and hard as whip-cord, +breed like Norway rats, and they fill all the brothels of the +continent.... But they multiply—the only scriptural precept they +obey—and boast their millions. So do the Chinese; so do the +Apisdæ, and all other pests of the animal kingdom. Pull the bark +from a decayed log, and you will see a mass of maggots full of +vitality, in constant motion and eternal gyration, one crawling +over one, and another creeping under another, all precisely alike, +all intently engaged in preying upon one another, and you have an +apt illustration of Yankee numbers, Yankee equality, and Yankee +greatness.</p> + +<p>'We must bring these unfranchised slaves—the Yankees—back to +their true condition. They have long, very probably, looked upon +themselves as our social inferiors—as our serfs; their mean, +niggardly lives—their low, vulgar, and sordid occupations, have +ground this conviction into them. But of a sudden, they have come +to imagine that their numerical strength gives them power—<i>and +they have burst the bonds of servitude</i>, and are running riot with +more than the brutal passions of a liberated wild beast. Their +uprising has all the characteristics of a <i>ferocious, fertile +insurrection</i>.... They have suggested to us the invasion of their +territory, and the robbery of their banks and jewelry-stores. We +may profit by the suggestion, so far as the invasion goes—<i>for +that will enable us to restore them to their normal condition of +vassalage, and teach them that cap in hand is the proper attitude +of a servant before his master</i>.'</p></div> + +<p>These extracts are from the Richmond <i>Whig</i>—a paper beyond all +comparison the most respectable and moderate in the whole South, and by +no means of so little weight or character that its remarks can be passed +by as mere Southern vaunt and idle bluster signifying nothing. It speaks +the deep-seated belief and heartfelt conviction of even the most +intelligent secessionists—for the editor of the <i>Whig</i> is not only one +of these, but one of the most honest and upright men to be found in +Dixie.</p> + +<p>'But,' the reader may ask, 'if the man really <i>believes</i> that Yankees +are serfs, slaves, vassals of the South, where are his eyes, ears, and +common-sense?' Gently, dear reader. When we reflect on the toadying to +the South by Northern doughface Democrats in by-gone years—when we +recall the abominable and incredible servility with which every thing +Southern has been hymned, homaged and exalted—when we remember how +vulgar, arrogant, ignorant Southrons have been adored in doughface +society where gentlemen whom they were not worthy of waiting on were of +but secondary account—when we think of the shallow, pitiful meanness +which induces Northern men to rant in favor of that 'institution' which +they, at least, <i>know</i> is a curse to the whole country—when we see even +now, how, with a baseness and vileness beyond belief, 'democratic' +editors continue to lick the hands which smite them, we do <i>not</i> wonder +that the Southerner, taking the doughface for a type of the whole North, +characterizes all Yankees as serf-like, servile cap-in-hand crawlers and +beggars for patronage. For if we were all of the pro-slavery Democracy, +and especially of those who even now continue to yelp for Southern +rights and grinningly assure patriots that 'under the Constitution they +can do nothing to the South,' we should richly deserve all the scorn +heaped on us by the 'chivalry.'</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>We doubt not that, during this bitter war, many incidents have occurred, +or will occur, quite like that described in the following simple but +life-true ballad:<br /><br /></p> + +<h4>FRANK WILSON.</h4> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">'Twas night at the farm-house. The fallen sun</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Shot his last red arrow up in the west;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Shadows came wolfishly stealing forth,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">And chased the flush from the mountain's crest.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Night at the farm-house. The hickory fire</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Laughed and leaped in the chimney's hold,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">And baffled, with its warm mirth, the frost,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">As he pried at the panes with his fingers cold.</span><br /> +<br /><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125"></a> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">The chores were finished; and farmer West,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">As he slowly sipped from his foaming mug,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Toasted his feet in calm content,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">And rejoiced that the barns were warm and snug.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Washing the tea-things, with bared white arms,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">And softly humming a love refrain;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">With smooth brown braids, and cheeks of rose,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Washed and warbled his daughter Jane.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">She was the gift that his dear wife left,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">When she died, some nineteen Mays before;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">The light and the warmth of the old farm-home,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">And cherished by him to his great heart's core.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">A sweet, fair girl; yet 'twas not so much</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">The fashion of feature that made her so;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">'Twas love's own tenderness in her eyes,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">And on her cheeks love's sunrise glow.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Done were the tea-things; the rounded arms</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Again were covered, the wide hearth brushed;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Then from the mantle she took some work,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">'Twas a soldier's sock, and her song was hushed.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Her song was hushed; for tenderer thoughts</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Than ever were bodied in word or sound,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Trembled like stars in her downcast eyes,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">As she knit in the dark yarn round and round.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">A neighbor's rap at the outer door</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Was answered at once by a bluff 'Come in!'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">And he came, with stamping of heavy boots,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Frost-wreathed brow and muffled chin.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Come up to the fire! Pretty cold to-night.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">What news do you get from the village to-day?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Did you call for our papers? Ah! yes, much obliged.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">What news do you get from our Company K?'</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">'Bad news!—bad news!' He slowly unwinds</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">His muffler, and wipes his frost-fringed eyes.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">'Frank Wilson was out on the picket last night,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">And was killed by some cursed rebel spies.'</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">O God! give strength to that writhing heart!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Fling the life back to that whitening cheek!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Let not the pent breath forever stay</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">From the lips, too white and dumb to speak!</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">'Frank Wilson killed? ah! too bad—too bad,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">The finest young man, by far, in this town;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Such are the offerings we give to war,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Jane, draw a fresh mug for our neighbor Brown.'</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Neither did notice her faltering step;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Neither gave heed to her quivering hand,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">That awkwardly fumbled the cellar-door,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">And spilled the cider upon the stand.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">But the father dreamed, as he slept that night,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">That his darling had met some fearful woe;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">And he dreamed of hearing her stifled moans,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">And her slow steps pacing to and fro.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 13em;"><b>II</b>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">'Twas an April day, in the balmy spring,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">The farmhouse fires had gone to sleep,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">The windows were open to sun and breeze,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">The hills were dotted with snowy sheep.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">The great elms rustled their new-lifed leaves</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Softly over the old brown roof,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">And the sunshine, red with savory smoke,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Fell graciously through their emerald woof.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Sounds—spring sounds—which the country yields:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Voices of laborers, lowing of herds,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">The caw of the crow, the swollen brook's roar,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">The sportsman's gun, and the twitter of birds,</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Melted like dim dreams into the air;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">'Twas the azure shadow of summer,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Which fell so sweetly on plain and wood,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">And brought new gladness to eye and ear.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">But a face looks out to the purple hills,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">A wasted face that is full of woe,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Wan yet calm, like a summer moon</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">That has lost the round of its fullest glow.</span><br /> +<br /><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126"></a> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">The smooth brown braids still wreathe her head;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Her simple garments are full of grace,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">As if, with color and taste, she fain</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Would ward off eyes from her paling face.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">'Tis a morning hour, but the work is done;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">The house so peacefully bright within,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">And the wild-wood leaves on the mantel-shelf</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Tell how busy her feet have been.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">She sits by the window and watches a cloud</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Fading away in the hazy sky;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">And 'Like that cloud,' she says in heart,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">'When summer is over, I too shall die.'</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">The door-yard gate swings to with a clang,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">She must not sadden her father so;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">She springs to her feet with a merrier air,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">And pinches her face to make it glow.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">But ah! no need; for a ruddier red</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Than pinches can bring floods brow and cheek;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">She stands transfixed by a mighty joy;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">For millions of worlds she can not speak.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Frank Wilson gathers her close to his heart,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">With brightening glance, he reads that glow,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">And draws from the wells of her joy-lit eyes</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">The secret he long has yearned to know.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">'Frank Wilson! living and strong and well;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Were you not killed by the rebels? say!'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">'Thank God! I was not. 'Twas another man—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">There were two Frank Wilsons in Company K.'</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">The one church-bell in the distant town</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Chimes softly forth for twelve o'clock;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Another clang of the door-yard gate,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">A sudden hush in the tender talk.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">She flies to meet him—the transformed child!—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Her heart keeps time to her ringing tread;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">'O father! he's come!' and she needs no more</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">To pinch her cheeks to make them red.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Marie Mignonette</span>.</p> + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A friend who doth such things has kindly jotted down for us the +following 'authentics':</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Sometimes I have thought that the reply our Irish girl gave the +other day, was of the nature of her usual blunders, and again that +it meant a good deal. On her return from a funeral, where a man, +who had previously lost his wife, had buried his only child, an +infant a few weeks old, I asked her how the father appeared?</p> + +<p>'Oh! he was a dale sorry; but I guess <i>he's glad to get rid of +it!'</i></p> + +<p><i>It was only a</i> <span class="smcap">way</span> <i>he had.</i>—Whiggles, on being told that a boy +down-town, only sixteen years old, weighed six hundred and fifty +pounds, was further enlightened by the information that he weighed +that amount of coal on a platform Fairbanks.</p></div> +<p> </p> +<p>The Southern press has proposed that, even in case of defeat, the +wealthy class shall retire to their plantations, 'live comfortably' on +what they can raise, let cotton go for two years, and thereby starve +Europe and the North into a conviction that Cotton is King.</p> + +<p>But how will the poor whites of the South like this? What is to become +of <i>them</i>? Or what, indeed, is to become of us, if no cotton be +forthcoming? The truth is, and every day makes it more apparent, <i>the +raising of cotton must pass into other hands</i>. The <i>army</i> has its +rights—the right to land-grants—and the <i>only</i> effectual means of +putting an end to our dependence on the South will be found in settling +soldiers in the cotton country. Texas would be, perhaps, best suited for +the purpose, and other regions may be selected as opportunity may +suggest. With this course fully determined on, it would hardly be +necessary to further agitate Emancipation, it would come of itself, and +slave-labor would yield to the energy of the free Northern farmer.</p> + +<p>Very little has been said as yet on this subject of properly rewarding +our troops. But it is destined to rise into becoming the great question +of the day; and if the Democratic pro-slavery party sets itself in +opposition to it, it will be ground to powder. Events are tending to +this issue with irresistible and tremendous power, and the days of +planterdom are numbered.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> + + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> This anecdote has frequently gone the rounds in an +abbreviated form. It may interest the reader to see it in authentic +detail.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> Richmond <i>Examiner.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"> +<span class="label">[C]</span></a> To which we add, 'An Account of the Proceedings preliminary +to the Organization of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with a +List of the Members thus far associated, and an Appendix, containing +Petitions and Resolutions in aid of the objects of the Committee of +Associated Institutions of Science and Art. Boston, 1861.' Also the +Objects and Courses of Instruction in the Lawrence Scientific School. In +the 'Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Harvard University, for +the Academical Year 1860-1861.' The Editor will hold himself greatly +indebted to any one who will kindly forward him catalogues or +prospectuses relative to any scientific schools or institutes whatever, +either in this country or Europe.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> EDUCATIONAL CONDITION—CENSUS 1850. +</p> +</div> +<p> </p> +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="Educational Census"> + +<tr><td align='left'>Maine,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>1 in</td><td align='right'>3-1/3</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>New-Hampshire,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>3-1/2</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Vermont,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>3-1/3</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Michigan,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>3-1/3</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Ohio,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>3-3/4</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>New-York,</td><td align='left'>native-born,</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>3-3/4</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>aggregate</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>4-1/2</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Massachusetts,</td><td align='left'>native-born</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>3-1/4</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Aggregate,</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>4-1/2</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Rhode-Island,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>4-1/2</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Connecticut,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>4-1/2</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Indiana,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>4-1/2</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Illinois,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>4-1/2</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Iowa,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>5-1/2</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Florida,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>10</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Louisiana,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>8</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Texas,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>8</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Virginia,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>8</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Alabama,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>7</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Arkansas,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>7</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Georgia,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>7</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Maryland,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>7</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>South-Carolina,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>7</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Mississippi,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>6-1/2</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Kentucky,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>6</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Missouri,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>6</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>New-Jersey,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>5-1/2</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>North-Carolina</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>5-1/2</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Wisconsin,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>5-1/2</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Tennessee,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>5</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Delaware,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>5</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>EUROPEAN</td><td align='left'>STATES.</td><td align='left'></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Denmark,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>1 in</td><td align='right'>4-1/2</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Sweden,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>5-1/2</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Saxony,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>6</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Prussia,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>6-1/4</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Norway,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>7</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Great Britain,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>8-1/2</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>actually reciving instruction,</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>7</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Ireland,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>14</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Belgium,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>8-1/2</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>France,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>10-1/2</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Austria</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>13-3/4</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Holland,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>14-3/4</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Greece,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>18</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Russia,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>50</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Portugal,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>81</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Spain,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Not known.</td><td align='left'></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>FREE</td><td align='left'>COLORED POPULATION</td><td align='center'>——</td><td align='left'>UNITED STATES.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Maine,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>1 in</td><td align='right'> 5</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Rhode-Island,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>6-1/2</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Massachusetts,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>6-1/4</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>New-Hampshire,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>7</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Vermont,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>8</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Connecticut,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>6</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>Pennsylvania,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>8</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'>New-York,</td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>9</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p> +It may be seen, by the foregoing table, that a thorough system of +education for the masses requires that one third of the aggregate +population should be kept at school for a goodly portion of the year. +This is essential, under Democratic Government, in order to bring each +generation up to the appreciative point.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_E_5" id="Footnote_E_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_E_5"> +<span class="label">[E]</span></a> The free colored population of Charleston in 1860, did not +vary materially from four thousand. The associated value of their +property would give to each $390. Each family or six persons would +possess, according to this estimate, $2840. This would be a full average +of wealth to the free population of the United States—the amount +varying in the different States from $2200 to $2500 to each family of +six persons.</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> + +<h3><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127"></a>DESTINED TO BE THE BOOK OF THE SEASON</h3> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p class='center'>As published in the pages of THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY, it has been +pronounced by the Press to be</p> + +<h4>"SUPERIOR TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN."</h4> + +<h4>"FULL OF ABSORBING INTEREST."</h4> + +<p class='center'>"Whether invented or not, True, because true to Life."—HORACE GREELEY.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h3>WILL SHORTLY BE PUBLISHED,</h3> + +<p class="center"><b>In a handsome 12mo vol. of 330 pages, cloth, $1,</b></p> + +<h4>AMONG THE PINES,</h4> + +<h4>BY EDMUND KIRKE.</h4> + +<div class="figleft" style="margin-top:-0.2em;"><img src="images/pointingfinger.jpg" alt="pointing finger" title="pointing finger" /></div> +<p>Read the following Notices from the Press;<br /><br /></p> + +<p>"It contains the most vivid and lifelike representation of a specimen +family of poor South-Carolina whites we have ever read."—E.P. WHIPPLE, +in the <i>Boston Transcript</i>.</p> + +<p>"It is full of absorbing interest."—<i>Whig</i>, Quincy, III.</p> + +<p>"It gives some curious ideas of Southern Social Life."—<i>Post</i>, Boston.</p> + +<p>"The most lifelike delineations of Southern Life ever written."—<i>Spy</i>, +Columbia, Pa.</p> + +<p>"One of the most attractive series of papers ever published, and +embodying only facts"—C.C. HAZEWELL, in the <i>Traveller</i>, Boston.</p> + +<p>"A very graphic picture of life among the clay-eaters and +turpentine-makers."—<i>Lorain News</i>, Oberlle, Ohio.</p> + +<p>"The author wields a ready and graphic pen."—<i>Times</i>, Armenia, N.Y.</p> + +<p>"There are passages in it of the most thrilling dramatic +power."—<i>Journal</i>, Roxbury, Mass.</p> + +<p>It is the best and most truthful sketch of Southern Life and Character +we have ever read."—R. SURLTON MACKENZIE, in the <i>Press</i>, Philadelphia.</p> + +<p>"Has a peculiar interest just now, and deserves a wide +reading."—<i>Dispatch,</i> Amsterdam, N.Y.</p> + +<p>"An intensely vivid description of things as they occur on a Southern +Plantation."—<i>Union</i>, Lancaster, Pa.</p> + +<p>"The author is one of the finest descriptive writers in the +country."—<i>Journal</i>, Boston, Mass.</p> + +<p>"It presents a vivid picture of Plantation Life, with something of the +action of a character that is more than likely to pass from t story into +history before the cause of the Rebellion is rooted out."—<i>Gazette</i>. +Taunton, Mass.</p> + +<p>"A most powerful production, which can not be read without exciting +great and continued interest"—<i>Palladium</i>, New Haven.</p> + +<p class="center">PUBLISHED BY</p> + +<p class="center">J. R. GILMORE,</p> + +<p class="center">532 BROADWAY, NEW-YORK,</p> + +<p class="author">And 110 TREMONT STREET, BOSTON</p> + +<p class="center">C.T. EVANS, General Agent</p> + +<p class="center"> Orders from the Trade will be filled in the order in +which they are received.</p> + +<p class="center"><b>Single Copies sent, postpaid, by mail, on receipt of $1.</b></p> + + + +<p><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128"></a></p> +<h5>THE</h5> + +<h3>CONTINENTAL MONTHLY.</h3> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h4>PUBLISHER'S NOTICE.</h4> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY has passed its experimental ordeal, and stands +firmly established in popular regard. It was started at a period when +any new literary enterprise was deemed almost foolhardy, but the +publisher believed that the time had arrived for just such a Magazine. +Fearlessly advocating the doctrine of ultimate and gradual Emancipation, +for the sake of the UNION and the WHITE MAN, it has found favor in +quarters where censure was expected, and patronage where opposition only +was looked for. While holding firmly to <i>its own opinions</i>, it has +opened its pages to POLITICAL WRITERS of <i>widely different views</i>, and +has made a feature of employing the literary labors of the <i>younger</i> +race of American writers. How much has been gained by thus giving, +practically, the fullest freedom to the expression of opinion, and by +the infusion of fresh blood into literature, has been felt from month to +month in its constantly increasing circulation.</p> + +<p>The most eminent of our Statesmen have furnished THE CONTINENTAL many of +its political articles, and the result is, it has not given labored +essays fit only for a place in ponderous encyclopedias, but fresh, +vigorous, and practical contributions on men and things as they exist.</p> + +<p>It will be our effort to go on in the path we have entered, and as a +guarantee of the future, we may point to the array of live and brilliant +talent which has brought so many encomiums on our Magazine. The able +political articles which have given it so much reputation will be +continued in each issue, and in this number is commenced a new Serial by +Richard R. Kimball, the eminent author of the 'Under-Currents of Wall +Street,' 'St. Leger,' etc., entitled,</p> + + +<h4>WAS HE SUCCESSFUL?</h4> + +<p>An account of the Life and Conduct of Hiram Meeker, one of the leading +men in the mercantile community, and 'a bright and shining light' in the +Church, recounting what he did, and how he made his money. This work +which will excel the previous brilliant productions of this author.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The UNION—The Union of ALL THE STATES—that indicates our +politics. To be content with no ground lower than the highest—that +is the standard of our literary character.</p></div> + +<p>We hope all who are friendly to the spread of our political views, and +all who are favorable to the diffusion of a live, fresh, and energetic +literature, will lend us their aid to increase our circulation. There is +not one of our readers who may not influence one or two more, and there +is in every town in the loyal States some native person whose time might +be profitably employed in procuring subscribers to our work. To +encourage such to act for us we offer the following very liberal</p> + +<h4>TERMS TO CLUBS.</h4> +<p> +Two copies for one year,.......................................Five dollars.<br /> +Three copies for one year,....................................Six dollars.<br /> +Six copies for one year,.........................................Eleven dollars.<br /> +Eleven copies for one year,..................................Twenty dollars.<br /> +Twenty copies for one year,.................................Thirty-six dollars.<br /> +</p> +<p class="center">PAID IN ADVANCE<br /> + +<i>Postage, Thirty-six Cents a year</i>, TO BE PAID BY THE SUBSCRIBER.</p> + +<p class="center">SINGLE COPIES.<br /> + +Three Dollars a year, IN ADVANCE.—<i>Postage paid by the Publisher</i>. +</p> + +<h4 class="author"> +J.R. GILMORE, 532 Broadway, New-York,<br /> +and 110 Tremont Street, Boston.</h4> + +<h4>CHARLES T. EVANS, 532 Broadway, New-York,</h4> +<p class="author"><i>GENERAL AGENT.</i></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<div class="center"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129"></a> +<img src="images/137.png" width="640" alt="title page" /> +</div> + +<p><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130"></a></p> + +<h3>CONTENTS.—No. VIII.</h3> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents No. VIII."> +<tr><td align='left'>Among the Pines. (Concluded,)</td><td align='left'>127</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Southern Rights,</td><td align='left'>143</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Maccaroni and Canvas,</td><td align='left'>144</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Glances from the Senate-Gallery,</td><td align='left'>154</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Last Ditch,</td><td align='left'>159</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Rewarding the Army,</td><td align='left'>161</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>John McDonogh, the Millionaire,</td><td align='left'>165</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Helter-Skelter Papers,</td><td align='left'>175</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sketches of the Orient,</td><td align='left'>179</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Witches, Elves, and Goblins,</td><td align='left'>184</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>A True Romance,</td><td align='left'>190</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Huguenots of New-York City,</td><td align='left'>193</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Bane of our Country,</td><td align='left'>198</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Molly O'Molly Papers,</td><td align='left'>200</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Wounded,</td><td align='left'>206</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Astor and the Capitalists of New-York,</td><td align='left'>207</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Thunder all Round,</td><td align='left'>217</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Was he Successful?</td><td align='left'>218</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>A Merchant's Story,</td><td align='left'>232</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Corn is King,</td><td align='left'>237</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Literary Notices,</td><td align='left'>238</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Editor's Table,</td><td align='left'>241</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h4>A MERCHANT'S STORY,</h4> + +<p>By the author of 'Among the Pines,' which is begun in this number, will +be continued in each issue of THE CONTINENTAL until it is completed. It +will depict Southern White Society, and be a truthful history of some +eminent Northern Merchants, who are largely in 'the cotton trade and +sugar line.'</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by JAMES H. +GILMORE, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United +States for the Southern District of New-York.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p class="center">JOHN A. GRAY, PRINTER.</p> + + + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Continental Monthly, Vol. II. July, +1862. No. 1., by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONTINENTAL MONTHLY *** + +***** This file should be named 16272-h.htm or 16272-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/2/7/16272/ + +Produced by Cornell University, Joshua Hutchinson, Janet +Blenkinship and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/16272-h/images/007.png b/16272-h/images/007.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a5edda7 --- /dev/null +++ b/16272-h/images/007.png diff --git a/16272-h/images/137.png b/16272-h/images/137.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3a90aea --- /dev/null +++ b/16272-h/images/137.png diff --git a/16272-h/images/pointingfinger.jpg b/16272-h/images/pointingfinger.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..916e34f --- /dev/null +++ b/16272-h/images/pointingfinger.jpg diff --git a/16272.txt b/16272.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bb6f6d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/16272.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9730 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Continental Monthly, Vol. II. July, 1862. +No. 1., by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Continental Monthly, Vol. II. July, 1862. No. 1. + +Author: Various + +Release Date: July 12, 2005 [EBook #16272] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONTINENTAL MONTHLY *** + + + + +Produced by Cornell University, Joshua Hutchinson, Janet +Blenkinship and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +Production Note + +Cornell University Library produced this volume to preserve the +informational content of the deteriorated original. The best available +copy of the original has been used to create this digital copy. It was +scanned bitonally at 600 dots per inch resolution and compressed prior +to storage using ITU Group 4 compression. Conversion of this material to +digital files was supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Digital +file copyright by Cornell University Library 1995. + +This volume has been scanned as part of The Making of America Project, a +cooperative endeavor undertaken to preserve and enhance access to +historical material from the nineteenth century. + + + + +CORNELL + +UNIVERSITY + +LIBRARY + + +FROM + +Charles William Wason + + + + +THE + +CONTINENTAL MONTHLY. + + +DEVOTED TO + +Literature and National Policy. + +VOL. II. + +JULY-DECEMBER, 1862. + + +New York: JOHN F. TROW, 50 GREENE STREET. (FOR THE PROPRIETORS). + +1862. + +Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by + +JOHN F. TROW, + +For the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for +the Southern District of New York. + +JOHN F. TROW, + +Printer, Stereotyper and Electrotyper, 48 & 50 Greene Street, New York. + +ENTERED, according to an Act of Congress, in the year 1882 by JAMES B. +GILMORE, in the Clerk of the Office of the District Court of the United +States for the Southern District of New-York. + +JOHN A. GRAY PRINTER + + + + +The Continental Monthly: + +Devoted to Literature and National Policy. + + + +CONTENTS.----No. VII + +What shall be the end? 1 +Bone Ornaments, 5 +The Molly O'Molly Papers. No. V., 6 +Glances from the Senate-Gallery, 10 +Maccaroni and Canvas. No. V., 14 +For the Hour of Triumph, 26 +In Transitu, 27 +Among the Pines, 28 +Was He Successful? 48 +Newbern as it was and is, 58 +Our Brave Times, 62 +The Crisis and the Parties, 65 +I Wait, 69 +Taking the Census, 70 +The Peloponnesus in March, 74 +Adonium, 82 +Polytechnic Institutes, 83 +Slavery and Nobility vs. Democracy, 89 +Watching the Stag, 105 +Literary Notices, 106 +Editor's Table, 109 + + +SLAVERY AND NOBILITY vs. DEMOCRACY. + +This article, written by a gentleman who, for fifteen years, was one of +the most prominent citizens of Texas, will be found worthy of most +attentive perusal. + + +WATCHING THE STAG + +An unfinished Poem by FITZ-JAMES O'BRIEN, we give as it came wet from +the pen of its lamented author. + + + + +INDEX TO VOLUME II. + + PAGE +Among the Pines. Edmund Kirke, 28, 127 +An Englishman in South Carolina, 689 +Adorium, 82 +A True Romance. Isabella McFarlane, 190 +A Physician's Story, 667 +Astor and the Capitalists of New York. W. Frothingham, 207 +A Merchant's Story. Edmund Kirke, 232, 328, 451, 560, 719 +American Student Life, 266 +Author Borrowing, 285 +Anthony Trollope on America, 302 +A Military Nation. Charles G. Leland, 453 +A Southern Review. Charles G. Leland, 466 +Aurora. Hon. Horace Greeley, 622 + +Bone Ornaments. Charles G. Leland, 5 + +Cambridge and its Colleges, 662 +Corn is King, 237 + +Editor's Table, 109, 241, 369, 481, 638, 750 +Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-Two, U.S. Johnson, 442 + +For the Hour of Triumph, 26 +Flower Arranging, 444 + +Glances from the Senate Gallery. G.W. Towle, 10, 154 +Gold. Hon. E.J. Walker, 743 + +Helter-Skelter Papers, 175 +Hopeful Tackett. Richard Wolcott, 262 +Huguenots of New York City. Hon. G.P. Disosway, 193 +Henry Thomas Buckle, 253 + +In Transitu, 27 +I Wait, 69 + +John McDonogh. Alexander Walker, 165 +John Bull to Jonathan, 265 +John Neil, 295 + +La Vie Poetique, 679 +Literary Notices, 106, 238, 866, 478, 636, 747 +London Fogs and London Poor, 404 + +Maccaroni and Canvas. Henry P. Leland, 14, 144, 290, 383, 591 + +Newbern as it Was and Is. F. Kidder, 58 +National Unity. Hon. Horace Greeley, 357 + +On Guard. John G. Nicolay, 706 +Our Brave Times, 62 +Our Wounded. C.K. Tuckerman, 465 +One of the Million. Caroline Chesebro', 541 + +Polytechnic Institutes. Charles G. Leland, 83 + +Railway Photographs. Isabella McFarlane, 708 +Rewarding the Army. Charles G. Leland, 161 +Reminiscences of Andrew Jackson, 318 +Red, Yellow, and Blue, 535 + +Slavery and Nobility _vs._ Democracy. Lorenzo Sherwood, 89 +Southern Rights, 143 +Sketches of the Orient. Hon. J.P. Brown, 179 +Shakspeare's Richard III. Rev. E.G. Holland, 320 +Shoulder Straps. Henry Morford, 342 +Sir John Suckling, 397 +Southern Hate of the North. Horace Greeley, 448 +Something we have to Think of, and to Do. C.S. Henry, LL.D., 657 +Stewart, and the Dry Goods Trade of New York. W. Frothingham, 528 + +Thank God for All. Charles G. Leland, 718 + +The Molly O'Molly Papers, 6, 200, 257 +The Crisis and the Parties. C.G. Leland, 65 +Taking the Census, 70 +The Ash Tree. Charles G. Leland, 682 +The Obstacles to Peace. A Letter to an Englishman. +Hon. Horace Greeley, 714 +The Freed Men of the South. Hon. F.P. Stanton, 730 +The Peloponnesus in March, 74 +The Last Ditch. Charles G. Leland, 159 +The Bone of our Country, 198 +The Soldier and the Civilian. C.G. Leland, 281 +The Negro in the Revolution, 324 +The Children in the Wood. Henry Morford, 354 +The Constitution as It Is. C.S. Henry, LL.D., 377 +Tom Winter's Story. G.W. Chapman, 416 +The White Hills in October. C.M. Sedgwick, 423 +The Union. Hon. E.J. Walker, 457, 572, 641 +The Causes of the Rebellion. Hon. F.P. Stanton, 513, 695 +The Wolf Hunt. Charles G. Leland, 580 +The Poetry of Nature, 581 +The Proclamation, 603 +The Press in the United States. Hon. F.L. Stanton, 604 +The Homestead Bill. Hon. R.J. Walker, 627 + +Up and Act. Charles G. Leland, 314 +Unheeded Growth. John Neil, 534 + +What shall be the End? Hon. J.W. Edmonds, 1 +Was He Successful? 48, 218, 360, 470, 610, 734 +Watching the Stag. Fitz-James O'Brien, 105 +Witches, Elves and Goblins, 184 +Wounded. Henry P. Leland, 206 +Word-Murder, 524 + + + +Vol. II.--July, 1862.--No. 1. + + + +WHAT SHALL BE THE END? + + +If we look to the development of slavery the past thirty years, we shall +see that the ideas of Calhoun respecting State Sovereignty have had a +mighty influence in gradually preparing the slave States for the course +which they have taken. Slavery, in its political power, has steadily +become more aggressive in its demands. A morbid jealousy of Northern +enterprise and thrift, with the contrast more vivid from year to year, +of the immeasurable superiority of free labor, has brought about a +growing aversion, in the South, to the free States, until with every +opportunity presented for pro-slavery extension, there has resulted the +present organized combination of slave States that have seceded from the +Union. When the mind goes back to the early formation of our Government +and the adoption of the Constitution, it will be found that an entire +revolution of opinion and feeling has taken place upon the subject of +slavery. From being regarded, as formerly, an evil by the South, it is +now proclaimed a blessing; from being viewed as opposed to the whole +spirit and teachings of the Bible, it is now thought to be of divine +sanction; from being regarded as opposed to political liberty, and the +elevation of the masses, the popular doctrine now is, that slavery is +the corner-stone of republican institutions, and essential for a manly +development of character upon the part of the white population. Formerly +slavery was looked upon as peculiarly pernicious to the diffusion of +wealth and the progress of national greatness; now the South is +intoxicated with ideas of the profitableness of slave labor, and the +power of King Cotton in controlling the exchanges of the world. And the +same change has taken place in relation to the African slave-trade. +While the laws of the land brand as piracy the capture of negroes upon +their native soil, and the transportation of them over the ocean, it is +nevertheless true that a mighty change in Southern opinion has taken +place in respect to the character of this business. It is not looked +upon with the same horror as formerly. It is apologized for, and in some +places openly defended as a measure indispensable to the prosperity of +the cotton States. As a natural inference from the theory of those who +hold to the views of Calhoun upon State sovereignty, the doctrine of +coercion in any form by the Federal Union is denounced, and to attempt +to put it in practice even so far as the protection of national property +is concerned, is construed into a war upon the South. Thus, while it is +perfectly proper for the slave States to steal, and plunder the nation +of its property, to leave the Union at their pleasure, and to do every +thing in their power to destroy the unity of the National Government, it +is made out that to attempt to recover the property of the Federal Union +is unjustifiable aggression upon the slave States. Thus we see eleven +States in a confederate capacity openly making war upon the Federal +Government, and compelling it either into a disgraceful surrender of its +rights as guaranteed by the Constitution, or war for self-defense. Fort +Sumter was not allowed to be provisioned, nor was there any disposition +manifested to permit its possession in any manner honorable to the +Government, although its exclusive property. It must be surrendered +unconditionally, or be attacked. + +The worst feature connected with the secession movement is the hot haste +with which the most important questions connected with the interests of +the people are hurried through. The ordinance of secession is not fairly +submitted to the people, but a mere oligarchy of desperate men +themselves assume to declare war, and exercise all the prerogatives of +an independent and sovereign government. And yet the terms submitted in +the Crittenden Resolutions as a peace-offering to the seceding States to +win them back by concessions from the North, present a spectacle quite +as mournful for the cause of national unity and dignity as the open +rebellion of the seceding States. The professed aim of these States is +either a reconstruction of the Constitution in a way that shall +nationalize slavery and give it supreme control, or a forcible +disruption of the Union. What are the terms proposed that alone appear +to satisfy the South? They may be briefly comprehended in a short +extract from a speech delivered by Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, +February 21, 1861: + + 'But the Senator from Kentucky asks us of the North by irrepealable + constitutional amendments to recognize and protect slavery in the + Territories now existing, or hereafter acquired south of thirty-six + degrees, thirty minutes; to deny power to the Federal Government to + abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, in the forts, + arsenals, navy-yards, and places under the exclusive jurisdiction + of Congress; to deny the National Government all power to hinder + the transit of slaves through one State to another; to take from + persons of the African race the elective franchise, and to purchase + territory in South-America, or Africa, and send there, at the + expense of the Treasury of the United States, such free negroes as + the States may desire removed from their limits. And what does the + Senator propose to concede to us of the North? The prohibition of + slavery in Territories north of thirty-six degrees and thirty + minutes, where no one asks for its inhibition, where it has been + made impossible by the victory of Freedom in Kansas, and the + equalization of the fees of the slave Commissioners.' + +Here we have the true position in which the free States are placed +toward the slaveholding States. Seven States openly throw off all +allegiance to the Federal Union, do not even profess to be willing to +come back upon any terms, and then such conditions are proposed by the +other slaveholding States as leads to the repudiation of the +Constitution in its whole spirit and import upon the subject of slavery. +The alternative, in reality, is either civil war or the surrender of the +Constitution into the hands of pro-slavery men to be molded just as it +may suit their convenience. The price they ask for peace is simply the +liberty to have their own way, and that the majority should be willing +to submit to the minority. They aim for a reconstruction of the Union +that shall incorporate the Dred Scott decision into the whole policy of +the Government and make slavery the supreme power of the country, and +all other interests subservient to it. The North has its choice of two +evils--unconditional and unqualified submission to the demands of +slavery, or civil war. It is expected, since the country has yielded +step by step to the exactions of slavery ever since the Government was +instituted, that the free States will keep on yielding until the South +has nothing more to ask for, and the North has nothing more to give. +With such a servile compliance, the free States are assured that they +will have no difficulty in keeping the peace. But the question to be +decided is: Is such a kind of peace worth the price demanded for it? May +it not be true that great as is the evil of civil war, it is less an +evil than an unresisting acquiescence to the exactions of slavery, and +the admission that any State that pleases can leave the Union? The +theory of secession involves, if admitted, a greater disaster to the +Federal Union than even the slow eating at its vitals of the cancer of +slavery. National unity, one country, the sovereignty of the +Constitution, are all sacrificed by secession. It involves in it either +the worst anarchy or the worst despotism. United, the States can stand, +and command the respect of the world, but secession is an enemy to the +country, the most cruel. Rev. Dr. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, most +forcibly says: + + 'Every man who has any remaining loyalty to the nation, or any hope + and desire for the restoration of the seceding States to the + Confederacy, must see that what is meant by the outcry against + coercion is in the interest, of secession, and that what is meant + is, in effect, that the Federal Government must be terrified or + seduced into complete cooeperation with the revolution which it was + its most binding duty to have used all its power and influence to + prevent.' + +Jefferson Davis, in his late message, says: 'Let us alone, let us go, +and the sword drops from our hands.' But what does this involve? The +admission of the right of secession, which, as has been proved, is fatal +to all national unity and preservation. Even if this arrogant demand was +complied with, would peace be thus possible? Would not the breaking up +of the Union involve the people in calamities that no patience, or +wisdom upon the part of the North could avert? Remember a long border in +an open country, stretching from the Atlantic, possibly even to the +Pacific, is to be defended. Will the bordering people sink down from +war, and all its exasperations, and become as peaceful as lambs? +Constituted as human nature now is, will the dissolution of the Union +create with the great North and South the experience of millennium +prediction, 'The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall +lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and fatling +together; and a little child shall lead them'? Here is a line crossed by +great rivers; we are to shut up the mouth of the Chesapeake bay, on Ohio +and Western Virginia; we are to ask the Western States to give up the +mouth of the Mississippi to a foreign power. Is it reasonable to suppose +that no provocation will occur on this long frontier? Will no slaves run +away? What is to be gained by a dissolution of the Union? Not peace; for +if, when united, there exists such cause of dissension, the evil will be +tenfold greater when separated. Not national aggrandizement, for +division brings weakness, imbecility, and a loss of self-respect; it +invites aggressions from foreign powers, and compels to submission to +insults that otherwise would not be given. Not general competence, for +the South is quite as dependent upon the North as the North upon the +South. + +Disunion is a violent disruption of great material interests that now +are wedded together. The dream of separate State sovereignty, our great +Union split into two or more confederacies, prosperous and peaceable, is +Utopian. So far from the secession doctrine carried out leading to peace +and prosperity, it can only lead to perpetual war and adversity. The +request to be 'let alone,' is simply a request that the nation should +consent to see the Constitution and Union overthrown, slavery +triumphant, and the great problem that a free people can not choose its +own rulers against the will of a minority prove a disgraceful failure. +It is a request that a nation should purchase a temporary peace at the +price of all that is dear to its liberty and self-respect. The arrogance +of the demand '_to be let alone_,' is only equaled by the iniquity of +the means resorted to, to break up the best Government under the sun. +The question of disunion, of separate State sovereignty, was fully +discussed by our fathers. Thus Hamilton, whose foresight history has +proved to be prophetic, says: + + 'If these States should be either wholly disunited, or only united + in partial Confederacies, a man must be far gone in Utopian + speculations, who can seriously doubt that the subdivisions into + which they might be thrown would have frequent and violent contests + with each other. To presume a want of motives for such contests, as + an argument against their existence, would be to forget that men + are ambitious, vindictive, and rapacious. To look for a + continuation of harmony between a number of independent, + unconnected sovereignties, situated in the same neighborhood, would + be to disregard the uniform course of human events, and to set at + defiance the accumulated experience of ages.' + +From a consideration of the true import of the Constitution, in relation +to slavery and the fallacy and wickedness of the doctrine of Secession, +we are now prepared to deduce, from what has been said, the following +reflections: First, the war in which the nation is now plunged should +have strictly for its great end, the restoration of the Constitution and +the Union to its original integrity; all side issues, all mere party +questions should be now merged in one mighty effort, one persevering and +self-sacrificing aim to maintain the Constitution and the Union. As +essential for this purpose, it is indispensable that all the rights +guaranteed to loyal citizens in the slave States should be respected. +The reason is two-fold. First, this war, upon the part of the North, is +for the maintenance of the Constitution as our fathers gave it to us. +Its object is not a crusade against slavery. What may be the results of +the war in relation to slavery is one thing; what should be the simple +purpose of the North is another. That this war, however it may turn, +will be disastrous to slavery, is evident from a great variety of +considerations. But that we should pretend to fight for the Constitution +and the Union, and yet against its express provisions, in respect to +those held in bondage by loyal citizens, is simply to act a part +subversive of the true intent of the Constitution. To violate its +provisions, in relation to loyal citizens South, is in the highest +degree impolitic and suicidal. It is the constant aim of the enemies now +in armed rebellion against the Union, to misrepresent the North upon +this very point. By systematic lying, they have induced thousands South +to believe that the election of Lincoln was designed as an act of war +upon slave institutions, and to subvert the Constitution that protects +them in all that they call their property. + +There is nothing that the rebels South are more anxious to see than the +Government adopting a policy that will give them a plausible pretense +for continuing in rebellion. The Constitution places the local +institution of slavery under the exclusive control of those States where +it exists. Its language, faithfully interpreted, is simply this: Your +own domestic affairs you have a right to manage as you please, so long +as you do not trespass upon the Union, or seek its ruin. All loyal +citizens should be encouraged to stand by the Union in every Southern +State, with the unequivocal declaration that all their rights will be +respected, and that their true safety, even as noblest interests, must +lie in upholding the North in the effort made to put down the vilest +rebellion under the sun. My second reflection is, that those South, who +are in armed rebellion against the Constitution and the Union, must make +up their minds to take what the fortune of war gives them. This +rebellion should be bandied without gloves. The North should permit +nothing to stand in the way of a complete and permanent triumph. As +Northern property is all confiscated South; as Union men there are +treated with the utmost barbarity; as nothing held by the lovers of the +Union is respected, the greatest injury in the end to the Constitution +and the Union is, an unwise clemency to armed rebellion. In this +death-struggle to test the vital question, whether the majority shall +rule, let there be no holding back of money or men. Dear as war may be, +a dishonorable peace will prove much dearer. Great as may be the +sufferings of the camp and the battle-field, yet the prolonged tortures +of a murdered Union, a violated Constitution, and Secession rampant over +the country, will be found to be greater. My third reflection is, that +the main cause of our civil war is slavery. It has now assumed gigantic +proportions of mischief, and with its hand upon the very throat of the +Constitution and the Union, it seeks its death. The worst feature +connected with it has ever been, that it is satisfied with no +concession, and the more it has, the more it asks. By the very admission +of the chiefs of this rebellion, it is confessedly got up for the sake +of slavery, and to make it the corner-stone of the new Confederacy of +States. The real issue involved by the rebellion is, complete +independence of the North, the dissolution of the Union, and exclusive +possession of all the territories south of Mason and Dixon's line; or +reconstruction upon such conditions as would result in the repudiation +of the old Constitution, the nationalization of slavery, and giving +complete political control to a slaveholding minority of the country. +This rebellion has placed the North where it must conquer, for its own +best interests, and dignity, and the salvation of free institutions. It +must conquer, to command future friendship and that respect without +which Union itself is a mockery. Let the South see that the North can +not be beaten, and the universal consciousness of this fact will command +an esteem, and the useful fear of committing offense, that will do more +to keep the peace than all the abject professions or humble submissions +in the world. Having found out that the North not only is conscious of +its rights, but has the willingness and the ability to defend them, it +is certain that the country will yet have as much peace, general thrift, +and noble enterprise with the onward march of virtue and intelligence, +as may be reasonably expected of any community upon the face of the +earth. + + + + + BONE ORNAMENTS. + + + Silent the lady sat alone: + In her ears were rings of dead men's bone; + The brooch on her breast shone white and fine, + 'Twas the polished joint of a Yankee's spine; + And the well-carved handle of her fan, + Was the finger-bone of a Lincoln man. + She turned aside a flower to cull, + From a vase which was made of a human skull; + For to make her forget the loss of her slaves, + Her lovers had rifled dead men's graves. + Do you think I'm describing a witch or ghoul? + There are no such things--and I'm not a fool; + Nor did she reside in Ashantee; + No--the lady fair was an F.F.V. + + + + +THE MOLLY O'MOLLY PAPERS. + + +V. + + +'Hearts are trumps,' is a gambler's cant phrase. That depends on the +game you are playing. In many of the games of life the true trump cards +are Diamonds; which, according to the fortune-teller's lore, stand for +wealth. Indeed, Hearts are by many considered so valueless that they are +thrown away at the very outset; whereas they should, like trumps, only +be played as a last resort. No trick that can be won with any other +card, should be taken with a heart--the card will be gone and nothing to +show for it. If you wish wealth, win it if you can--honestly, of +course--but don't throw in the heart. Are you ambitious--would you win +honor? Very well, if for political honor you can endure it to be spit +upon by the crowd, to have all manner of abuse heaped on you and your +_forbears_ to the remotest generation--a ceremony that in Africa follows +the election, but is 'preliminary to the crowning,' but in this country +is preliminary to the election--but if you can make up your mind to pass +through this ordeal, well and good--but don't throw in the heart.... Yet +in games on which is staked all that is worth playing for, 'hearts _are_ +trumps;' and he who holds the lowest card, stands a better chance of +winning than he who has none, though in his hand may be all the aces of +the others, diamonds included. But, lest I go too far beyond the +analogy--as I might ignorantly do, being unskilled in the many games of +cards--I will drop the figurative.... Keep your heart for faith, love, +friendship, for God, your country, and truth. And where the heart is +given, it should be unreservedly. Its allegiance is too often withheld +where it is due, yet this is better than a half-way loyalty; there +should be no _if_, followed by self-interest.... The seal of confederate +nobles, opposed to some measures of Peter IV. of Aragon, 'represents the +king sitting on his throne, with the confederates kneeling in a +suppliant attitude, around, to denote their loyalty and unwillingness to +offend. But in the back-ground, tents and lines of spears are +discovered, as a hint of their ability and resolution to defend +themselves.' ... This kind of allegiance no true heart will ever give. + +I take it for granted that you have a heart--not merely anatomically +speaking, an organ to circulate the blood, but a something that prompts +you to love, to self-sacrifice, to scorn of meanness, and, it may be, to +good, honest hatred. All metals can be separated from their ores; but +meanness is inseparable from some natures, so it is impossible to hate +the sin without hating the sinner; we can't, indeed, conceive of it in +the abstract. I don't mean hate in a malignant sense--here I may as well +express my scorn of that sly hatred that is too cowardly to knock a man +down, but quietly trips him up. + +It is well enough for those who think that 'life is a jest,' (and a +bitter, sarcastic one it must be to them,) to mock at all nobler +feelings and sentiments of the heart. None do they more contemn than +friendship. I would not 'sit in the seat' of these 'scornful,' however +they may have found false friends. Yet every man capable of a genuine +friendship himself, will in this world find at least one true friend. +Oxygen, which comprises one fifth of the atmosphere, is said to be +highly magnetic; and any ordinary, healthy soul can extract magnetism +enough from the very air he breathes to draw at least one other soul. +Some people have an amazing power of absorption and retention of this +magnetism. You feel irresistibly drawn toward them--and it is all right, +for they are noble, true souls. There is a great difference between +their attractive force and that kind of 'power of charming' innocence +that villainy often has--just as I once saw a cat charm a bird, which +circled nearer and nearer till it almost brushed the cat's whiskers--and +had he not been chased away, he would have that day daintily +lunched--and there would have been one songster less to join in that +evening's vespers. + +False----s there are--I will not call them false _friends_--this noun +should never follow that adjective. To what shall I liken them--to the +young gorilla, that even while its master is feeding it, looks +trustingly in his face and thrusts forth its paw to tear him? Who blames +the gorilla? Torn from its dam, caged or chained, it owes its captor a +grudge. To the serpent? The story of the warming of the serpent in the +man's bosom, is a mere fable. No man was ever fool enough to warm a +serpent in his bosom. And the serpent never crosses the path of man if +he can help it. The most deadly is that which is too sluggish to get out +of his way--therefore bites in self-defense. And the serpent generally +gives some warning hiss, or a rattle. Indeed, almost every animal gives +warning of its foul intent. The shark turns over before seizing its +prey. But the false friend (I am obliged to couple these words) takes +you in without changing his side.... In truth, a man, if he has a vice, +be it treachery or any other, goes a little beyond the other animals, +even those of which it is characteristic. We say, for instance, of a +treacherous man, _He is a serpent_; but it would be hyperbole to call a +serpent _a treacherous man_. + +But these false friends, who deceive you out of pure malignity, who +would rather injure you than not, who, perhaps, have an old, by you +long-forgotten, grudge, and become your apparent friends to pay you +back--these are few. Human nature, with all its depravity, is seldom so +completely debased. But there are many who are only selfishly your +friends. When you most need their friendship, where is it? When some +great calamity sweeps over you, and, bowed and weakened, you would lean +on this friendship, though it were but a 'broken reed,' you stretch +forth your hand--feel but empty space. + +Then there are some who let go the hand of a friend because they feel +sure of him, to grasp the extended hand of a former enemy. Politicians, +especially, do this. An enemy can not so easily be transformed into a +friend. As in those paintings of George III., on tavern-signs, after the +Revolution changed to George Washington, there will still be the same +old features.... The opposite of this is what every generous nature has +tried. To revive a dying friendship, this is impossible. If you find +yourself losing your friendship for a person, there must be some reason +for it. If the former dear name is becoming indistinct on the tablet of +your heart, the attempt to re-write it will entirely obliterate it. It +is said that a sure way to obliterate any writing, is to attempt to +re-write it.... But it is not true that 'hot love soon cools.' With all +my faults--and to say that I am an O'Molly is to admit that I have +faults, and I am not sure that I would wish to be without them. To speak +paradoxically, a fault in some cases does better than a virtue--as on +some organs 'the wrong note in certain passages has a better effect than +the right.' But, as I was saying, with all my faults, I have never yet +changed toward a friend; I will not admit even to the ante-chamber of my +heart a single thought untrue to my friend. Though it is true my friends +are so few that I could more than count them on my fingers, had I but +one hand.... And these few friends--what shall I say of them? They have +become so a part of my constant thoughts and feelings, so a part of +myself, that I can not project them--if I may so speak--from my own +interior self, so as to portray them. Have you not such friends? Are +there none whom to love has become so a _habit_ of your life that you +are almost unconscious of it--that you hardly think of it, any more than +you think--_'I breathe'_? + +There is probably no one who has not some time in his or her life felt +the dreariness of fancied friendliness. I can recall in my own +experience at least one time when this dreary feeling came over me. It +was during a twilight walk home from a visit. I can convey to you no +idea of the utter loneliness of the unloved feeling; it seemed that not +even the love of God was mine, or if it was, there was not individuality +enough in it; it was so diffused; this one, whom I disliked--that +insignificant person, might share in it. I know not how long I indulged +in these thoughts, with my eyes on the ground, or seeing all things 'as +though I saw them not,' but when I did raise them to take cognizance of +any thing, there was, a few degrees above the horizon, the evening star; +it shone as entirely on me as though it shone on me _exclusively_. It is +thus, I thought, with _His_ love; thus it melts into each individual +soul. Such gentle thoughts as these, long after the star had sunk behind +the western mountains, were a calm light in my soul. And I awoke the +next morning, the old cheerful + +MOLLY O'MOLLY. + + + + +VI. + + +I have often thought what splendid members of the diplomatic corps women +would make, especially married women. As much delicate management is +required of them, they have as much financiering to do as any minister +plenipotentiary of them all. Let a woman once have an object in view, +and 'o'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense or rare; with +head, hands, or feet, _she_ pursues _her_ way, and swims, or sinks, or +wades, or creeps, or flies;' but _she attains her object_. + +You poor, hood-winked portion of humanity--man--you think you know +woman; that she 'can't pull the wool over your eyes.' Just take a +retrospective view. Did your wife ever want any thing that she didn't +somehow get it? Whether a new dress, or the dearest secret of your soul, +she either, Delilah-like, wheedled it out of you, or, in a passion, you +almost _flung_ it at her, as an enraged monkey flings cocoa-nuts at his +tormentor. + +And how she has changed your habits, has turned the course of your life, +made it flow in the channel _she_ wished, instead of, as heretofore, +'wandering at its own sweet will,' as the gently-winding but useless +brook has been converted into a mill-race. + +There is Mr. Jones. Before he married, as free and easy a man as ever +smoked a meerschaum. Mrs. Jones is considered a pattern woman; but of +that you can judge for yourself. Her first reformation was in regard to +his club, from which he returned home late, redolent of brandy-punch, +and lavish of _my dears_. All she could say to him had no effect, till, +after the birth of little Nellie, she joined a Ladies' Reading Society, +meeting on his club evening; he wouldn't leave the baby to the care of a +servant, consequently staid at home himself. + +He was also in the habit of resorting to the gymnasium, ostensibly for +exercise, as he was dyspeptic; but his wife suspected it was more to +meet his old cronies. Finding retrenchment necessary, and looking on +gymnastics somewhat as a Yankee looks on a fine stream that turns no +mill, she dismissed one of the servants, and so arranged it that the +surplus strength that formerly so ran to waste should make the fires, +rock the cradle, and split certain hickory logs. Very soon Mr. Jones, +who is a lawyer, found his business so much increased that he was +obliged to remain in his office all day, except at meal-time; after +which, however heartily he might have eaten, he never complained of +indigestion. With this, thrifty Mrs. Jones was delighted, till one day +she surprised him in his office, enveloped in tobacco-smoke, with +elevated feet, reading a nice new novel; you may be sure that after +that, she insisted on the exercise. As their family increased, thinking +still further retrenchment necessary, she gently broached the +relinquishing of the meerschaum. Finding him obstinate in his +opposition, she one day accidentally broke it. It was one that he had +been coloring for years; he had devoted time and attention to it, that, +if properly directed, might have made him a German philosopher, an +antiquary, or a profound theologian; or, if devoted to his law studies, +would have fitted him for Chief-Justice of the United States. + +The countryman who mistook for a bell-rope the cord attached to a +shower-bath, was not more astonished at the result of pulling it, than +she was at the result of this trifling accident. Such an overwhelming +torrent of abuse as was poured on her devoted head; such an array of +offenses as was marshaled before her; Banquo's issue wasn't a +circumstance to the shadowy throng. She had recourse to woman's only +means of assuaging the angry passions of man--tears, (you know the +region of constant precipitation is a perpetual calm;) but these, +instead of operating like oil poured on the troubled waters, were rather +like oil thrown on the fire. Pleading her delicate health, she hinted +that his unkindness would kill her, and that, when she was gone, her +sweet face would haunt him. Muttering something about one consolation, +ghosts couldn't speak till spoken to, and he was sure he wouldn't break +the spell of silence, he picked up his hat and strode out of the house, +slamming the door after him. For a while, Mrs. Jones was struck with +consternation; she felt somewhat as the woman must have felt who, in +attempting to pull up a weed, overturned the monument that crushed her; +and, though not quite crushed by the weight of Mr. Jones's indignation, +she only resolved to give no more tugs at the weed that had taken such +deep root in his heart; and that, if he brought home another meerschaum, +(which he did that evening,) it was best to ignore its existence. Mrs. +Jones says she believes that the meerschaum absorbs 'the disagreeable' +of a man's temper, as it is said to absorb that of tobacco; at least, +her husband is never so serene as when smoking one. Indeed, it is said +that the fiercest birds of prey can be tamed by tobacco-smoke. + +Don't think that after this little _contretemps_ all Mrs. Jones's +authority was at an end; no, indeed; though she had, by stroking the +wrong way the docile, domestic animal, roused him into a tiger, she +hastened to smooth him down; and time would fail me to give even a list +of her reforms. + +After having heard her story, as I did, chiefly from her own lips, my +wonder at the immense Union army, raised on such short notice, was +considerably diminished. 'Extremes meet.' Probably Union and disunion +sentiments met in the mind of many a volunteer Jones. Then, too, I used +to wonder at the ease with which men apparently forget their buried +wives, and marry again; and, as I then had a great respect for the race, +thought their hearts must be very rich, new affections spring up with +such amazing rapidity; like the soil of the tropics, whose vegetation is +hardly cut down before there is a new, luxuriant growth. I've, however, +since come to the conclusion, that the poor man, somehow feeling that he +must marry, chooses in a manner at random, having, the first time, taken +the greatest care, and 'caught a Tartar,' in the same sense that the man +had with whom the phrase originated, that is, _the Tartar had caught +him_. + +In my childhood I was particularly fond of the hoidenish amusement of +jumping out of our high barn-window, and landing on the straw +underneath. The first few times I went to the edge--then drew +back--looked again--almost sprang--again stepped back--till finally I +took the leap. Thus old bachelors take the matrimonial leap--not so +widowers--how is it to be accounted for? Well, brother man, (for this is +the nearest relationship to you that I can claim,) you do about as well +in this way as in any other. You are destined to be taken in as +effectually as was Jonah, when he made that 'exploration of the +interior,' or, as was the fly, when Dame Spider's 'parlor' proved to be +a dining-room. + +Sam Slick says that 'man is common clay--woman porcelain.' Alas! there +is but little genuine porcelain. It is a pity that you couldn't contrive +to have a few jars before matrimony, to crack off some of the glazing, +and show the true character of the ware. + +And you, sister woman, learn a lesson from the 'tiny nautilus,' which, +'by yielding, can defy the most violent ragings of the sea.' And, though +man is so nicely adapted to your management that it is obviously the end +of his creation, remember Mrs. Jones's trifling miscalculation in regard +to the meerschaum, and--_'N'eveillez pas le chat qui dort.'_ + +Abruptly yours, MOLLY O'MOLLY. + + + + +GLANCES FROM THE SENATE-GALLERY. + + +The comparative excellence of different periods of eloquence and +statesmanship affords a subject of curious and profitable contemplation. +The action of different systems of government, encouraging or depressing +intellectual effort, the birth of occasions which elicit the powers of +great minds, and the peculiar characteristics of the manner of thinking +and speaking in different countries, are observable in considering this +topic. A pardonable curiosity has led the writer frequently to visit the +United States Senate Chamber, and to place mentally the intellectual +giants of that body in contrast with their predecessors on the same +scene, and with the eminent orators and statesmen of other countries and +other ages; and the result of such comparisons has always been to awaken +national pride, and to convince that the polity bequeathed us by our +fathers, no less than the distinctive genius of the race, have +practically demonstrated that a free system is the most prolific in the +production of animated oratory and vigorous statesmanship. Undoubtedly, +the golden age of American eloquence must be fixed in the time of +General Jackson, when Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Rives, Woodbury, and Hayne +sat in the Upper House; and whatever may be our wonder, when we +contemplate the brilliant orations of the British statesmen who shone +toward the close of the last century, if we turn from Burke to Webster, +from Pitt to Calhoun, from Fox to Clay, and from Sheridan to Randolph +and to Rives, Americans can not be disappointed by the comparison. Since +the death of the last of that illustrious trio, whose equality of powers +made it futile to award by unanimity the superiority to either, and yet +whose greatness of intellect placed them by common assent far above all +others, the eloquence of the Senate has been less brilliant and less +interesting. And yet it has not fallen below a standard of eloquence +equal, if not superior, to that of any other nation. Unlike the English +and the French, who have to go back more than half a century to deplore +their greatest Senators and Ministers, the grave closed over the +greatest American intellects within the memory of the present +generation; and the contrast between the Senate of to-day and the Senate +of a score of years ago, is too striking, perhaps, to give us an +impartial idea of the abilities which now guide the nation. + +The Senate which is at present deliberating on the gravest questions +which our legislature has been called upon to consider since the +establishment of the Constitution, is, without doubt, inferior in point +of eminent talent, to the Senate of Webster's time, and even to the +Senate which closed its labors on the day of Mr. Lincoln's inauguration. +In this latter body were three men, who, though far below the great trio +preceding them, still occupied in a measure their commanding influence +on the floor and before the country: one of whom now holds an Executive +office, another sits in the Lower House, and the third has passed away +from the scenes of his triumphs forever. Mr. Seward, whose keen logic, +accurate statement of details, and imperturbable coolness, remind one of +Pitt and Grey, was considered, while Senator from New-York, as the +leading Statesman of the body, and was the nucleus around which +concentrated the early adherents of the now dominant party. Mr. +Crittenden's fervent and earnest declamation, wise experience, and +good-nature, gave him a high rank in the respect and esteem of his +colleagues, while his age and life-long devotion to the service of the +state, endowed him with unusual authority. The lamented Douglas, who +surpassed every other American statesman in casual discussion, and whose +name will rank with that of Fox, in the art of extempore debate, could +not fail to be the leader of a large party, and the popular idol of a +large mass, by the manly energy of his character, his devotion to +popular principles, and a rich and sonorous eloquence, which convinced +while it delighted. + +It must also in candor be admitted, that the secession of the Southern +Senators from the floor, made a decided breach in the oratorical +excellence of that body. However villainous their statesmanship, and to +whatever traitorous purposes they lent the power of their eloquence, +there were several from the disaffected States who were eminent in a +skillful and brilliant use of speech. Probably the man who possessed the +most art in eloquence, and who united a keen and plausible sophistry +with great brilliancy of language and declamation with the highest +skill, was Benjamin, of Louisiana. Born a Hebrew, and bearing in his +countenance the unmistakable indications of Jewish birth, his person is +small, thick, and ill-proportioned; his expression is far less +intellectual than betokening cunning, while his whole manner fails to +give the least idea, when he is not speaking, of the wonderful powers of +his mind. + +Shrewd and unprincipled, devoting himself earnestly and without the +least scruple of conscience to two objects--the acquisition of money and +the success of treason--he yet concealed the true character of his +designs under an apparently ingenuous and fervent delivery, and in the +garb of sentiments worthy a Milton or a Washington. His voice, deeply +musical, and uncommonly sweet, enhanced the admiration with which one +viewed his matchless delivery, in which was perfect grace, and entire +harmony with the expressions which fell from his lips. How mournful a +sight, to see one so nobly gifted, leading a life of baseness and vice, +devoting his immortal qualities to the vilest selfishness, and to the +betrayal of his country and of liberty! Should the descendant of an +oppressed and persecuted race take part with oppressors? Senator +Benjamin is a renegade to the spirit of freedom which animated his +ancestors. + +He who, among the Southern Senators, ranked as an orator next to +Benjamin, now leads the rebellious hosts against the flag under which he +was reared, and lends his unquestioned powers to the demolition of the +great Republic of which he was once a brilliant ornament. Certainly +endowed with more forethought and practical wisdom than any of his +Democratic colleagues, well qualified by his calm survey of every +question and every political movement, to lead a large party, and +forcible and ironical in debate, Jefferson Davis stood at the head of +the disaffected in the Senate, as he now does in the field. Cautious and +deliberate in speech, he yet never failed to launch out in strong +invective, and to make effective use of irony in his attacks. He is in +personal appearance, rather small and thin, with a refined and decidedly +intellectual countenance, and a not unamiable expression. His health +alone prevented his rising to the first rank of American orators; and +what of his statesmanship was not directed to the accomplishment of +partisan purposes, gave him much consideration. He was incapable, from +a weak constitution, of sustaining, at great length, the vivacity and +energy with which he commenced his speeches; and therefore, their sharp +sarcasm and great power, made them appear more considerable in print +than in the delivery. Even after he had enlisted all his energies in the +detestable scheme which he is now trying to fulfill, his prudence halted +at the rash idea he had embraced; and he attempted for a moment to stem +the torrent, by voting for the Crittenden propositions. His delivery was +graceful and dignified, his manner sometimes courteous, often +contemptuous, and always impressive. His eloquence consisted rather in +the lucid logic and deliberate thought evinced than for rhetorical +beauty or range of imagination; occasionally, however, he would diverge +from the plain thread of argument, and rise to declamation of striking +brilliancy and power. Over-quick, with all his natural phlegm, to +discern and to resent personal affronts--oftentimes when there was no +occasion therefor--he was a favorable exemplar of that peculiar, and to +our mind, somewhat incomprehensible quality, which the Southern people +glory in, and which they dignify by the stately epithet of 'chivalry.' +On the whole, he must be regarded as the ablest, and therefore the most +culpable and dangerous of the insurgent leaders; and he may, perhaps, be +considered the first of Southern statesmen since the time of Calhoun. + +Another Senator who occupied a high rank as a partisan and statesman +among the Southern Democracy, was Hunter, of Virginia. He is a +thickly-built person, with a countenance possessing but little +expression, and far from intellectual; and would rather be noticed by +one sitting in the gallery for the negligence of his dress, utter want +of dignity, and exceedingly unsenatorial bearing, than for any other +external qualities. But when he had spoken a few moments, a decided +soundness of head, and shrewdness, appeared to enter into the +composition of his mind. No man in the Senate had a juster idea of +financial philosophy; and his services on the Committee devoted to that +department, were highly appreciated by every one. He was, however, +little trusted by loyal Senators, and his frequent professions of +devotion to the Union, failed to conceal the bent of his mind toward +those with whom he is now in intimate concert. Sincerity had least place +of all the virtues in his breast; and his hypocrisy, somewhat hidden by +the apparent ingenuousness and conciliatory address of his manner, +became manifest in actions and votes, rather than in words. He was, so +far as can now be ascertained, one of the prime movers of the Senatorial +cabal, or caucus, which was devoted either to the complete dominance of +the Southern element in the Union, or to their forcible secession from +the Union; and was probably as active and earnest a traitor, long before +the doctrine of secession was ventured upon, as the most fiery of +South-Carolina fire-eaters. Mr. Hunter is, in private, courteous and +affable, and, indeed, in the debates in which he took part, he never +transgressed the rules of respect due to his colleagues, or violated the +dicta of parliamentary etiquette. + +His colleague, Mason, is an irritable, petulant, arrogant man, not +without a certain ability in debate, but censorious, and unconfined by +the restraints of decency in his tirades against the North. He was 'one +of the finest-looking men,' if we speak phrenologically, in the last +Senate; and would always be noticed for his dignified manner and fine +head, by a stranger visiting the Chamber for the first time. We have +briefly noticed him, rather on account of the notoriety recently +attached to his name by the 'Trent' affair, than from his prominence +among Southern orators and statesmen--his talent, being, in fact, of a +decidedly mediocre description. + +While speaking of Mason, it will be _apropos_ to allude to his late +companion in trouble, John Slidell, who was certainly the shrewdest +politician and party tactician among his friends on the north side of +the chamber; he is indeed the Nestor of intriguers. From the time when, +early in life, he aspired to, and in a degree succeeded in controlling +the politics of the Empire City, up to this hour, when he is with +snake-like subtleness attempting to poison French honor, his career has +been a series of successful intrigues. Utterly devoid of moral +principle, he resembles his late colleague, Benjamin, in the immorality +of his life, and the baseness of his ends, attained by as base means. He +is rather a good-looking man, short, with snowy-white hair and red face, +his countenance indicative of the secretiveness and cunning of his +character. He was rather the caucus adviser and manager than one of the +orators of his party; seldom speaking, and never except briefly and to +the point. Imagination in him has been warped and made torpid by a life +of dissipation, as well as by his practical tendencies. He is, like many +other Southern statesmen, courteous and pleasing in social conversation; +but is heartless, selfish, and malignant in his enmities. + +Robert Toombs stood deservedly high in the traitorous cabal in the +Senate; for, to a bold and energetic spirit, great arrogance of manner, +and activity, he added a powerful mind and a clear head. In the street, +he would strike you as a self-conceited, bullying, contemptuous person, +with brains in the inverse proportion to his body, which was large and +apparently strong. His manner, when addressing the Senators, had indeed +much of an overbearing and insolent spirit; but the impression, in +regard to his character, after hearing him speak, was much better than +before. There was an indication of strength behind the bullying, +blustering air which he put on, which raised one's respect for his +attainments. One of the most rabid and uncompromising of secession +leaders, and bigoted in his hatred of the North, he was yet, in private, +a courteous and hospitable gentleman, and, apparently at least, frank in +the expression of opinion. Probably he had as little principle in +political and social life as most of his associates in treason; while +his great self-reliance, activity, and mental ability gave him a very +high position in their confidence. He was tall and stout, though not +corpulent; and was very negligent of his toilet and dress. Self-conceit +was written on his countenance, and displayed itself in his arrogant +assumptions of superiority. But his method of dealing with his Northern +opponents was open and bold, although insolent and overbearing, and not +like Hunter, Davis, and Benjamin, using ingenious sophistry and hidden +sarcasm, cautiously smoothing over their real purpose, by rhetoric and +elegant sentiment. Mr. Toombs became early an object of peculiar dislike +to Northern men, by the rude ingenuousness with which he announced the +last conclusions of his political creed, and the intolerable insolence +with which, not heeding the admonitions of his more cautious +confederates, he thundered out his anathemas of hatred and vengeance on +what he was pleased to call 'Northern tyranny.' It was only when the +crisis came, that others unfolded together their base character and +their hypocrisy. Davis, who had been fondled by New-Englanders but a +year or two since, and Hunter, who had cried for peace and compromise, +standing forth at last in the true light of traitors, and thereby +proclaiming their past life a game of hypocrisy. Toombs, therefore, who +was an original fire-eater, and hence could not be called a hypocrite, +has become less an object of hatred to us of the loyal States, than +those who, while they sat at the cabinet councils, or were admitted to +the confidence of the Executive, or were sent to foreign courts, or +presided over the Upper House, were using the power of such high trusts +for the consummation of a conspiracy against their country, yet +retaining the cant of patriotism and feigning a devotion to the Union. +We have dwelt almost exclusively, in the present chapter, upon Senators +whose highest honors have been tarnished or obliterated by the gravest +of crimes, that of treason toward a vast community. But it has been +with the idea that the least should be presented first, and that the +greater should close the scene; as in royal processions, the monarch +always brings up the rear. We conceive that the great talents which we +have acknowledged, and which doubtless all will agree with us in +acknowledging, the leaders of the Southern rebellion to possess, only +enhance the magnitude of their offense, and serve to illustrate with +greater force the enormity of their purposes. That a brainless fanatic +like Lord George Gordon, or the Neapolitan fisherman, Massaniello, +should stir up tremendous agitation, may be matter for critical study, +but is hardly a subject of wonder. But that men gifted with exalted +ability, undoubted caution, well-balanced intellect, and apparently +refined reason, all of which have been appreciated and acknowledged, +should propound an erroneous doctrine of a chaotic system, and proceed +to the violence of civil war, on what they must know to be a false and +heretical plea, can only remind us of those devils who have been +pictured by the matchless art of Milton, of Dante, and of Goethe, as +possessing stately intellects with perfectly vicious hearts. We propose, +in a future number, if these remarks on public characters are +acceptable, to continue our remarks, by introducing the loyal Senators +of the last Congress, a band of men who will be found to equal in +talent, and immeasurably to surpass in moral rectitude and earnest +patriotism, the bad company from whom we now part. + + + + +MACCARONI AND CANVAS. + + +V. + +THE GRECO. + + +The Cafe Greco, like the belle of many seasons, lights up best at night. +In morning, in _deshabille_, not all the venerability of its age can +make it respectable. Caper declares that on a fresh, sparkling day, in +the merry spring-time, he once really enjoyed a very early breakfast +there; and that, with the windows of the Omnibus-room open, the fresh +air blowing in, and the sight of a pretty girl at the fourth-story +window of a neighboring house, feeding a bird and tending a rose-bush, +the old cafe was rose-colored. + +This may be so; but seven o'clock in the evening was _the_ time when the +Greco was in its prime. Then the front-room was filled with Germans, the +second room with Russians and English, the third room--the Omnibus--with +Americans, English, and French, and the fourth, or back-room, was brown +with Spaniards. The Italians were there, in one or two rooms, but in a +minority; only those who affected the English showed themselves, and +aired their knowledge of the Anglo-Saxon tongue and habits. + +'I habituate myself,' said a red-haired Italian of the Greco to Caper, +'to the English customs. I myself lave with hot water from foot to head, +one time in three weeks, like the English. It is an idea of the most +superb, and they tell me I am truly English for so performing. I have +not yet arrive to perfection in the lessons of box, but I have a smart +cove of a bool-dog.' + +Caper told him that his resemblance to an English 'gent' was perfect, at +which the Italian, ignorant of the meaning of that fearful word, smiled +assent. + +The waiter has hardly brought you your small cup of _caffe nero_, and +you are preparing to light a cigar, to smoke while you drink your +coffee, when there comes before you a wandering bouquet-seller. It is, +perhaps, the dead of winter; long icicles are hanging from fountains, +over which hang frosted oranges, frozen myrtles, and frost-nipped +olives, Alas! such things are seen in Rome; and yet, for a dime you are +offered a bouquet of camellia japonicas. By the way, the name camellia +is derived from _Camellas_, a learned Jesuit; probably _La Dame aux +Camelias_ had not a similar origin. You don't want the flowers. + +'Signore,' says the man, 'behold a ruined flower-merchant!' + +You are unmoved. Have you not seen or heard of, many a time, the +heaviest kind of flour-merchants ruined by too heavy speculations, burst +up so high the crows couldn't fly to them; and heard this without +changing a muscle of your face? + +'But, signore, do buy a bouquet to please your lady?' + +'Haven't one.' + +'_Altro_!' answers the man, triumphantly, 'whom did I see the other day, +with these eyes, (pointing at his own,) in a magnificent carriage, +beside the most beautiful _Donna Inglesa_ in Rome? _Iddio giusto_!'.... +At this period, he sees he has made a ten strike, and at once follows it +up by knocking down the ten-pin boy, so as to clear the alley, thus: +'For _her_ sake, signore.' + +You pay a paul, (and give the bouquet to--your landlady's daughter,) +while the departing _mercante di fiori_ assures you that he never, no, +never expects to make a fortune at flowers; but if he gains enough to +pay for his wine, he will be very tipsy as long as he lives! + +Then comes an old man, with a chessboard of inlaid stone, which he +hasn't an idea of selling; but finds it excellent to 'move on,' without +being checkmated as a beggar without visible means of s'port. The first +time he brought it round, and held it out square to Caper, that cool +young man, taking a handful of coppers from his pocket, arranged them as +checkers on the board, without taking any notice of the man; and after +he had placed them, began playing deliberately. He rested his chin on +his hand, and with knitted brows, studied several intricate moves; he +finally jumped the men, so as to leave a copper or two on the board; and +bidding the old man good-night, continued a conversation with Rocjean, +commenced previous to his game of draughts. + +Next approaches a hardware--merchant, for, in Imperial Rome, the peddler +of a colder clime is a merchant, the shoemaker an artist, the artist a +professor. The hardware-man looks as if he might be 'touter' to a +broken-down brigand. All the razors in his box couldn't keep the small +part of his face that is shaved from wearing a look as if it had been +blown up with gunpowder, while the grains had remained embedded there. +He tempts you with a wicked-looking knife, the pattern for which must +have come from the _litreus_ of Etruria, the land called the _mother of +superstitions_, and have been wielded for auguries amid the howls and +groans of lucomones and priests. He tells you it is a Campagna-knife, +and that you must have one if you go into that benighted region; he says +this with a mysterious shake of his head, as if he had known Fra Diavolo +in his childhood and Fra 'Tonelli in his riper years. The +crescent-shaped handle is of black bone; the pointed blade long and +tapering; the three notches in its back catch into the spring with a +noise like the alarum of a rattle-snake. You conclude to buy one--for a +curiosity. You ask why the blade at the point finishes off in a circle? +He tells you the government forbids the sale of sharp-pointed knives; +but, signore, if you wish to _use it_, break off the circle under your +heel, and you have a point sharp enough to make any man have an +_accidente di freddo_, (death from cold--steel.) + +Victor Hugo might have taken his character of Quasimodo from the wild +figure who now enters the Greco, with a pair of horns for sale; each +horn is nearly a yard in length, black and white in color; they have +been polished by the hunchback until they shine like glass. Now he +approaches you, and with deep, rough voice, reminding you of the lowing +of the large grey oxen they once belonged to, begs you to buy them. Then +he facetiously raises one to each side of his head, and you have a +figure that Jerome Bosch would have rejoiced to transfer to canvas. His +portrait has been painted by more than one artist. + +Caper, sitting in the Omnibus one evening with Rocjean, was accosted by +a very seedy-looking man, with a very peculiar expression of face, +wherein an awful struggle of humor to crowd down pinching poverty +gleamed brightly. He offered for sale an odd volume of one of the early +fathers of the Church. Its probable value was a dime, whereas he wanted +two dollars for it. + +'Why do you ask such a price?' asked Rocjean, 'you never can expect to +sell it for a twentieth part of that.' + +'The moral of which,' said the seedy man, no longer containing the +struggling humor, but letting it out with a hearty laugh; 'the moral of +which is--give me half a baioccho!' + +Ever after that, Caper never saw the man, who henceforth went by the +name of _La Morale e un Mezzo Baioccho_! without pointing the moral with +a copper coin. Not content with this, he once took him round to the +_Lepre_ restaurant, and ordered a right good supper for him. Several +other artists were with him, and all declared that no one could do +better justice to food and wine. After he had eaten all he could hold, +and drank a little more than he could carry, he arose from table, having +during the entire meal sensibly kept silence, and wiping his mouth on +his coat-sleeve, spoke: + +'The moral this evening, signori, I shall carry home in my stomach.' + +As he was going out of the restaurant, one of the artists asked him why +he left two rolls of bread on the table; saying they were paid for, and +belonged to him. + +'I left them,' said he, 'out of regard for the correct usages of +society; but, having shown this, I return to pocket them.' + +This he did at once, and Caper stood astonished at the seedy-beggar's +phraseology. + +In addition to these characters, wandering musicians find their way into +the cafe, jugglers, peddlers of Roman mosaics and jewelry, plaster-casts +and sponges, perfumery and paint-brushes. Or a peripatetic shoemaker, +with one pair of shoes, which he recklessly offers for sale to giant or +dwarf. One morning he found a purchaser--a French artist--who put them +on, and threw away his old shoes. Fatal mistake. Two hours afterward, +the buyer was back in the Greco, with both big toes sticking out of the +ends of his new shoes, looking for that _cochon_ of a shoemaker. + +To those who read men like books, the Greco offers a valuable +circulating library. The advantage, too, of these artistical works is, +that one needs not be a Mezzofanti to read the Russian, Spanish, German, +French, Italian, English, and other faces that pass before one +panoramically. There sits a relation of a hospodar, drinking Russian +tea; he pours into a large cup a small glass of brandy, throws in a +slice of lemon, fills up with hot tea. Do you think of the miles he has +traveled, in a _telega_, over snow-covered steppes, and the smoking +_samovar_ of tea that awaited him, his journey for the day ended? Had he +lived when painting and sculpture were in their ripe prime, what a fiery +life he would have thrown into his works! As it is, he drinks cognac, +hunts wild-boars in the Pontine marshes--and paints Samson and Delilah, +after models. + +The Spanish artist, over a cup of chocolate, has lovely dreams, of burnt +umber hue, and despises the neglected treasures left him by the Moors, +while he seeks gold in--castles in the air. + +The German, with feet in Italy and head far away in the Fatherland, +frequents the German-club in preference to the Greco; for at the club is +there not lager beer?.... In imperial Rome, there are lager beer +breweries! He has the profundities of the esthetical in art at his +finger-ends; it is deep-sea fishing, and he occasionally lands a whale, +as Kaulbach has done; or very nearly catches a mermaid with Cornelius. +Let us respect the man--he _works_. + +The French artist, over a cup of black coffee, with perhaps a small +glass of cognac, is the lightning to the German thunder. If he were +asked to paint the portrait of a potato, he would make eyes about it, +and then give you a little picture fit to adorn a boudoir. He does every +thing with a flourish. If he has never painted Nero performing that +celebrated violin-solo over Rome, it is because he despaired of +conveying an idea of the tremulous flourish of the fiddle-bow. He reads +nature, and translates her, without understanding her. He will prove to +you that the cattle of Rosa Bonheur are those of the fields, while he +will object to Landseer that his beasts are those of the guinea +cattle-show. He blows up grand facts in the science of art with +gunpowder, while the English dig them out with a shovel, and the Germans +bore for them. He finds Raphael, king of pastel artists, and never +mentions his discovery to the English. He is more dangerous with the +_fleurette_ than many a trooper with broadsword. Every thing that he +appropriates, he stamps with the character of his own nationality. The +English race-horse at Chantilly has an air of curl-papers about his mane +and tail. + +The Italian artist--the night-season is for sleep. + +The English artist--hearken to Ruskin on Turner! When one has hit the +bull's-eye, there is nothing left but to lay down the gun, and go and +have--a whitebait dinner. + +The American artist--there is danger of the youthful giant kicking out +the end of the Cradle of Art, and 'scatterlophisticating rampageously' +over all the nursery. + +'I'd jest give a hun-dred dol-lars t'morrow, ef I could find out a way +to cut stat-tures by steam,' said Chapin, the sculptor. + +'I can't see why a country with great rivers, great mountains, and great +institutions generally, can not produce great sculptors and painters,' +said Caper sharply, one day to Rocjean. + +'It is this very greatness,' answered Rocjean, 'that prevents it. The +aim of the people runs not in the narrow channel of mountain-stream, but +with the broad tide of the ocean. In the hands of Providence, other +lands in other times have taken up painting and sculpture with their +whole might, and have wielded them to advance civilization. They have +played--are playing their part, these civilizers; but they are no longer +chief actors, least of all in America. Painting and sculpture may take +the character of subjects there; but their role as king is--played out.' + +'Much as you know about it,' answered Caper, 'you are all theory!' + +'That maybe,' quoth Rocjean; 'you know what THEOS means in Greek, don't +you?' + + + + +AMONG THE WILD BEASTS. + + +There came to Rome, in the autumn, along with the other travelers, a +caravan of wild beasts, ostensibly under charge of Monsieur Charles, the +celebrated Tamer, rendered illustrious and illustrated by Nadar and +Gustave Dore, in the _Journal pour Rire_. They were exhibited under a +canvas tent in the Piazza Popolo, and a very cold time they had of it +during the winter. Evidently, Monsieur Charles believed the climate of +Italy belonged to the temperance society of climates. He erred, and +suffered with his '_superbe et manufique_ ELLLLLEPHANT!' 'and when we +reflec', ladies _and_ gentlemen, that there _are_ persons, forty and +even fifty years old, who have never seen the Ellllephant!!!...and who +DARE TO SAY so!!!...' Monsieur Charles made his explanations with teeth +chattering. + +Caper, anxious to make a sketch of a very fine Bengal tiger in the +collection, easily purchased permission to make studies of the animals +during the hours when the exhibition was closed to the public; and as +he went at every thing vigorously, he was before long in possession of +several fine sketches of the tiger and other beasts, besides several +secrets only known to the initiated, who act as keepers. + +The royal Bengal tiger was one of the finest beasts Caper had ever seen, +and what he particularly admired was the jet-black lustre of the stripes +on his tawny sides and the vivid lustre of his eyes. The lion curiously +seemed laboring under a heavy sleep at the very time when he should have +been awake; but then his mane was kept in admirable order. The hair +round his face stood out like the bristles of a shoe-brush, and there +was a curl in the knob of hair at the end of his tail that amply +compensated for his inactivity. The hyenas looked sleek and happy, and +their teeth were remarkably white; but the elephant was the constant +wonder of all beholders. Instead of the tawny, blue-gray color of most +of his species, he was black, and glistened like a patent-leather boot; +while his tusks were as white as--ivory; yea, more so. + +'I don't understand what makes your animals look so bright,' said Caper +one day to one of the keepers. + +'Come here to-morrow morning early, when we make their toilettes, and +you'll see,' replied the man, laughing. 'Why, there's that old hog of a +lion, he's as savage and snaptious before he has his medicine as a +corporal; and looks as old as Methusaleh, until we arrange his beard and +get him up for the day. As for the ellllephant ... ugh!' + +Caper's curiosity was aroused, and the next morning, early, he was in +the menagerie. The first sight that struck his eye was the elephant, +keeled over on one side, and weaving his trunk about, evidently as a +signal of distress; while his keeper and another man were--blacking-pot +and shoe-brushes in hand--going all over him from stem to stern. + +'Good day,' said the keeper to him, 'here's a pair of boots for you! put +outside the door to be blacked every morning, for five francs a day. +It's the dearest job I ever undertook...and the boots are ungrateful! +Here, Pierre,' he continued to the man who helped him, 'he shines +enough; take away the breshes, and bring me the sand-paper to rub up his +tusks. Talk about polished beasts! I believe, myself, that we beat all +other shows to pieces on this 'ere point. Some beasts are more knowing +than others; for example, them monkeys in that cage there. Give that big +fool of a shimpanzy that bresh, Pierre, and let the gentleman see him +operate on tother monkeys.' + +Pierre gave the large monkey a brush, and, to Caper's astonishment, he +saw the animal seize it with one paw, then springing forward, catch a +small monkey with the other paw, and holding him down, in spite of his +struggles, administer so complete a brushing over his entire body that +every hair received a touch. The other monkeys in the cage were in the +wildest state of excitement, evidently knowing from experience that they +would all have to pass under the large one's hands; and when he had +given a final polish to the small one, he commenced a vigorous chase for +his mate, an aged female, who, evidently disliking the ordeal, commenced +a series of ground and lofty tumblings that would have made the fortune +of even the distinguished--Leotard. In vain: after a prolonged chase, in +which the inhabitants of the cage flew round so fast that it appeared to +be full of flying legs, tails, and fur, the large monkey seized the +female and, regardless of her attempts to liberate herself, he brushed +her from head to foot, to the great delight of a Swiss soldier, an +infantry corporal, who had entered the menagerie a few minutes before +the grand hunt commenced. + +'Ma voi!' said the Swiss, pronouncing French with a broad German accent, +'it would keef me krate bleshur to have dat pig monkey in my gombany. He +would mak' virst rait brivate.' + +The keeper, who was still polishing away with sand-paper at the +elephant's tusks, and who evidently regarded the soldier with great +contempt, said to him: + +'He would have been there long since--only he knows too much.' + +'_Ma voi_! that's the reason you're draining him vor a Vrench gavalry +gombany. Vell, I likes dat.' + +'Oh! no,' said the keeper, 'his principles an't going to allow him to +enter our army.' + +'Vell, what are his brincibles?' + +'To serve those who pay best!' quoth the Frenchman, who, in the firm +faith that he had said a good thing, called Pierre to help him adorn the +lion, and turned his back on the Swiss, who, in revenge, amused himself +feeding the monkeys with an old button, a stump of a cigar, and various +wads of paper. + +The keeper then gave the lion a narcotic, and after this medicine, +combed out his mane and tail, waxed his mustache, and thus made his +toilette for the day. The tiger and leopards had their stripes and spots +touched up once a week with hair-dye, and as this was not the day +appointed, Caper missed this part of the exhibition. The hyenas +submitted to be brushed down; but showed strong symptoms of mutiny at +having their teeth rubbed with a toothbrush and their nails pared. + +In half an hour more, the keeper's labors were over, and Caper, giving +him a present for his inviting him to assist as spectator at _la +toilette bien bete_, or beastly dressing, walked off to breakfast, +evidently thinking that _Art_ was not dead in that menagerie, whatever +Rocjean might say of its state of health in the world at large. + +'To think,' soliloquized Caper, 'to think of what a bootless thing it +is, to shoe-black o'er an elephant!' + + + + +ROMAN MODELS. + + +The traveler visiting Rome notices in the Piazza di Spagna, along the +Spanish steps, and in the Condotti, Fratina and Sistina streets, either +sunning themselves or slowly sauntering along, many picturesquely-dressed +men, women, and children, who, as he soon learns, are the +professional models of the artists. For a fee of from fifty +cents to a dollar, they will give their professional services for a +sitting four hours in length, and those of them who are most in demand +find little difficulty during the 'business season,' say from the months +of November to May, in earning from one and a half to two dollars, and +even more, every day. Many of them, living frugally, manage to make what +is considered a fortune among the _contadini_ in a few years; and Hawks, +the English artist, who spent a summer at Saracenesca, found, to his +astonishment, that one of the leading men of the town, one who loaned +money at very large interest, owned property, and who was numbered among +the heavy wealthy, was no other than a certain Gaetano, he had more than +once used as model, at the price of fifty cents a sitting. + +The government prohibiting female models from posing nude in the +different life-schools, it consequently follows that they pose in +private studios, as they choose; this interdiction does not extend to +the male models; and when Caper was in Rome, he had full opportunities +offered him to draw from these in the English Academy, and in the +private schools of Gigi and Giacinti. Supported by the British +government, the English artist has, free of all expense, at this truly +National Academy, opportunities to sketch from life, as well as from +casts, and has, moreover, access to a well-chosen library of books. With +a generosity worthy of all praise, American artists are admitted to the +English Academy, with full permission to share with Englishmen the +advantages of the life-school, free of all cost; a piece of liberality +that well might be copied by the French Academy, without at all +derogating from its high position--on the Pincian Hill. + +If Gigi's school is still kept up, (it was in a small street near the +Trevi fountain,) we would advise the traveler in search of the +picturesque by all means to visit it, particularly if it is in the same +location it was when Caper was there. It was over a stable, in the +second story of a tumble-down old house, frequented by dogs, cats, +fleas, and rats; in a room say fifty feet long by twenty wide. A +semi-circle of desks and wooden benches went round the platform where +stood the male models nude, or on other evenings, male and female models +in costumes, Roman or Neapolitan. Oil lamps gave enough light to enable +the artists who generally attended there to draw, and color in oils or +water-colors, the costumes. The price of admittance for the costume +class was one paul, (ten cents,) and as the model only posed about two +hours, the artists had to work very fast to get even a rough sketch +finished in that short time. Americans, Danes, Germans, Spaniards, +French, Italians, English, Russians, were numbered among the attendants, +and more than once, a sedate-looking English-woman or two would come in +quietly, make a sketch, and go away unmolested and almost unnoticed. + +More than three-quarters of the sketches made by Caper at Gigi's +costume-class were taken from models in standing positions. At the end +of the first hour, they had from ten to fifteen minutes allowed them to +rest; but these minutes were seldom wasted by the artist, who improved +them to finish the lines of his drawing, or dash in color. The powers of +endurance of the female models were better than those of the men; and +they would strike a position and keep it for an hour, almost immovable. +Noticeable among these women, was one named Minacucci, who, though over +seventy years old, had all the animation and spirit of one not half her +age; and would keep her position with the steadiness of a statue. She +had, in her younger days, been a model for Canova; had outlived two +generations; and was now posing for a third. If you have ever seen many +figure-paintings executed in Rome, your chance is good to have seen +Minacucci's portrait over and over again. Caper affirms that of any +painting made in Rome from the years 1856 to 1860, introducing an +Italian head, whether a Madonna or sausage-seller, he can tell you the +name of the model it was painted from nine times out of ten! The fact +is, they do want a new model for the Madonna badly in Rome, for Giacinta +is growing old and fat, and Stella, since she married that cobbler, has +lost her angelic expression. The small boy who used to pose for angels +has smoked himself too yellow, and the man who stood for Charity has +gone out of business. + +'I have,' said Caper to me the other day, 'too much respect for the +public to tell them who the man with red hair and beard used to pose +for; but he has taken to drinking, and it's all up with him.' + +Spite of fleas, rats, squalling cats, dog-fights, squealing of horses, +and braying of donkeys, lamp-smoke, and heat or cold, the hours passed +by Caper in Gigi's old barracks were among the pleasantest of his Roman +life. There was such novelty, variety, and brilliancy in the costumes to +be sketched, that every evening was a surprise; save those nights when +Stella posed, and these were known and looked forward to in advance. She +always insured a full class, and when she first appeared, was the beauty +of all the models. + +Caper was sitting one afternoon in Rocjean's studio, when there was a +tap at the door. + +'_Entrate_!' shouted Rocjean, and in came a female model, called Rita. +It was the month of May, business was dull; she wanted employment. +Rocjean asked her to walk in and rest herself. + +'Well, Rita, you haven't any thing to do, now that the English have all +fled from Rome before the malaria?' + +'Very little. Some of the Russians are left up there in the Fratina; but +since the Signore Giovanni sold all his paintings to that rich Russian +banker, _diavolo_! he has done nothing but drink champagne, and he don't +want any more models.' + +'What is the Signore Giovanni's last name?' asked Caper. + +'Who knows, Signore Giacomo? I don't. We others (_noi altri_) never can +pronounce your queer names, so we find out the Italian for your first +names, and call you by that. Signore Arturo, the French artist, told me +once that the English and Russians and Germans had such hard names they +often broke their front-teeth out trying to speak them; but he was +joking. _I_ know the real, true reason for it.' + +'Come, let us have it,' said Rocjean. + +'_Accidente_! I won't tell you; you will be angry.' + +'No we won't,' spoke Caper, 'and what is more, I will give you two pauls +if you will tell us. I am very curious to know this reason.' + +'_Bene_, now the _prete_ came round to see me the other day; it was when +he purified the house with holy water, and he asked me a great many +questions, which I answered so artlessly, yes, so artlessly! whew! [here +Miss Rita smiled artfully.] Then he asked me all about you heretics, and +he told me you were all going to--be burned up, as soon as you died; for +the Inquisition couldn't do it for you in these degenerate days. After a +great deal more twaddle like this, I asked him why you heretics all had +such hard names, that we others never could speak them? Then he looked +mysterious, so! [here Miss Rita diabolically winked one eye,] and said +he: 'I will tell you, _per Bacco_! hush, it's because they are so +abominably wicked, never give any thing to OUR Church, never have no +holy water in their houses, never go to no confession, and are such +monsters generally, that their police are all the time busy trying to +catch them; but their names are so hard to speak that when the police go +and ask for them, nobody knows them, and so they get off; otherwise, +their country would have jails in it as large as St. Peter's, and they +would be full all the time!' + +'H'm!' said Rocjean, 'I suppose you would be afraid to go to such +horrible countries, among such people?' + +'Not I,' spoke Rita,'didn't Ida go to Paris, and didn't she come back to +Rome with such a magnificent silk dress, and gold watch, and such a +bonnet! all full of flowers, and lace, and ribbons? Oh! they don't eat +'nothing but maccaroni' there! And they don't have priests all the time +sneaking round to keep a poor girl from earning a little money honestly, +and haul her up before the police if her _carta di soggiorno_ [permit to +remain in Rome] runs out. I wish [here Rita stamped her foot and her +eyes flashed] Garibaldi would come here! Then you would see these black +crows flying, _Iddio giusto_! Then we would have no more of these +_arciprete_ making us pay them for every mouthful of bread we eat, or +wine we drink, or wood we burn.' + +'Why,' said Caper, 'they don't keep the baker-shops, and wine-shops, and +wood-yards, do they?' + +'No,' answered Rita, 'but they speculate in them, and Fra 'Tonelli makes +his cousins and so on inspectors; and they regulate the prices to suit +themselves, and make oh! such tremen-di-ous fortunes. [Here Rita opened +her eyes, and spread her hands, as if beholding the elephant.] Don't I +remember, some time ago, how, when the Pope went out riding, he found +both sides of the way from the Vatican to San Angelo crowded with people +on their knees, groaning and calling to him. Said he to Fra 'Tonelli: + +''What are these poor people about?' + +''Praying for your blessed holiness,' said he, while his eyes sparkled. + +''But,' said the Pope, 'they are moaning and groaning.' + +''It's a way the _poblaccio_ have,' answered 'Tonelli, 'when they pray.' + +'The Pope knew he was lying, so, when he went home to the Vatican, he +sent for one of his faithful servants, and said he: + +''Santi, you run out and see what all this shindy is about?' + +'So Santi came back and told him 'Tonelli had put up the price of bread, +and the people were starving. So the Pope took out a big purse with a +little money in it, and said he: + +''Here, Santi, you go and buy me ten pounds of bread, and get a bill +for it, and have it receipted!' + +'So Santi came back with bread, and bill all receipted, and laid it down +on a table, and threw a cloth over it. By and by, in comes 'Tonelli. +Then the Pope says to him, kindly and smiling: + +''I am confident I heard the people crying about bread to-day; now, tell +me truly, what is it selling for?' + +'Then 'Toneli told him such a lie. [Up went Rita's hands and eyes.] + +'Then the Pope says, while he looked so [knitting her brows]: + +''Oblige me, if you please, by lifting up that cloth.' + +'And'Tonelli did. + +'Bread went down six _baiocchi_ next morning!' + +'By the way, Rita,' asked Rocjean, 'where is your little brother, +Beppo?' + +'Oh! he's home,' she answered, 'but I wish you would ask your friend +Enrico, the German sculptor, if he won't have him again, for his model.' + +'Why, I thought he was using him for his new statue?' + +'He was; but oh! so unfortunately, last Sunday, father went out to see +his cousin John, who lives near Ponte Mole, and has a garden there, and +Beppo went with him; but the dear little fellow is so fond of fruit, +that he ate a pint of raw horse-beans!' + +'Of all the fruit!' shouted Caper. + +'_Si, signore_, it's splendid; but it gave Beppo the colic next day, and +when he went to Signore Enrico's studio to pose for Cupid, he twisted +and wrenched around so with pain, that Signore Enrico told him he looked +more like a little devil than a small love; and when Beppo told him what +fruit he had been eating, Signore Enrico bid him clear out for a savage +that he was, and told him to go and learn to eat them boiled before he +came back again.' + +'I will speak to the Signore Enrico, and have him employ him again,' +said Rocjean. + +'Oh! I wish you would, for the Signore Enrico was very good to Beppo; +besides, his studio is a perfect palace for cigar-stumps, which Beppo +used to pick up and sell--that is, all those he and father didn't smoke +in their pipes.' + +'Make a sketch, Caper,' said Rocjean, 'of Cupid filling up his quiver +with cigar-stumps, while he holds one between his teeth. There's a model +love for you! Now, give Rita those two pauls you promised her, and let +her go. _Adio_!' + + + + + GIULIA DI SEGNI. + + + (_Lines found written on the back of a sketch + in Caper's portfolio._) + + By Roman watch-tower, on the mountaintop, + We stood, at sunset, gazing like the eagles + From their cloud-eyrie, o'er the broad Campagna, + To the Albanian hills, which boldly rose, + Bathed in a flood of red and pearly light. + Far off, and fading in the coming night, + Lay the Abruzzi, where the pale, white walls + Of towns gleamed faintly on their purple sides. + + The evening air was tremulous with sounds: + The thrilling chirp of insects, twittering birds, + Barking of shepherds' fierce, white, Roman dogs; + While from the narrow path, far down below, + We heard a mournful rondinella ring, + Sung by a home-returning mountaineer. + + Then, as the daylight slowly climbed the hills, + And the soft wind breathed music to their steps, + O'er the old Roman watch-tower marched the stars, + In their bright legions--conquerors of night-- + Shedding from silver armor shining light; + As once the Roman legions, ages past, + Marched on to conquest o'er the Latin way, + Gleaming, white-stoned, so far beneath our gaze. + + GIULIA DI SEGNI, 'mid the Volscians born, + Streamed in thy veins that fiery, Roman blood, + Curled thy proud lip, and fired thy eagle eyes. + Faultless in beauty, as the noble forms + Painted on rare Etrurian vase of old; + How life, ennobled by thy love, swept on, + Serene, above the mean and pitiful! + + Stars! that still sparkle o'er old Segni's walls, + Oh! mirror back to me one glance from eyes + That yet may watch you from that Roman tower. + + + + +MR. BROWN BUYS A PAINTING. + + +Caper's uncle, from St. Louis, Mr. William Browne, one day astonished +several artists who were dining with him: + +'My young men,' said he, 'there is one thing pleases me very much about +you all, and that is, you never mention the word Art; don't seem to care +any thing more about the old masters than I would about a lot of old +worn-out broom-sticks; and if I didn't know I was with artists in Rome, +the crib--no, what d' ye call it?' + +'The manger?' suggested Rocjean. + +'Yes,' continued Uncle Bill, 'the manger of art, I should think I was +among a lot of smart merchants, who had gone into the painting business +determined to do a right good trade.' + +'Cash on delivery,' added Caper. + +'Yes, be sure of that. Well, I like it; I feel at home with you; and as +I always make it a point to encourage young business men, I am going to +do my duty by one of you, at any rate. I shan't show favor to my nephew, +Jim, any more than I do to the rest. And this is my plan: I want a +painting five feet by two, to fill up a place in my house in St. Louis; +it's an odd shape, and that is so much in my favor, because you haven't +any of you a painting that size under way, and can all start even. I'll +leave the subject to each one of you, and I'll pay five hundred dollars +to the man who paints the best picture, who has his done within seven +days, _and puts the most work on it_! Do you all understand?' + +They replied affirmatively. + +'But what the thunder,' asked Caper, 'are those of us who don't win the +prize, going to do with paintings of such a size, left on our hands? +Nobody, unless a steamboat captain, who wants to ornament his berths, +just that size, and relieve the tedium of his passengers, would ever +think of buying them.' + +'Well,' replied Uncle Bill, 'I don't want smart young men like you all, +to lose your time and money, so I'll buy the balance of the paintings +for what the canvas and paints cost, and give two dollars a day for the +seven days employed on each painting. Isn't that liberal?' + +'Like Cosmo de Medici,' answered Rocjean; 'and I agree to the terms in +every particular, especially as to putting the most work on it! There +are four competitors--put down their names. Legume, you will come in, +won't you?' + +'Certainly I will, by Jing!' answered the French artist, who prided +himself on his knowledge of English, especially the interjections. + +'Then,' continued Rocjean, 'Caper, Bagswell, Legume, and I, will try for +your five hundred dollar prize. When shall we commence?' + +'To-day is Tuesday,' replied Uncle Bill; 'say next Monday--that will +give you plenty of time to get your frames and canvases. So that ends +all particulars. There are two friends of mine here from the United +States, one, Mr. Van Brick, of New York, and the other, Mr. Pinchfip, of +Philadelphia, whom I think you all met here last week.' + +'The thin gentleman with hair very much brushed, be Gad?' asked Legume. + +'I don't remember as to his hair,' answered Uncle Bill, 'but that's the +man. Well, these two I know will act as vampires, and I am sure you will +be pleased with their verdict. Monday after next, therefore, we will all +call, so be ready.' + + * * * * * + +The four artists took the whole thing as a joke, but determined to paint +the pictures; and at Caper's suggestion, each one agreed, as there was a +play of words in the clause, 'most work on it,' to puzzle Uncle Bill, +and have the laugh on him. + +On the day appointed to decide the prize, Uncle Bill, accompanied by +Messrs. Van Brick and Pinchfip, called first at Legume's studio; they +found him in the Via Margutta, (in English, Malicious street,) in a +light, airy room, furnished with a striking attention to effect. On his +easel was a painting of the required size, representing Louis XV. at +Versailles, surrounded by his lady friends. By making the figures of the +ladies small, and crowding them, Legume managed to get a hundred or two +on the canvas. A period in their history to which Frenchmen refer with +so much pleasure, and with which they are so conversant, was treated by +the artist with professional zeal. The merits of the painting were +carefully canvassed by the two judges. Mr. Pinchfip found it exceedingly +graceful, neat, and pretty. Mr. Van Brick admired the females, remarking +that he should like to be in old Louis's place. To which Legume bowed, +asserting that he was sure he was in every way qualified to fill it. Mr. +Van Brick determined in his mind to give the artist a dinner, at +Spillman's, for that speech. + +Mr. Pinchfip took notes in a book; Mr. Van Brick asked for a light to a +cigar. The former congratulated the artist; the latter at once asked him +to come and dine with him. Mr. Pinchfip wished to know if he was related +to the Count Legume whom he had met at Paris. Mr. Van Brick told him he +would bring his friend Livingston round to buy a painting. Mr. Pinchfip +said that it would afford him pleasure to call again. Mr. Van Brick gave +the artist his card, and shook hands with him:...and the judges were +passing out, when Legume asked them to take one final look at the +painting to see if it had not the _most work_ on it. Mr. Van Brick +instantly turned toward it, and running over it with his eye, burst into +an uncontrollable fit of laughter. + +'If the others beat that, I am mistaken,' said he. 'Look at there!' +calling the attention of Uncle Bill and Mr. Pinchfip to a fold of a +curtain on which was painted, in small letters, + +'MOST WORK.' + +'I say, Browne,' continued Mr. Van Brick, 'he is too many for you; and +if the one who puts 'most work' on his painting is to win the five +hundred dollars, Legume's chance is good.' + +'Very ingenious,' said Mr. Pinchfip, 'very; it is a legitimate play upon +words. But legally, I can not affirm that I am aware of any precedent +for awarding Mr. Browne's money to Monsieur Legume on this score.' + +'We will have to make a precedent, then,' spoke Van Brick, 'and do it +illegally, if we find that he deserves the money. But time flies, and we +have the other artists to visit.' + +They next went to Bagswell's studio, in the Viccolo dei Greci, and found +him in a large room, well furnished, and having a solidly comfortable +look; the walls ornamented with paintings, sketches, costumes, armor; +while in a good light under its one large window, was his painting. They +found he had left his beaten track of historical subjects, and in the +_genre_ school had an interior of an Italian country inn--a +kitchen-scene. It represented a stout, handsome country girl, in +Ciociara costume, kneading a large trough of dough, while another girl +was filling pans with that which was already kneaded, and two or three +other females were carrying them to an oven, tended by a man who was +piling brush-wood on the fire. The painting was very life-like, and for +the short time employed on it, well finished. It wanted the fire and +dash of Legume's painting, but its truthfulness to life evidently made a +deep impression on Uncle Bill. Stuck on with a sketching-tack to one +corner was a piece of paper, on which was marked the number of hours +employed each day on the work; it summed up fifty-four hours, or an +average each day of nearly eight hours' work on it. + +Mr. Pinchfip's note-book was again called into play. Mr. Van Brick had +another cigar to smoke, remarking that the artist had triple work in his +picture--head, bread, and prize-work: his picture representing working +in, over, and for bread! + +They next went to see Rocjean, in the Corso; they found him in a +bournouse, with a fez on his head, a long chibouk in his mouth, smoking +away, extended at full length on a settee, which he insisted was a +divan. There was a glass bottle holding half a gallon of red wine on a +table near him, also a bottle of Marsala, and half a dozen glasses. +There was a roaring wood-fire in his stove--for it was December, and the +day was overcast and cool. + +'This is the most out and out comfortable old nest I've seen in Rome,' +said Mr. Van Brick, as they entered; 'and as for curiosities and +plunder, you beat Barnum. _Will I take a glass of wine_? I am there!' + +Rocjean filled up glasses. Mr. Pinchfip declining, as he never drank +before dinner, neither did he smoke before dinner. He told them that the +late Doctor Phyzgig, who had always been their (the Pinchfips') family +physician, had absolutely forbidden it. + +No one made any remark to this, unless Mr. Van Brick's expressive face +could be translated as observing, in a quiet manner, that the late +Doctor was possibly dyspeptic, and probably nervous. + +Rocjean's painting represented a view of the Claudian aqueduct, +mountains in the distance; bold foreground, shepherd with flocks, a +wayside shrine, peasants kneeling in front of it. Over all, bold cloud +effects. A very ponderous volume balanced on top of the picture, and +leaning against the easel, invited Uncle Bill's attention, and he asked +Rocjean why he had put it there? The artist answered that it was a folio +copy of _Josephus_, his works, and, as he was anxious to comply with the +terms of Mr. Browne, he had placed it there in order to put the _most +work_ on it. + +Mr. Pinchfip having asked Rocjean why, in placing that book there, he +was like a passenger paying his fare to the driver of an omnibus? + +The latter at once answered: + +'I give it up.' + +'So you do,' replied Pinchfip. 'You are quick, sir, at answering +conundrums.' + +Mr. Brick saw it. Finally Uncle Bill was made to comprehend. + +'Very excellent, sir; very ingenious! Philadelphians may well be proud +of the high position they have as punsters, utterers of _bon mots_ and +conundrums,' said Rocjean; 'I have had the comfort of living in your +city, and thoroughly appreciating your--markets.' + +After Rocjean's the judges and Uncle Bill went to Caper's studio. As +they entered his room they found that ingenious youth walking, in his +shirt-sleeves, in as large a circle as the room would permit, bearing on +his head a large canvas, while a quite pretty female model, named +Stella, sat on a sofa, marking down something on a piece of paper, using +the sole of her shoe for a writing-desk. + +'We-ell!' said Uncle Bill. + +'One more round,' quoth Caper, with unmoved countenance, 'and I will be +with you. That will make four hundred and fifty, won't it, Stella?' + +'_Eh, Gia_, one more is all you want.' And making an extra scratch with +a pencil, the female model surveyed the new-comers with a triumphant +air, plainly saying: 'See there! I can write, but I am not proud.' + +'What are you about, Jim?' + +'Look at that painting!' answered Caper. 'The Blessing of the Donkeys, +Horses, etc.; it is one of the most imposing ceremonies of the Church. +As my specialty is animal, I have chosen it for my painting; and not +contented with laboring faithfully on it, I have determined, in order to +put the thing beyond a doubt as to my gaining the prize, to put the +_most work_ on it of any of my rivals; so I have actually, as Stella +will tell you, carried it bodily four hundred and fifty times round this +studio.' + +'Instead of a painting, I should think you would have made a panting of +it,' spoke Mr. Van Brick. + +'The idea seems to me artful,' added Mr. Pinchfip, 'but after all, this +pedestrian work was not on the painting, but under it; therefore, +according to Blackstone on contracts, this comes under the head of a +consideration _do, ut facias_, see vol. ii. page 360. How far moral +obligation is a legal consideration, see note, vol. iii. p. 249 +Bossanquet and Puller's Reports. The principle _servus facit, ut herus +det_, as laid down by....' + +'Jove!' exclaimed Uncle Bill, 'couldn't you stop off the torrent for one +minute? I'm drowning--I give up--do with me as you see fit.' + + * * * * * + +'And now,' said Mr. Van Brick, 'that we have seen the four paintings, +let us, Mr. Pinchfip, proceed calmly to discover who has won the five +hundred dollars. Duly, deliberately, and gravely, let us put the four +names on four slips of paper, stir them up in a hat. Mr. Browne shall +then draw out a name, the owner of that name shall be the winner.' + +It was drawn, and by good fortune for him, Bagswell won the five hundred +dollars. Thus Uncle Bill Browne bought one painting for a good round +sum, and three others at the stipulated price. Which one of the four had +the _most work_ on it, is, however, an unsettled question among three of +the artists, to this day. + + + + + FOR THE HOUR OF TRIUMPH. + + + Victory comes with a palm in her hand, + With laurel upon her brow; + Cypress is clinging about her feet, + But its dark blossoms are red and sweet, + And the weeping mourners bow. + + It is well. Through her tears, the widow smiles + To the child upon her knee; + 'Thou'rt fatherless, darling; but he fell + Gallantly fighting, and long and well, + For the banner of the free!' + + Then, weeping: 'Alas! for my lost, lost love; + Alas! for my own weak heart; + I know, when the storm shall pass away, + My boy, in manhood, would blush to say: + 'My blood had therein no part." + + The maiden her lover weeps, unconsoled, + So desolate is her gloom; + But a voice falls softly through the air, + Whispering comfort to her despair, + 'Love _here_ hath fadeless bloom.' + + The father laments for his boy, who fell + By Cumberland's river-side; + The sister, her brother loved the best, + Whose blood, in the dark and troubled West, + The father of waters dyed. + + The mother--oh! silence your Spartan tales-- + Says bravely, hushing a moan: + 'I have yet _one_ left. My boy! go on; + Rear freedom's banner high in the sun!' + Then sits in the house alone. + + To die for one's country is sweet, indeed! + To fight for the right is brave; + But there are brave hearts who vainly wait + Till triumph shall find them desolate, + Their hopes in a far-off grave. + + O mourners! be patient; the end shall come; + The beautiful years of peace. + Remember! though hearts rebel the while + You hide your tears with a mournful smile, + That tyranny soon shall cease. + + For victory comes, a palm in her hand, + Fresh garlands about her brow; + But the cypress trailing under her feet, + With crimson blossoms, by tears made sweet, + Shall wreathe with the laurel now. + + + + + IN TRANSITU. + + + When the acid meets the alkali, + How they sputter, snap, and fly! + Such a crackling, such a pattering! + Such a hissing, such a spattering! + + All in foaming discord tossed, + One would swear that all is lost. + Yet the equivalents soon blend, + All comes right at last i' the end. + + Country mine!--'tis so with thee. + Wait--and all will quiet be! + Men, while working out a mission, + Must not fear the fierce transition. + + + + +AMONG THE PINES. + + +I sauntered out, after the events recorded in the last paper, to inhale +the fresh air of the morning. A slight rain had fallen during the night, +and it still moistened the dead leaves which carpeted the woods, making +an extended walk out of the question; so, seating myself on the trunk of +a fallen tree, in the vicinity of the house, I awaited the hour for +breakfast. I had not remained there long before I heard the voices of my +host and Madam P---- on the front piazza: + +'I tell you, Alice, I can not--must not do it. If I overlook this, the +discipline of the plantation is at an end.' + +'Do what you please with him when you return,' replied the lady, 'but do +not chain him up, and leave me, at such a time, alone. You know Jim is +the only one I can depend on.' + +'Well, have your own way. You know, my darling, I would not cause you a +moment's uneasiness, but I must follow up this d----d Moye.' + +I was seated where I could hear, though I could not see the speakers, +but it was evident from the tone of the last remark, that an action +accompanied it quite as tender as the words. Being unwilling to overhear +more of a private conversation, I rose and approached them. + +'Ah! my dear fellow,' said the Colonel, on perceiving me, 'are you +stirring so early? I was about to send to your room to ask if you'll go +with me up the country. My d----d overseer has got away, and I must +follow him at once.' + +'I'll go with pleasure,' I replied. 'Which way do you think Moye has +gone?' + +'The shortest cut to the railroad, probably; but old Caesar will track +him.' + +A servant then announced breakfast--an early one having been prepared. +We hurried through the meal with all speed, and the other preparations +being soon over, were in twenty minutes in our saddles, and ready for +the journey. The mulatto coachman, with a third horse, was at the door, +ready to accompany us, and as we mounted, the Colonel said to him: + +'Go and call Sam, the driver.' + +The darky soon returned with the heavy, ugly-visaged black who had been +whipped, by Madam P----'s order, the day before. + +'Sam,' said his master, 'I shall be gone some days, and I leave the +field-work in your hands. Let me have a good account of you when I +return.' + +'Yas, massa, you shill dat,' replied the negro. + +'Put Jule--Sam's Jule--into the field, and see that she does full +tasks,' continued the Colonel. + +'Hain't she wanted 'mong de nusses, massa?' + +'Put some one else there--give her field-work; she needs it.' + +I will here explain that on large plantations the young children of the +field-women are left with them only at night, being herded together +during the day in a separate cabin, in charge of nurses. These nurses +are feeble, sickly women, or recent mothers; and the fact of Jule's +being employed in that capacity was evidence that she was unfit for +out-door labor. + +Madam P----, who was waiting on the piazza to see us off, seemed about +to remonstrate against this arrangement, but she hesitated a moment, and +in that moment we had bidden her 'Good-by,' and galloped away. + +We were soon at the cabin of the negro-hunter, and the coachman +dismounting, called him out. + +'Hurry up, hurry up,' said the Colonel, as Sandy appeared, 'we haven't a +moment to spare.' + +'Jest so, jest so, Cunnel; I'll jine ye in a jiffin,' replied he of the +reddish extremities. + +Emerging from the shanty with provoking deliberation--the impatience of +my host had infected me--the clay-eater slowly proceeded to mount the +horse of the negro, his dirt-bedraggled wife, and clay-incrusted +children, following close at his heels, and the younger ones huddling +around for the tokens of paternal affection usual at parting. Whether it +was the noise they made, or their frightful aspect, I know not, but the +horse, a spirited animal, took fright on their appearance, and nearly +broke away from the negro, who was holding him. Seeing this, the Colonel +said: + +'Clear out, you young scarecrows. Into the house with you.' + +'They hain't no more scarecrows than yourn, Cunnel J----,' said the +mother, in a decidedly belligerent tone. 'You may 'buse my old man--he +kin stand it--but ye shan't blackguard my young 'uns!' + +The Colonel laughed, and was about to make a good-natured reply, when +Sandy yelled out: + +'Gwo enter the house and shet up, ye ---- ----.' + +With this affectionate farewell, he turned his horse and led the way up +the road. + +The dog, who was a short distance in advance, soon gave a piercing howl, +and started off at the speed of a reindeer. He had struck the trail, and +urging our horses to their fastest speed, we followed. + +We were all well mounted, but the mare the Colonel had given me was a +magnificent animal, as fleet as the wind, and with a gait so easy that +her back seemed a rocking-chair. Saddle-horses at the South are trained +to the gallop--Southern riders deeming it unnecessary that one's +breakfast should be churned into a Dutch cheese by a trotting nag, in +order that one may pass for a good horseman. + +We had ridden on at a perfect break-neck pace for half an hour, when the +Colonel shouted to our companion: + +'Sandy, call the dog in; the horses won't last ten miles at this +gait--we've a long ride before us.' + +The dirt-eater did as he was bidden, and we soon settled into a gentle +gallop. + +We had passed through a dense forest of pines, but were emerging into a +'bottom country,' where some of the finest deciduous trees, then brown +and leafless, but bearing promise of the opening beauty of spring, +reared, along with the unfading evergreen, their tall stems in the air. +The live-oak, the sycamore, the Spanish mulberry, the mimosa, and the +persimmon, gayly festooned with wreaths of the white and yellow +jessamine, the woodbine and the cypress-moss, and bearing here and there +a bouquet of the mistletoe, with its deep green and glossy leaves +upturned to the sun--flung their broad arms over the road, forming an +archway grander and more beautiful than any the hand of man ever wove +for the greatest heroes the world has worshiped. + +The woods were free from underbrush, but a coarse, wiry grass, unfit for +fodder, and scattered through them in detached patches, was the only +vegetation visible. The ground was mainly covered with the leaves and +burs of the pine. + +We passed great numbers of swine, feeding on these burs, and now and +then a horned animal browsing on the cypress-moss where it hung low on +the trees. I observed that nearly all the swine were marked, though they +seemed too wild to have ever seen an owner, or a human habitation. They +were a long, lean, slab-sided race, with legs and shoulders like a deer, +and bearing no sort of resemblance to the ordinary hog except in the +snout, and that feature was so much longer and sharper than the nose of +the Northern swine, that I doubt if Agassiz would class the two as one +species. However, they have their uses--they make excellent bacon, and +are 'death on snakes;' Ireland itself is not more free from the +serpentine race than are the districts frequented by these long-nosed +quadrupeds. + +'We call them Carolina race-horses,' said the Colonel, as he finished an +account of their peculiarities. + +'Race-horses! Why, are they fleet of foot?' + +'Fleet as deer. I'd match one against an ordinary horse at any time.' + +'Come, my friend, you're practicing on my ignorance of natural history.' + +'Not a bit of it. See! there's a good specimen yonder. If we can get him +into the road, and fairly started, I'll bet you a dollar he'll beat +Sandy's mare on a half-mile stretch--Sandy to hold the stakes and have +the winnings.' + +'Well, agreed,' I said, laughing, 'and I'll give the pig ten rods the +start.' + +'No,' replied the Colonel, 'you can't afford it. He'll _have_ to start +ahead, but you'll need that in the count. Come, Sandy, will you go in +for the pile?' + +I'm not sure that the native would not have run a race with Old Nicholas +himself, for the sake of so much money. To him it was a vast sum; and as +he thought of it, his eyes struck small sparks, and his enormous beard +and mustachio vibrated with something that faintly resembled a laugh. +Replying to the question, he said: + +'Kinder reckon I wull, Cunnel; howsomdever, I keeps the stakes, anyhow?' + +'Of course,' said the planter, 'but be honest--win if you can.' + +Sandy halted his horse in the road, while the planter and I took to the +woods on either side of the way. The Colonel soon maneuvered to separate +the selected animal from the rest of the herd, and, without much +difficulty, got him into the road, where, by closing down on each flank, +we kept him till he and Sandy were fairly under way. + +'He'll keep to the road when once started,' said the Colonel, laughing, +'and he'll show you some of the tallest running you ever saw in your +life.' + +Away they went. At first the pig seemed not exactly to comprehend the +programme, for he cantered off at a leisurely pace, though he held his +own. Soon, however, he cast an eye behind him--halted a moment to +collect his thoughts and reconnoiter--and then, lowering his head and +elevating his tail, put forth all his speed. And such speed! Talk of a +deer, the wind, or a steam-engine--their gait is not to be compared with +it. Nothing in nature I have ever seen run--except, it may be, a +Southern tornado, or a Sixth Ward politician--could hope to distance +that pig. He gained on the horse at every pace, and I soon saw that my +dollar was gone! + +'In for a shilling in for a pound,' is the adage, so turning to the +Colonel, I said, as intelligibly as my horse's rapid steps, and my own +excited risibilities would allow: + +'I see I've lost, but I'll go you another dollar that you can't beat the +pig!' + +'No--sir!' the Colonel got out in the breaks of his laughing explosions; +'you can't hedge on me in that manner. I'll go a dollar that _you_ can't +do it, and your mare is the fastest on the road. She won me a thousand +not a month ago.' + +'Well, I'll do it; Sandy to have the stakes.' + +'Agreed,' said the Colonel, and away we went. + +The swinish racer was about a hundred yards ahead when I gave the mare +the reins, and told her to go. And she did go. She flew against the wind +with a motion so rapid that my face, as it clove the air, felt as if +cutting its way through a solid body, and the trees, as we passed, +seemed taken with a panic, and running for dear life in the opposite +direction. + +For a few moments I thought the mare was gaining, and I turned to the +Colonel with an exultant look. + +'Don't shout till you win, my boy,' he called out from the distance +where I was fast leaving him and Sandy. + +_I did not shout_, for spite of all my efforts the space between me and +the pig seemed to widen. Yet I kept on, determined to win, till, at the +end of a short half-mile, we reached the Waccamaw--the swine still a +hundred yards ahead! There his pig-ship halted, turned coolly around, +eyed me for a moment, then quietly and deliberately trotted off into the +woods. + +A bend in the road kept my companions out of sight for a few moments, +and when they came up I had somewhat recovered my breath, though the +mare was blowing hard, and reeking with foam. + +'Well,' said the Colonel, 'what do you think of our bacon 'as it runs'?' + +'I think the Southern article can't be beat, whether raw or cooked, +standing or running.' + +At this moment the hound, who had been leisurely jogging along in the +rear, disdaining to join in the race in which his dog of a master and I +had engaged, came up, and dashing quickly on to the river's edge, set up +a most dismal howling. The Colonel dismounted, and clambering down the +bank, which was there twenty feet high, and very steep, shouted out: + +'The d--d Yankee has swum the stream!' + +'Why so?' Tasked. + +'To cover his tracks and delay pursuit; but he has overshot the mark. +There is no other road within ten miles, and he must have taken to this +one again beyond here. He's lost twenty minutes by that maneuver. Come, +Sandy, call on the dog, we'll push on a little faster.' + +'But he tuk to t'other bank, Cunnel. Shan't we trail him thar?' asked +Sandy. + +'And suppose he found a boat here,' I suggested, 'and made the shore +some ways down?' + +'He couldn't get Firefly into a boat--we should only waste time in +scouring the other bank. The swamp this side the next run has forced him +into the road within five miles. The trick is transparent. He took me +for a fool,' replied the Colonel, answering both questions at once. + +I had reined my horse out of the road, and when my companions turned to +go, was standing at the edge of the bank, overlooking the river. +Suddenly I saw, on one of the abutments of the bridge, what seemed a +long, black log--strange to say, _in motion!_ + +'Colonel,' I shouted, 'see there! a living log, as I'm a white man!' + +'Lord bless you,' cried the planter, taking an observation, 'it's an +alligator!' + +I said no more, but pressing on after the hound, soon left my companions +out of sight. For long afterward, the Colonel, in a doleful way, would +allude to my lamentable deficiency in natural history--particularly in +such branches as bacon and 'living logs.' + +I had ridden about five miles, keeping well up with the hound, and had +reached the edge of the swamp, when suddenly the dog darted to the side +of the road, and began to yelp in the most frantic manner. Dismounting, +and leading my horse to the spot, I made out plainly the print of +Firefly's feet in the sand. There was no mistaking it--that round shoe +on the off fore-foot. (The horse had, when a colt, a cracked hoof, and +though the wound was outgrown, the foot was still tender.) These prints +were dry, while the tracks we had seen at the river were filled with +water, thus proving that the rain ceased while the overseer was passing +between the two places. He was then not far off. + +The Colonel and Sandy soon rode up. + +'Caught a living log! eh, my good fellow?' asked my host, with a laugh. + +'No; but here's the overseer as plain as daylight; and his tracks not +wet!' + +Quickly dismounting, he examined the ground, and then exclaimed: + +'The d--l! it's a fact--here not four hours ago! He has doubled on his +tracks since, I'll wager, and not made twenty miles--we'll have him +before night, sure! Come, mount--quick.' + +We sprang into our saddles, and again pressed rapidly on after the dog, +who followed the scent at the top of his speed. + +Some three miles more of wet, miry road took us to the run of which the +Colonel had spoken. Arrived there, we found the hound standing on the +bank, wet to the skin, and looking decidedly chop-fallen. + +'Death and d--n!' shouted the Colonel; 'the dog has swum the run, and +lost the trail on the other side! The d--d scoundrel has taken to the +water, and balked us after all! Take up the dog, Sandy, and try him +again over there.' + +The native spoke to Caesar, who bounded on to the horse's back in front +of his master. They then crossed the stream, which there was about fifty +yards wide, and so shallow that in the deepest part the water only +touched the horse's breast, but it was so roiled by the recent rain that +we could not distinguish the foot-prints of the horse beneath the +surface. + +The dog ranged up and down on the opposite bank, but all to no purpose: +the overseer had not been there. He had gone either up or down the +stream--in which direction, was now the question. Calling Sandy back to +our side of the run, the Colonel proceeded to hold a 'council of war.' +Each one gave his opinion, which was canvassed by the others, with as +much solemnity as if the fate of the Union hung on the decision. + +The native proposed we should separate--one go up, another down the +stream, and the third, with the dog, follow the road; to which he +thought Moye had finally returned. Those who should explore the run +would easily detect the horse's tracks where he had left it, and then +taking a straight course to the road, we could all meet some five miles +further on, at a place indicated. + +I gave in my adhesion to Sandy's plan, but the Colonel overruled it on +the ground of the waste of time to be incurred in thus recovering the +overseer's trail. + +'Why not,' he said, 'strike at once for the end of his route? Why follow +the slow steps he took in order to throw us off the track? He has not +come back to this road. Six miles below there is another one leading +also to the railway. He has taken that. We might as well send Sandy and +the dog back at once, and go on by ourselves.' + +'But if bound for the Station, why should he wade through the creek +here, sis miles out of his way? Why not go straight on by the road?' I +asked. + +'Because he knew the dog would track him, and he hoped by taking to the +run to make me think he had crossed the country instead of striking for +the railroad.' + +I felt sure the Colonel was wrong, but knowing him to be tenacious of +his own opinions, I made no further objection. + +Directing Sandy to call on Madam P---- and acquaint her with our +progress, he then dismissed the negro-hunter, and we once more turned +our horses up the road. + +The next twenty miles, like our previous route, lay through an unbroken +forest, but as we left the water-courses, we saw nothing but the gloomy +pines, which there--the region being remote from the means of +transportation--were seldom tapped, and presented few of the openings +that invite the weary traveler to the dwelling of the hospitable +planter. + +After a time the sky, which had been bright and cloudless all the +morning, grew overcast and gave out tokens of a coming storm. A black +cloud gathered in the west, and random flashes darted from it far off in +the distance; then gradually it neared us; low mutterings sounded in the +air, and the tops of the tall pines a few miles away, were lit up now +and then with a fitful blaze, all the brighter for the deeper gloom that +succeeded. Then a terrific flash and peal broke directly over us, and a +great tree, struck by a red-hot bolt, fell with a deafening crash, +half-way across our path. Peal after peal followed, and then the +rain--not filtered into drops as it falls from our colder sky, but in +broad, blinding sheets, poured full and heavy on our shelterless heads. + +'Ah! there it comes!' shouted the Colonel. 'God have mercy upon us!' + +Suddenly a crashing, crackling, thundering roar rose above the storm, +filling the air, and shaking the solid earth till it trembled beneath +our horses' feet, as if upheaved by a volcano. Nearer and nearer the +sound came, till it seemed that all the legions of darkness were +unloosed in the forest, and were mowing down the great pines as the +mower mows the grass with big scythe. Then an awful, sweeping crash +thundered directly at our backs, and turning round, as if to face a +foe, my horse, who had borne the roar and the blinding flash till then, +unmoved, paralyzed with dread, and panting for breath, sunk to the +ground; while close at my side the Colonel, standing erect in his +stirrups, his head uncovered to the pouring sky, cried out: + +'THANK GOD, WE ARE SAVED!' + +There--not three hundred yards in our rear, had passed the +TORNADO--uprooting trees, prostrating dwellings, and sending many a soul +to its last account, but sparing us for another day! For thirty miles +through the forest it had mowed a swath of two hundred feet, then moved +on to stir the ocean to its briny depths. + +With a full heart, I remounted, and turning my horse, pressed on in the +rain. We said not a word till a friendly opening pointed the way to a +planter's dwelling. Then calling to me to follow, the Colonel dashed up +the by-path which led to the mansion, and in five minutes we were +warming our chilled limbs before the cheerful fire that roared and +crackled on its broad hearth-stone. + +The house was a large, old-fashioned frame building, square as a +packing-box, and surrounded, as all country dwellings at the South are, +by a broad, open piazza. Our summons was answered by its owner, a +well-to-do, substantial, middle-aged planter, wearing the ordinary +homespun of the district, but evidently of a station in life much above +the common 'corn-crackers' I had seen at the country meeting-house. The +Colonel was an acquaintance, and greeting us with great cordiality, our +host led the way directly to the sitting-room. There we found a bright, +blazing fire, and a pair of bright, blazing eyes, the latter belonging +to a blithesome young woman of about twenty, with a cheery face, and a +half-rustic, half-cultivated air, whom our new friend introduced to us +as his wife. + +'I regret not having had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. S---- before, but +am very happy to meet her now,' said the Colonel, with all the +well-bred, gentlemanly ease that distinguished him. + +'The pleasure is mutual, Colonel J----,' replied the lady, 'but thirty +miles in this wild country should not have made a neighbor so distant as +you have been.' + +'Business, madam, is at fault, as your husband knows. I have much to do; +and besides, all my connections are in the other direction--with +Charleston.' + +'It's a fact, Sally, the Colonel is the d----st busy man in these parts. +Not content with a big plantation and three hundred niggers, he looks +after all South-Carolina, and the rest of creation to boot,' said our +host. + +'Tom will have his joke, madam, but he's not far from the truth.' + +Seeing we were dripping wet, the lady offered us a change of clothing, +and retiring to a chamber, we each appropriated a suit belonging to our +host, giving our own to a servant to be dried. + +Arrayed in the fresh apparel, we soon rejoined our friends in the +sitting-room. The new garments fitted the Colonel tolerably well, but +though none too long, they were a world too wide for me, and, as my wet +hair hung in smooth, flat folds down my cheeks, and my limp shirt-collar +fell over my linsey coat, I looked for all the world like a cross +between a theatrical Aminadab Sleek and Sir John Falstaff, with the +stuffing omitted. When our hostess caught sight of me in this new garb, +she rubbed her hands together in great glee, and, springing to her feet, +gave vent to a perfect storm of laughter--jerking out between the +explosions: + +'Why--you--you--look jest like--a scare-crow.' + +There was no mistaking that hearty, hoidenish manner; and seizing both +of her hands in mine, I shouted: 'I've found you out--you're a +'country-woman' of mine--a clear-blooded Yankee!' + +'What! _you_ a Yankee!' she exclaimed, still laughing, 'and here with +this horrid 'seceshener,' as they call him.' + +'True as preachin', ma'am,' I replied, adopting the drawl--'all the way +from Down East, and Union, tu, stiff as buckram.' + +'Du tell!' she exclaimed, swinging my hands together as she held them in +hers. 'If I warn't hitched to this ere feller, I'd give ye a smack right +on the spot. I'm _so_ glad to see ye.' + +'Do it, Sally--never mind _me_,' cried her husband, joining heartily in +the merriment. + +Seizing the collar of my coat with both hands, she drew my face down +till my lips almost touched hers, (I was preparing to blush, and the +Colonel shouted, 'Come, come, I shall tell his wife,') but then, turning +quickly on her heel, she threw herself into a chair, exclaiming, 'I +wouldn't mind, but the _old man would be jealous;_' and adding to the +Colonel, 'You needn't be troubled, sir; no Yankee girl will kiss _you_ +till you change your politics.' + +'Give me that inducement, and I'll change them on the spot,' said the +Colonel. + +'No, no, Dave, 'twouldn't do,' replied the planter, 'the conversion +wouldn't be genuwine--besides, such things arn't proper, except with +blood-relations--and all the Yankees, you know, are first-cousins.' + +The conversation then subsided into a more placid mood, but lost none of +its genial good-humor. Refreshments were soon set before us, and while +partaking of them I gathered from our hostess that she was a Vermont +country-girl, who, some three years before, had been induced by liberal +pay, to come South as a teacher. A sister accompanied her, who, about a +year after their arrival, had married a neighboring planter. Wishing to +be near the sister, our hostess had also married and settled down for +life in that wild region. 'I like the country very well,' she added; +'it's a great sight easier living here than in Vermont; but I do hate +these lazy, shiftless, good-for-nothing niggers; they are _so_ slow, and +_so_ careless, and _so_ dirty, that I sometimes think they will worry +the very life out of me. I du believe I'm the hardest mistress in all +the district.' + +I learned from her that a majority of the teachers at the South are from +the North, and principally, too, from New-England. Teaching is a very +laborious employment there, far more so than with us, for the +Southerners have no methods like ours, and the same teacher usually has +to hear lessons in branches all the way from Greek and Latin to the +simple A B C. The South has no system of public instruction; no common +schools; no means of placing within the reach of the sons and daughters +of the poor even the elements of knowledge. While the children of the +wealthy are most carefully educated, it is the policy of the ruling +class to keep the great mass of the people in ignorance; and so long as +this policy continues, so long will that section be as far behind the +North as it now is in all that constitutes the elements of prosperity +and true greatness. + +The afternoon wore rapidly and pleasantly away in the genial society of +our wayside friends. Politics were discussed, (our host was a Union +man,) the prospects of the turpentine crop talked over, the recent news +canvassed, the usual neighborly topics touched upon, and--I hesitate to +confess it--a considerable quantity of corn-whisky disposed of, before +the Colonel discovered, all at once, that it was six o'clock, and we +were still seventeen miles from the railway station. Arraying ourselves +again in our dried garments, we bade a hasty but regretful 'good-by' to +our hospitable entertainers, and once more took to the road. + +The storm had cleared away, but the ground was heavy with the recent +rain, and our horses were sadly jaded with the ride of the morning. We +therefore gave them the reins, and as they jogged on at their leisure, +it was ten o'clock at night before we reached the little hamlet of +W----Station, in the State of North-Carolina. + +A large hotel, or station-house, and about a dozen log-shanties made up +the village. Two of these structures were negro-cabins; two were small +groceries, in which the vilest alcoholic compounds were sold at a bit +(ten cents) a glass; one was a lawyer's office, in which was the +post-office, and a justice's court, where, once a month, the small +offenders of the vicinity 'settled up their accounts;' one was a +tailoring and clothing establishment, where breeches were patched at a +dime a stitch, and payment taken in tar and turpentine; and the rest +were private dwellings of one apartment, occupied by the grocers, the +tailor, the switch-tender, the post-master, and the negro _attaches_ of +the railroad. The church and the school-house--the first buildings to go +up in a Northern village, I have omitted to enumerate, because--they +were not there. + +One of the natives told me that the lawyer was a 'stuck-up critter;' 'he +don't live; he don't--he puts-up at th' hotel.' And the hotel! Would +Shakspeare, had he known of it, have written of taking one's _ease_ at +his inn? It was a long, framed building, two stories in hight, with a +piazza extending across its side, and a front door crowded as closely +into one corner as the width of the joist would permit. Under the +piazza, ranged along the wall, was a low bench, occupied by about forty +tin wash-basins and water-pails, with coarse, dirty crash towels +suspended on rollers above them. By the side of each of these towels +hung a comb and a brush, to which a lock of every body's hair was +clinging, forming in the total a stock sufficient to establish any +barber in the wig business. + +It was, as I have said, ten o'clock when we reached the station. +Throwing the bridles of our horses over the hitching-posts at the door, +we at once made our way to the bar-room. That apartment, which was in +the rear of the building, and communicated with by a long, narrow +passage, was filled almost to suffocation, when we entered, by a cloud +of tobacco-smoke, the fumes of bad whisky, and a crowd of drunken +chivalry, through whom the Colonel with great difficulty elbowed his way +to the counter, where 'mine host' and two assistants were dispensing +'liquid death,' at the rate of ten cents a glass, and of ten glasses a +minute. + +'Hello, Colonel! how ar' ye?' cried the red-faced liquor-vender, as he +caught sight of my companion, and--relinquishing his lucrative +employment for a moment--took the Colonel's hand. + +'Quite well, thank you, Miles,' said the Colonel, with a certain +patronizing air, 'have you seen my man Moye?' + +'Moye, no! What's up with him?' + +'He's run away with my horse, Firefly--I thought he would have made for +this station. At what time does the next train go up?' + +'Wal, it's due half arter 'leven, but 'taint gin'rally 'long till nigh +one.' + +The Colonel was turning to join me at the door, when a well-dressed +young man of very unsteady movements, who was filling a glass at the +counter, and staring at him with a sort of dreamy amazement, stammered +out: 'Moye--run--run a--way, zir! that--k--kant be--by G--d. I +know--him, zir--he's a--a friend of mine, and--I'm--I'm d--d if he an't +hon--honest.' + +'About as honest as the Yankees run,' replied the Colonel: 'he's a d--d +thief, sir!' + +'Look here--here, zir--don't--don't you--you zay any--thing 'gainst--the +Yankees. D--d if--if I an't--one of 'em mezelf--zir,' said the fellow +staggering toward the Colonel. + +'_I_ don't care _what_, you are; you're drunk.' + +'You lie--you--you d--d 'ris--'ristocrat--take that,' was the reply, and +the inebriated gentleman aimed a blow, with all his unsteady might, at +the Colonel's face. + +The South-Carolinian stepped quickly aside, and dexterously threw his +foot before the other, who--his blow not meeting the expected +resistance--was unable to recover himself, and fell headlong to the +floor. The Colonel turned on his heel, and was walking quietly away, +when the sharp report of a pistol sounded through the apartment, and a +ball tore through the top of his boot, and lodged in the wall within +two feet of where I was standing. With a spring, quick and sure as the +tiger's, the Colonel was on the drunken man. Wrenching away the weapon, +he seized the fellow by the necktie, and drawing him up to nearly his +full hight, dashed him at one throw to the other side of the room. Then +raising the revolver he coolly leveled it to fire. + +But a dozen strong men were on him. The pistol was out of his hand, and +his arms were pinioned in an instant; while cries of 'Fair play, sir!' +'He's drunk!' 'Don't hit a man when he's down,' and other like +exclamations, came from all sides. + +'Give _me_ fair play, you d--d North-Carolina hounds,' cried the +Colonel, struggling violently to get away, 'and I'll fight the whole +posse of you.' + +'One's 'nuff for _you_, ye d--d fire-eatin' 'ristocrat,' said a long, +lean, bushy-haired, be-whiskered individual who was standing near the +counter: 'ef ye wan't ter fight, _I'll_ 'tend to yer case to onst. Let +him go, boys,' he continued as he stepped toward the Colonel, and parted +the crowd that had gathered around him: 'give him the shootin'-iron, and +let's see ef he'll take a man thet's sober.' + +I saw serious trouble was impending, and stepping forward, I said to the +last speaker: 'My friend, you have no quarrel with this gentleman. He +has treated that man only as you would have done.' + +'P'raps thet's so; but he's a d--d hound of a Seseshener thet's draggin' +us all to h--l; it'll do th' cuntry good to git quit of one on 'em.' + +'Whatever his politics are, he's a gentleman, sir, and has done you no +harm--let me beg of you to let him alone.' + +'Don't beg any thing for me, Mr. K----' growled the Colonel through his +barred teeth, 'I'll fight the d--d corn-cracker, and his whole race, at +once.' + +'No you won't, my friend. For the sake of those at home you won't,' I +said, as I took him by the arm, and partly led, partly forced, him +toward the door. + +'And who in h--l ar ye?' asked the 'corn-cracker,' planting himself +squarely in my way. + +'I'm on the same side of politics with you, Union to the core!' I +replied. + +'Ye ar! Union! Then giv us yer fist,' said he, grasping me by the hand, +'by----it does a feller good to see a man dressed in yer cloes thet +haint 'fraid ter say he's Union, so close to South-Car'lina, tu, as this +ar! Come, hev a drink: come, boys--all round--let's liquor!' + +'Excuse me now, my dear fellow--some other time I'll be glad to join +you.' + +'Jest as ye say, but thar's my fist, enyhow.' + +He gave me another hearty shake of the hand, and the crowd parting, I +made my way with the Colonel out of the room. We were followed by Miles, +the landlord, who, when we had reached the front of the entrance-way, +said: 'I'm right sorry for this row, gentlemen; but th' boys will hev a +time when they git together.' + +'Oh! never mind,' said the Colonel, who had recovered his coolness; 'but +why are all these people here?' + +'Thar's a barbecue cumin' off to-morrer on the camp-ground, and the +house is cram full.' + +'Is that so?' said the Colonel, then turning to me he added, 'Moye has +taken the railroad somewhere else; I must get to a telegraph-office at +once, to head him off. The nearest one is Wilmington. With all these +rowdies here, it will not do to leave the horses alone--will you stay +and keep an eye on them over to-morrow?' + +'Yes, I will, cheerfully.' + +'Thar's a mighty hard set round har now, Cunnel,' said the landlord; +'and the most peaceable git inter scrapes ef they han't no friends. +Hadn't ye better show the gentleman some of your'n, 'fore you go?' + +'Yes, yes, I didn't think of that. Who is here?' + +'Wal, thar's Cunnel Taylor, Bill Barnes, Sam Heddleson, Jo' Shackelford. +Andy Jones, Rob Brown, and lots of others.' + +'Where's Andy Jones?' + +'Reckon he's turned in; I'll see.' As the landlord opened a door which +led from the hall, the Colonel said to me: 'Andy is a Union man, but +he'd fight to the death for me.' + +'Sal!' called out the hotel-keeper. + +'Yas, massa, I'se har,' was the answer from a slatternly woman, awfully +black in the face, who soon thrust her head from the door. + +'Is Andy Jones har?' asked Miles. + +'Yas, massa, he'm turned in up thar on de table.' + +We followed the landlord into the apartment. It was the dining-room of +the hotel, and by the dim light which came from a smoky fire on the +hearth, I saw it contained about a hundred people, who, wrapped in +blankets, bed-quilts and traveling-shawls, and disposed in all +conceivable attitudes, were scattered about on the hard floor and +tables, sleeping soundly. The room was a long, low apartment--extending +across the whole front of the house--and had a wretched, squalid look. +The fire, which was tended by the negro-woman, (she had spread a blanket +on the floor, and was keeping a drowsy watch over it for the night,) had +been recently replenished with green wood, and was throwing out thick +volumes of black smoke, which, mixing with the effluvia from the lungs +of a hundred sleepers made up an atmosphere next to impossible to +breathe. Not a window was open, and not an aperture for ventilation +could be seen! + +Carefully avoiding the arms and legs of the recumbent chivalry, we +picked our way, guided by the negro-girl, to the corner of the room +where the Unionist was sleeping. Shaking him briskly by the shoulder, +the Colonel called out: 'Andy! Andy! wake up!' + +'What--what the d----l is the matter?' stammered out the sleeper, +gradually opening his eyes, and raising himself on one elbow, 'Lord +bless you, Cunnel, is thet you? what in----brought _you_ har?' + +'Business, Andy. Come, get up, I want to see you, and I can't talk +here.' + +The North-Carolinian slowly rose, and throwing his blanket over his +shoulders, followed us from the room. When we had reached the open air +the Colonel introduced me to his friend, who expressed surprise, and a +great deal of pleasure, at meeting a Northern Union man in the Colonel's +company. + +'Look after our horses, now, Miles; Andy and I want to talk,' said the +planter to the landlord, with about as little ceremony as he would have +shown to a negro. + +I thought the white man did not exactly relish the Colonel's manner, but +saying: 'All right, all right, sir,' he took himself away. + +The night was raw and cold, but as all the rooms of the hotel were +occupied, either by sleepers or carousers, we had no other alternative +than to hold our conference in the open-air. Near the railway-track a +light-wood fire was blazing, and, obeying the promptings of the frosty +atmosphere, we made our way to it. Lying on the ground around it, +divested of all clothing except a pair of linsey trowsers and a flannel +shirt, and with their naked feet close to its blaze--roasting at one +extremity, and freezing at the other--were several blacks, the +switch-tenders and woodmen of the station--fast asleep. How human beings +could sleep in such circumstances seemed a marvel, but further +observation convinced me that the Southern negro has a natural aptitude +for that exercise, and will, indeed, bear more exposure than any other +living thing. Nature in giving him such powers of endurance, seems to +have specially fitted him for the life of hardship and privation to +which he is born. + +The fire-light enabled me to scan the appearance of my new acquaintance. +He was rather above the medium height, squarely and somewhat stoutly +built, and had an easy and self-possessed, though rough and unpolished +manner. His face, or so much of it as was visible from underneath a +thick mass of reddish gray hair, denoted a firm, decided character; but +there was a manly, open, honest expression about it that won your +confidence in a moment. He wore a slouched hat and a suit of the +ordinary 'sheep's-gray,' cut in the 'sack' fashion, and hanging loosely +about him. He seemed a man who had made his own way in the world, and I +subsequently learned that appearances did not belie him. The son of a +'poor white' man, with scarcely the first rudiments of book-education, +he had, by sterling worth, natural ability, and great force of +character, accumulated a handsome property, and acquired a leading +position in his adopted district. Though on 'the wrong side of +politics,' his personal popularity was so great that for several +successive years he had been elected to represent his county in the +State Legislature. The Colonel, though opposed to him in politics--and +party feeling at the South runs so high that political opponents are +seldom personal friends--had, in the early part of his career, aided him +by his indorsements; and Andy had not forgotten the service. It was easy +to see that while two men could not be more unlike in character and +appearance than my host and the North-Carolinian, they were warm and +intimate friends. + +'So, Moye has been raisin h--l gin'rally, Cunnel,' said my new +acquaintance after a time. 'I'm not surprised. I never did b'lieve in +Yankee nigger-drivers--sumhow it's agin natur for a Northern man to go +Southern principles quite so strong as Moye did.' + +'Which route do you think he has taken?' asked the Colonel. + +'Wal, I reckon arter he tuk to the run, he made fur the mountings. He +know'd you'd head him on the traveled routes; so he's put, I think, fur +the Missusippe, where he'll sell the horse and make North.' + +'I'll follow him,' said the Colonel, 'to the ends of the earth. If it +costs me five thousand dollars, I'll see him hung.' + +'Wal,' replied Andy, laughing, 'if he's gone North, you'll need a +extradition treaty to kotch him. South-Car'lina, I b'lieve, has set up +fur a furrin country.' + +'That's true,' said the Colonel, also laughing, 'she's 'furrin' to the +Yankees, but not to the old North State.' + +'D----d if she han't,' replied the North-Carolinian, 'and now she's got +out on our company, I swear she must keep out. We'd as soon think of +goin' to h--l in summer time, as of joining partnership with her. +Cunnel, you're the only decent man in the State--d----d if you +han't--and your politics are a'most bad 'nuff to spile a township. It +allers seemed sort o' queer to me, thet a man with such a mighty good +heart as your'n could be so short in the way of brains.' + +'Well, you're complimentary,' replied the Colonel, with the utmost good +nature, 'but let's drop politics; we never could agree, you know. What +shall I do about Moye?' + +'Go to Wilmington, and telegraph all creation: wait a day to har, then +if you don't har, go home, hire a native overseer, and let Moye go to +the d---l. Ef it'll du you any good, I'll go to Wilmington with you, +though I did mean to give you secesheners a little h--l here to-morrer.' + +'No, Andy, I'll go alone. 'Twouldn't be patriotic to take you away from +the barbecue. You'd 'spile' if you couldn't let off some gas soon.' + +'I du b'lieve I shud. Howsumdever, thar's nary a thing I wouldn't do for +you--you knows thet?' + +'Yes, I do, and I wish you'd keep an eye on my Yankee friend here, and +see he don't get into trouble with any of the boys--there'll be a hard +set 'round, I reckon.' + +'Wal, I will,' said Andy, 'but all he's to du is--keep mouth shet.' + +'That seems easy enough,' I replied, laughing. + +A desultory conversation followed for about an hour, when the +steam-whistle sounded, and the up-train arrived. The Colonel got on +board, and bidding us 'good-night,' went on to Wilmington. Andy then +proposed we should look up sleeping accommodations. It was useless to +seek quarters at the hotel, but an empty car was on the turn-out, and +bribing one of the negroes, we got access to it, and were soon stretched +at full length on two of its hard-bottomed seats. + + * * * * * + +The camp-ground was about a mile from the station, and pleasantly +situated in a grove, near a stream of water. It was in frequent use by +the camp-meetings of the Methodist denomination, which sect, at the +South, is partial to these rural religious gatherings. Scattered over +it, with an effort at regularity, were about forty small but neat log +cottages, thatched with the long leaves of the turpentine-pine, and +chinked with branches of the same tree. Each of these houses was floored +with leaves or straw, and large enough to afford sleeping accommodations +for about ten person, provided they spread their bedding on the ground, +and lay tolerably close together. Interspersed among the cabins were +about a dozen canvas tents, which evidently had been erected for this +especial occasion. + +Nearly in the centre of the group of huts, a rude sort of scaffold, four +or five feet high, and surrounded by a rustic railing, served for the +speaker's stand. It would seat about a dozen persons, and was protected +by a roof of pine-boughs, interlaced together so as to keep off the sun, +without affording protection from the rain. In the rear of this stand +were two long tables, made of rough boards, and supported on stout +joists, crossed on each other in the form of the letter X. A canopy of +green boughs shaded the grounds, and the whole grove, which was +perfectly free from underbrush, was carpeted with the soft, brown leaves +of the pine. + +Being fatigued with the ride of the previous day, I did not awake till +the morning was well advanced, and it was nearly ten o'clock when Andy +and I took our way to the camp-ground. Avoiding the usual route, we +walked on through the forest. It was mid-winter, and vegetation lay dead +all around us, awaiting the time when spring should breathe into it the +breath of life and make it a living thing. There was silence and rest in +the deep wood. The birds were away on their winter wanderings; the +leaves hung motionless on the tall trees, and nature seemed resting from +her ceaseless labor, and listening to the soft music of the little +stream which sung a cheerful song as it rambled on over the roots and +fallen branches that blocked its way. But soon a distant murmur arose, +and we had not proceeded far before as many sounds as were heard at +Babel made a strange concert about our ears. The lowing of the ox, the +neighing of the horse, and the deep braying of another animal, mingled +with a thousand human voices, came through the woods. But above and over +all rose the stentorian tones of the stump speaker, + + 'As he trod the shaky platform, + With the sweat upon his brow.' + +About a thousand persons were already assembled on the ground, and a +more motley gathering I never beheld. All sorts of costumes and all +classes of people were there; but the genuine back-woods corn-crackers +composed the majority of the assemblage. As might be expected, much the +larger portion of the audience were men; still I saw some women and not +a few children, many of the country people having taken advantage of the +occasion to give their families a holiday. Some occupied benches in +front of the stand, though a larger number were seated around in groups, +within hearing of the speaker, but paying very little attention to what +he was saying. A few were whittling, a few pitching quoits, or playing +leap-frog, and quite a number were having a quiet game of whist, euchre, +or 'seven-up.' + +The speaker was a well-dressed, gentlemanly-looking man, and a tolerably +good orator. He seemed accustomed to addressing a jury, for he displayed +all the adroitness in handling his subject, and in appealing to the +prejudices of his hearers, that we see in successful special pleaders. +But he overshot his mark. To nine out of ten of his audience, his words +and similes, though correct and sometimes beautiful, were as +unintelligible as the dead languages. He advocated immediate, +unconditional secession; and I thought from the applause which met his +remarks, whenever he seemed to make himself understood, that the large +majority of those present were of the same way of thinking. + +He was succeeded by a heavy-browed, middle-aged man, slightly bent, and +with hair a little turned to gray, but still hale, athletic, and in the +prime and vigor of manhood. His pantaloons and waistcoat were of the +common home-spun, and he used, now and then, a word of the country +dialect; but as a stump-speaker, he was infinitely superior to the more +polished orator who had preceded him. + +He, too, advocated secession as a right and a duty--separation, now and +forever from the dirt-eating, money-loving Yankees, who, he was ashamed +to say, had the same ancestry, and worshiped the same God as himself. He +took the bold ground that slavery is a curse to both the black and the +white, but that it was forced upon this generation before it was born, +by these same greedy, grasping Yankees, who would sell not only the +bones and sinews of their fellowmen, but--worse than that--their own +souls, for gold. It was forced upon them without their consent, and now +that it had become interwoven with all their social life, and was a +necessity of their very existence, the hypocritical Yankees would take +it from them, because, forsooth, it was a sin and a wrong--as if _they_ +had to bear its responsibility, or the South could not settle its own +account with its Maker! + +'Slavery is now,' he continued, 'indispensable to us. Without it, +cotton, rice, and sugar will cease to grow, and the South will starve. +What if it works abuses? What if the black, at times, is overburdened, +and his wife and daughters debauched? Man is not perfect any +where--there are wrongs in every society. It is for each one to give his +account, in such matters, to his God. But in this are we worse than +they? Are there not abuses in society at the North? Are not their +laborers overworked? While sin here hides itself under cover of the +night, does it not there stalk abroad at noonday? If the wives and +daughters of blacks are debauched here, are not the wives and daughters +of whites debauched there? and will not a Yankee barter away the +chastity of his own mother for a dirty dollar? Who fill our brothels? +Yankee women! Who load our penitentiaries, crowd our whipping-posts, +debauch our slaves, and cheat and defraud us all? Yankee men! And I say +unto you, fellow-citizens,' and here the speaker's form seemed to dilate +with the wild enthusiasm which possessed him, ''come out from among +them; be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing,' and thus saith +the Lord God of hosts, who will guide you, and lead you, if need be, to +battle and to victory!' + +A perfect storm of applause followed. The assemblage rose, and one long +wild shout rent the old woods, and made the great trees tremble. It was +some minutes before the uproar subsided; when it did, a voice near the +speaker's stand called out: 'Andy Jones!' The call was at once echoed by +another voice, and soon a general shout for 'Andy!' 'Union Andy!' 'Bully +Andy!' went up from the same crowd which a moment before had so wildly +applauded the secession speaker. + +Andy rose from where he was seated beside me, and quietly ascended the +steps of the platform. Removing his hat, and passing to his mouth a huge +quid of tobacco, from a tin box in his pantaloons-pocket, he made +several rapid strides up and down the speaker's stand, and then turned +squarely to the audience. + +The reader has noticed a tiger pacing up and down in his cage, with his +eyes riveted on the human faces before him. He has observed how he will +single out some individual, and finally stopping short in his rounds, +turn on him with a look of such intense ferocity as makes a man's blood +stand still, and his very breath come thick and hard, as he momentarily +expects the beast will tear away the bars of his cage and leap forth on +the obnoxious person. Now, Andy's fine, open, manly face had nothing of +the tiger in it, but for a moment, I could not divest myself of the +impression, as he halted in his walk up and down the stage, and turned +full and square on the previous speaker--who had taken a seat among the +audience near me--that he was about to spring upon him. Riveting his eye +on the man's face, he at last slowly said: + +'A man stands har and quotes Scriptur agin his feller-man, and forgets +thet 'God made of one blood all nations thet dwell on the face of the +'arth.' A man stands har and calls his brother a thief, and his mother a +harlot, and axes us to go his doctrines! I don't mean his brother in the +Scriptur' sense, nor his mother in a fig'rative sense, but I mean the +brother of his own blood, and the mother that bore him; for HE, +gentlemen, (and he pointed his finger directly at the recent speaker, +while his words came slow and heavy with intense scorn,) HE is a Yankee! +And now, I say, gentlemen, d--n sech doctrins; d--n sech principles; and +d--n the man thet's got a soul so black as to utter 'em!' + +A breathless silence fell on the assemblage, as the person alluded to +sprang to his feet, his face on fire, and his voice thick and broken +with intense rage, and yelled out: 'Andy Jones, by ----, you shall +answer for this!' + +'Sartin', said Andy, coolly inserting his thumbs in the armholes of his +waistcoat; 'eny whar you likes--har--now--ef 'greeable to you.' + +'I've no weapon here, sir, but I'll give you a chance mighty sudden,' +was the fierce reply. + +'Suit yourself' said Andy, with perfect imperturbability; 'but as you +han't jest ready, s'pose you set down and har me tell 'bout your +relation: they're a right decent set--them as I knows--and I'll swar +they're 'shamed of you.' + +A buzz went through the crowd, and a dozen voices called out, 'Be civil, +Andy'--'Let him blow'--'Shet up'--'Go in, Jones'--with other like +elegant exclamations. + +A few of his friends took the aggrieved gentleman aside, and, soon +quieting him, restored order. + +'Wal, gentlemen,' resumed Andy, 'all on you know whar I was raised--over +thar in South-Car'lina. I'm sorry to say it, but it's true. And you all +know my father was a pore man, who couldn't give his boys no chance--and +ef he could, thar warn't no schules in the district--so we couldn't hev +got no book-larning ef we'd been a minded to. Wal, the next plantation +to whar we lived was old Cunnel J----'s, the father of this Cunnel. He +was a d--d old nullifier, jest like his son--but not half so decent a +man. Wal, on his plantation was an old nigger called Uncle Pomp, who'd +sumhow larned to read. He was a mighty good nigger, and he'd hev been in +heaven long afore now ef the Lord hadn't a had sum good use for him down +har--but he'll be thar yet a d--d sight sooner than sum on us white +folks--that's sartin. Wal, as I was saying, Pomp could read, and when I +was 'bout sixteen, and had never seed the inside of a book, the old +darkey said to me one day--he was old then, and thet was thirty years +ago--wal, he said to me: 'Andy, chile, ye orter larn to read--'twould be +ob use to ye when you're grow'd up, and it moight make you a good and +'spected man. Now, come to ole Pomp's cabin, and he'll larn you, Andy, +chile.' I reckon I went. He hadn't nothin' but a Bible and Watts' Hymns; +yet we used to stay thar all the long winter evenings, and by the light +of the fire--we war both so durned pore we couldn't raise a candle +atween us--wal, by the light of the fire he larned me, and 'fore long I +could spell right smart. + +'Now, jest think on thet, gentlemen! I, a white boy, and, 'cordin' to +the Declaration of Independence, jest as good blood as the old Cunnel, +bein' larned to read by an old slave, and that old slave a'most worked +to death, and takin' his nights, when he orter hev been a restin' his +old bones, to larn me! I'm d--d if he don't get to heaven for that one +thing, if for nothin' else. + +'Wal, you all know the rest--how, when I'd grow'd up, I settled har, in +the old North State, and how the young Cunnel backed my paper and set +me a runnin' at turpentinin'. P'r'aps you don't think this has much to +do with the Yankees, but it has a durned sight, as ye'll see raather +sudden. Wal, arter a while, when I'd got a little 'forehanded, I begun +shippin' my truck to York and Bosting; and at last my Yankee factor, he +come out har, inter the backwoods, to see me, and says he: 'Jones, come +North and take a look at us.' I'd sort o' took to him. I'd had lots to +do with him afore ever I seed him, and I allers found him as straight as +a shingle. Wal, I went North, and he took me round, and showed me how +the Yankees does things. Afore I knowed him, I allers thought--as +p'r'aps most on ye do--that the Yankee war a sort o' cross atween the +devil and a Jew; but how do you s'pose I found 'em? I found that they +_sent the pore man's children to schule_. FREE--and that the +schulehouses war a d--d sight thicker than the bugs in Miles Privett's +beds! and thet's saying a heap, for ef eny on you kin sleep in his +house, excep' he takes to the soft side of the floor, I'm d--d. Yas, the +pore man's children are larned thar FREE!--all on 'em--and they've jest +so good a chance as the sons of the rich man! Now, arter that, do you +think that I--as got all my schulin' from an old slave, by the light of +a borrored pine-knot--der you think that _I_ kin say any thing agin the +Yankees? P'r'aps they _do_ steal--though I don't know it--p'r'aps they +_do_ debauch thar wives and darters, and sell thar mothers' vartue for +dollers--but ef they do, I'm d--d ef they don't send pore children ter +schule--and that's more'n we do--and let me tell you, until we do, we +must count on thar bein' cuter and smarter nor we are. + +'This gentleman, too, my friends, who's been a givin' sech a hard +settin' down ter his own relation, arter they've broughten him up and +givin' him sech a good schulein' for nothin', he says the Yankees want +to interfere with our niggers. Now, thet han't so, and they couldn't ef +they would, 'cause it's agin the Constitution--and they stand on the +Constitution a durned sight solider nor we do. Didn't thar big +gun--Daniel Webster--didn't he make mince-meat o' South-Carolina Hayne +on that ar subject? But I tell you they han't a mind to meddle with our +niggers; they're a goin' ter let us go ter h--l our own way--and we're +goin' thar mighty fast, or I hevn't read the last census.' + +'P'r'aps you han't heerd on th' Ab'lisheners, Andy?' cried a voice from +among the audience. + +'Wal, I reckon I hev,' responded the orator. 'I've heerd on 'em, and +seed 'em, too. When I was North I went ter one on thar conventions, and +I'll tell you how they look. They've all long, wimmin's hair, and thin, +shet lips, with big, bawlin' mouths, and long, lean, tommerhawk +faces--'bout as white as vargin dip--and they all talk through the nose, +[giving a specimen,] and they look for all the world jest like the +South-Car'lina fire-eaters--and they _are_ as near like 'em as two peas, +excep' they don't swar quite so bad, but they make up for that in +prayin'--and prayin' too much, I reckon, when a man's a d--d hippercrit, +is 'bout as bad as swearin'. But I tell you, the decent folks up North +han't ab'lisheners. They look on 'em jest as we do on mad dogs, the +itch, or the nigger-traders. + +'Now, 'bout this secession bis'ness--though tan't no use ter talk on +thet, 'cause this State never'll secede--South-Car'lina has done it, and +I'm raather glad she has, for though I was born thar, I say she orter +hev gone to h--l long ago, and now she's got thar--_let her stay!_ But, +'bout thet bis'ness, I'll tell you a story. + +'I know'd an old gentleman once by the name o' Uncle Sam, and he'd a +heap o' sons. They war all likely boys--and strange ter tell, though +they'd all the same mother, and she a white woman, 'bout half on 'em war +colored--not black, but sorter half-and-half. Now, the white sons war +well-behaved, industrious, hard-workin' boys, who got 'long well, +edicated that children, and allers treated the old man decently; but the +mulatter fellers war a pesky set--though some on 'em war better nor +others. They wouldn't work, but set up for airystocrocy--rode in +kerriges, kept fast hosses, bet high, and chawed tobaccer like the +devil. Wal, the result was, _they_ got out at the elbows, and 'cause +they warn't gettin' 'long quite so fast as the white 'uns--though that +war all thar own fault--they got jealous, and one, on 'em, who was +blacker nor all the rest--a little feller, but terrible big on +braggin'--he packed up his truck one night, and left the old man's +house, and swore he'd never come back. He tried ter make the other +mulatters go 'long too, but they put thar fingers ter thar nose, and +says they: 'No you don't!' _I_ was in favor o' lettin' on him stay out +in the cold, but the old man was a bernevolent old critter--so _he_ +says: 'Now, sonny, you jest come back and behave yourself, and I'll +forgive you all on your old pranks, and treat you jest as I allers used +ter; but, ef you won't, why, I'll make you--that's all!' + +'Now, gentlemen, that querrelsome, oneasy, ongrateful, tobaccer-chawin', +high-bettin', hoss-racin', big-braggin', nigger-stealin', +wimmin-whippin', yaller son of the devil, is South-Car'lina; and ef she +don't come back and behave herself in futur', I'm d--d ef she won't be +ploughed with fire, and sowed with salt, and--Andy Jones will help ter +do it.' + +The speaker was frequently interrupted in the course of his remarks by +uproarious applause--but as he closed and descended from the platform, +the crowd sent up cheer after cheer, and a dozen strong men, making a +seat of their arms, lifted him from the ground, and bore him to the head +of the table, where dinner was in waiting. + +The whole of the large assemblage then fell to eating. The dinner was +made up of the barbecued beef and the usual mixture of viands found on a +planter's table, with water from the little brook hard by, and a +plentiful supply of corn-whisky. (The latter beverage, I thought, had +been subjected to the rite of immersion, for it tasted wonderfully like +water.) + +Songs and speeches were intermingled with the masticating exercises, and +the whole company were soon in the best of humor. + +During the meal I was introduced by Andy to a large number of the +'natives,' he taking special pains to tell each one that I was a Yankee, +and a Union man, but always adding, as if to conciliate all parties, +that I was also a guest and a friend of _his_ very particular friend, +'that d--d seceshener, Cunnel J----.' + +Before we left the table, the secession orator happening near, Andy rose +from his seat, and extended his hand to him, saying: + +'Tom, you think I 'sulted you--p'r'aps I did--but you 'sulted my Yankee +friend har, and your own relation, and I hed to take it up, jest for the +looks o' the thing. Come, thar's my hand; I'll fight you ef you want +ter, or we'll say no more 'bout it--jest as you like.' + +'Say no more about it, Andy,' said the gentleman, very cordially; 'let's +drink and be friends.' + +They drank a glass of whisky together, and then leaving the table, +proceeded to where the ox had been barbecued, to show me how cooking on +a large scale is done at the South. + +In a pit about eight feet deep, twenty feet long, and ten feet wide, +laid up on the side with stones, a fire of hickory had been made, over +which, after the wood had burned down to coals, a whole ox, divested of +its hide and entrails, had been suspended on an enormous spit. Being +turned often in the process of cooking, the beef had finally been 'done +brown.' It was then cut up and served on the table, and I must say, for +the credit of Southern cookery, that it made as delicious eating as any +meat I ever tasted. + +I had then been away from my charge--the Colonel's horses--as long as +seemed to be prudent. I said as much to Andy, when he proposed to +return with me, and turning good-humoredly to his reconciled friend, he +said: + +'Now, Tom, no secession talk while I'm off.' + +'Nary a word,' said Tom, and we left. + +The horses had been well fed by the negro who had them in charge, but +had not been groomed. Andy, seeing that, stripped off his coat, and, +setting the black at work on one, with a handful of straw and +pine-leaves commenced operations on the other, and the horse's coat was +soon as smooth and glossy as if recently rubbed by an English groom. + +The remainder of the day passed without incident till eleven at night, +when the Colonel returned from Wilmington. + +Moye had not been seen or heard of, and the Colonel's trip was +fruitless. While at Wilmington, he sent telegrams, directing the +overseer's arrest, to the various large cities of the South, and then +decided to return, make some arrangements preliminary to a protracted +absence from the plantation, and proceed at once to Charleston, where he +would await replies to his dispatches. Andy agreed with him in the +opinion that Moye, in his weak state of health, would not undertake an +overland journey to the free States, but would endeavor to reach some +town on the Mississippi, where he could dispose of the horse, and secure +a passage up the river. + +As no time was to be lost, it was decided that we should return to the +plantation on the following morning. Accordingly, with the first streak +of day, we bade 'good-by' to our Union friend, and started homeward. + +No incident worthy of mention occurred on the way, till about ten +o'clock, when we arrived at the home of the Yankee schoolmistress, where +we had been so hospitably entertained two days before. The lady received +us with great cordiality, forced upon us a lunch to serve our hunger on +the road, and when we parted, enjoined on me to leave the South at the +earliest possible moment. She was satisfied it would not for a much +longer time be safe quarters for a man professing Union sentiments. +Notwithstanding the strong manifestations of loyalty I had observed +among the people, I was convinced that the advice of my pretty +'countrywoman' was judicious, and I determined to be governed by it. + +Our horses, unaccustomed to lengthy journeys, had not entirely recovered +from the fatigues of their previous travel, and we did not reach our +destination till an hour after dark. We were most cordially welcomed by +Madam P----, who soon set before us a hot supper, which, as we were +jaded by the long ride, and had fasted for twelve hours on bacon +sandwiches and cold hoe-cake, was the one thing needful for us. + +While seated at the table, the Colonel asked: + +'Has every thing gone right, Alice, since we left home?' + +'Every thing,' replied the lady, 'except,' and she hesitated as if she +dreaded the effect of the news; 'except--that Juley and her child have +gone.' + +'Gone!' exclaimed my host, 'gone where?' + +'I don't know. We have searched every where, but have found no clue to +them. The morning you left, Sam set Juley at work among the pines; she +tried hard, but could not do a full task, and at night was taken to the +cabin to be whipped. I heard of it, and forbade Sam's doing it. It did +not seem to me to be right to punish her for not doing what she had not +strength to do. When she was released from the cabin, she came to thank +me for having interfered for her, and talked with me awhile. She cried +and took on fearfully about Sam, and was afraid you would punish her on +your return. I promised you would not, and when she left me, she seemed +more cheerful. I supposed she would go directly home, after getting her +child from the nurse's quarters; but it appears she then went to +Pompey's, where she staid till after ten o'clock. Neither she nor the +child have since been seen.' + +'Did you get no trace of her in the morning?' + +'Yes, but soon lost it. When she did not appear at work, Sam went to her +cabin to learn the cause, and found the door open, and her bed +undisturbed. She had not slept there. Knowing that Sandy had returned, I +sent for him, and with Jim and his dog, he commenced a search. The hound +tracked her directly from Pompey's cabin to the run near the lower +still. There all trace of her disappeared. We dragged the stream, but +discovered nothing. Jim and Sandy then scoured the woods for miles in +all directions, but the hound could not recover the trail. I hope +otherwise, but I fear some evil has befallen her.' + +'Oh! no, there's no fear of that,' said the Colonel; 'she is smart--she +waded up the run far enough to baffle the dog, and then made for the +swamp. That is why you lost her tracks at the stream. Rely upon it, I am +right; but she shall not escape me.' + +We shortly afterward adjourned to the library. After being seated there +a while, the Colonel, rising quickly, as if a sudden thought had struck +him, sent for the old preacher. + +The old negro soon appeared, hat in hand, and taking a stand near the +door, made a respectful bow to each one of us. + +'Take a chair, Pompey,' said Madam P---- kindly. + +The black meekly seated himself, when the Colonel asked: 'Well, Pomp, +what do you know about Jule's going off?' + +'Nuffin', massa; I 'shures you, nuffin'. De pore chile say nuffin' to +ole Pomp 'bout dat.' + +'What did she say?' + +'Wal, you see, massa, de night arter you gwo 'way, and arter she'd +worked hard in de brush all de day, and been a strung up in de ole cabin +for to be whipped, she come to me wid her baby in her arms, all a-faint +and a-tired, and her pore heart clean broke, and she say dat she'm jess +ready to drop down and die. Den I tries to comfut her, massa; I takes +her up from de floor, and I say to har dat de good Lord he pity her--dat +he doan't bruise de broken reed, and woan't put no more on har dan she +kin b'ar--dat he'd touch you' heart, massa--and I toled har you's a +good, kine heart at de bottom--and I knows it, 'case I toted you 'fore +you could gwo, and when you's a bery little chile, not no great sight +bigger'n her'n, you'd put your little arms round ole Pomp's neck, and +say dat when you war grow'd up, you'd be bery kine to de pore brack +folks, and not leff 'em be 'bused like dey war in dem days.' + +'Never mind what _you_ said,' interrupted the Colonel, a little +impatiently, but showing no displeasure; 'what did _she_ say?' + +'Wal, massa, she took on bery hard 'bout Sam, and axed me ef I raily +reckoned de Lord had forgib'n him, and took'n him to heseff, and gib'n +him one of dem hous'n up dar in de sky. I toled har dat I _know'd_ it; +but she say it didn't 'pear so to har, 'case Sam had a been wid har out +dar in de woods, all fru de day; dat she'd a _seed_ him, massa, and +dough he hadn't a said nuffin', he'd looked at har wid sech a sorry, +grebed look, dat it went clean fru har heart, till she'd no strength +leff, and fell down on de ground a'most dead. Den she say big Sam come +'long and fine har dar, and struck har great, heaby blows wid de big +whip!' + +'The brute!' exclaimed the Colonel, rising from his chair, and pacing +rapidly up and down the room. + +'But p'raps he warn't so much ter blame, massa,' continued the old +negro, in a deprecatory tone; 'may be he s'pose she war shirking de +work. Wal, den she say, she know'd nuffin' more, till byme-by, when she +come to, and fine big Sam dar, and he struck har agin, and make her gwo +to de work; and she did gwo, but she feel like as ef she'd die. I toled +her de good ma'am wudn't leff big Sam 'buse har no more 'fore you cum +hum, and dat you'd hab 'passion on har, and not leff har out in de +woods, but put har 'mong de nusses, like as she war afore. + +'Den she say it 'twarn't de work dat trubble har--dat she orter work, +and orter be 'bused, 'case she'd been bad, bery bad. All she axed was +dat Sam would forgib har, and cum to har in de oder worle, and tell har +so. Den she cried, and took on awful; but de good Lord, massa, dat am so +bery kine to de bery wuss sinners, he put de words inter my mouf, and I +tink dey gabe har comfut, fur she say it sort o' 'peared to har den dat +Sam _would_ forgib har, and take har inter his house up dar, and she +warn't afeard ter die no more. + +'Den she takes up de chile and gwoes 'way, 'pearin' sort o' happy, and +more cheerful like dan I'd a seed har eber sense pore Sam war shot.' + +My host was sensibly affected by the old man's simple tale, but +continued pacing up and down the room, and said nothing. + +'It's plain to me, Colonel,' I remarked, as Pompey concluded, 'she has +drowned herself and the child--the dog lost the scent at the creek.' + +'Oh! no,' he replied, 'I think not. I never heard of a negro committing +suicide--they've not the courage to do it.' + +'I fear she _has_, David,' said the lady. 'The thought of going to Sam +has led her to it; yet we dragged the run, and found nothing. What do +you think about it, Pompey?' + +'I dunno, ma'am; but I'se afeard ob dat. And now dat I tinks on it, I'se +afeard dat what I tole har put har up to it,' replied the old preacher, +bursting into tears. 'She 'peared so happy like, when I say she'd be +'long wid Sam in de oder worle, dat I'se afeard she's a gone and done it +wid har own hands. I tole har, too, dat de good Lord oberlooked many +tings dat pore sinners does when dey can't help 'emseffs, and it make +har do it, oh! it make har do it!' and the old black buried his face in +his hands, and wept bitterly. + +'Don't feel so, Pomp,' said his master _very_ kindly. 'You did the best +you could; no one blames you.' + +'I knows _you_ doan't, massa--I knows you doan't, and you's bery good +notter; but oh!' and his body swayed to and fro with the great grief; 'I +fears de Lord do, massa, for I'se sent har to him wid har own blood and +de blood of dat pore, innercent chile on har hands. Oh! I fears de Lord +neber'll forgib me--neber'll forgib me fur _dat_.' + +'He will, my good Pomp, he will!' said the Colonel, laying his hand +tenderly on the old man's shoulder. 'The Lord will forgive you, for the +sake of the Christian example you've set your master, if for nothing +else;' and then the proud, strong man's feelings overpowering him, his +tears fell in great drops on the breast of the old slave, as they had +fallen there when he was a child. + +Such scenes are not for the eye of a stranger, and turning away, I left +the room. + +The family met at the breakfast-table at the customary hour on the +following morning; but I noticed that Jim was not in his accustomed +place behind the Colonel's chair. That gentleman exhibited his usual +good spirits, but Madam P---- looked sad and anxious, and I had not +forgotten the scene of the previous evening. + +While we were seated at the meal, the negro Junius hastily entered the +room, and in an excited manner exclaimed: + +'O massa, massa! you muss cum ter de cabin--Jim hab draw'd his knife, +and he swar he'll kill de fuss un dat touch him!' + +'He does, does he!' said his master, springing from his seat, and +abruptly leaving the apartment. + +Remembering the fierce burst of passion I had seen in the negro, and +fearing there was danger a-foot, I rose to follow, saying as I did so: + +'Madam, can not you prevent this?' + +'I can not, sir; I have already done all I can. Go and try to pacify the +Colonel. Jim will die before he'll be whipped.' + +Jim was standing at the farther end of the old cabin, with his back to +the wall, and the large spring-knife in his hand. Some half-dozen +negroes were in the centre of the room, apparently cowed by his fierce +and desperate looks, and his master stood within a few feet of him. + +'I tell you, Cunnel,' cried the negro, as I entered, 'you touch me at +your peril.' + +'You d--d nigger, do you dare to speak so to me?' said his master, +taking a step toward him. + +The knife rose in the air, and the black, in a cool, sneering tone, +replied: 'Say your prayers 'fore you come ony nigher, for, so help me +God, you're a dead man!' + +I laid my hand on the Colonel's arm, to draw him back, saying as I did +so: 'There's danger in him! I _know_ it Let him go, and he shall ask +your pardon.' + +'I shan't ax his pardon,' cried the black, 'leff him and me be, sar; +we'll fix dis ourselfs.' + +'Don't interfere, Mr. K----,' said my host, with perfect coolness, but +with a face pallid with rage. 'Let me govern my own plantation.' + +'As you say, sir,' I replied, stepping back a few paces; 'but I warn +you--there is danger in him!' + +Taking no notice of my remark, the Colonel turned to the trembling +negroes, and said: 'One of you go to the house and bring my pistols.' + +'You kin shoot me, ef you likes,' said Jim, with a fierce, grim smile; +'but I'll take you to h--l wid me, _shore_. You knows WE won't stand a +blow!' + +The Colonel, at the allusion to their relationship, started as if shot, +and turning furiously on the negro, yelled out: 'I'll shoot you for +that, you d--d nigger, by----.' + +'It 'pears ter me, Cunnel, ye've hed 'bout nuff shootin' 'round har, +lately; better stop thet sort o' bis'ness; it moight give ye a sore +throat,' said the long, lean, loose-jointed stump-speaker of the +previous Sunday, as he entered the cabin and strode directly up to my +host. + +'What brought you here, you d--d insolent hound?' cried the Colonel, +turning fiercely on the new-comer. + +'Wal, I cum to du ye a naboorly turn--I've kotched two on yer niggers +down ter my still, an' I want ye ter take 'em 'way,' returned the +corn-cracker, with the utmost coolness. + +'Two of my niggers!' exclaimed the Colonel, perceptibly moderating his +tone, 'which ones?' + +'A yaller gal, and a child.' + +'I thank you, Barnes; excuse my hard words--I was excited.' + +'All right, Cunnel; say no more 'bout thet. Will ye send fur 'em? I'd +hev fotched 'em 'long, but my waggin's off jest now.' + +'Yes, I'll send at once. Have you got them safe?' + +'Safe? I reckon so! Kotched 'em las' night, arter dark, and they've kept +right still ever sense, I 'sure ye--but th' gal holes on ter th' young +'un ter kill--we couldn't get it 'way no how.' + +'How did you catch them?' + +'The' got 'gainst my turpentime raft--th' current driv 'em down, I +s'pose.' + +'What! are they dead?' exclaimed the Colonel. + +'Dead? Deader'n drownded rats!' was the native's reply. + + + + +WAS HE SUCCESSFUL? + + '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 III. + + The people are anxious for the _detail_ of sentiments, not for + general results.'--_Lamartine._ + + +Hiram exhibited almost from his boyhood a fondness for female society. +Even when at the district-school, he preferred spending 'noon-time' +among the girls to racing around with the boys, pitching quoits, +wrestling at 'arm's-end,' 'back-hold,' or playing base-ball and goal. +His mother was careful to encourage Hiram's predilections. She remarked +that nothing was so well calculated to keep a young man from going +astray as for him to frequent the society of virtuous females. + +Before Hiram had got into his teens, he appeared to be smitten with at +least half a score of little girls of his own age. As he grew older, his +fondness for the sex increased. I do not record this, as any thing +extraordinary, except that in his case a characteristic selfishness +seemed to be at the bottom even of these manifestations. Hiram was not +influenced by those natural emotions and impulses which belong to youth, +and which, unless kept under proper restraint, are apt frequently to +lead to indiscretions. For there ran a vein of calculation through all +he did, whose prudent office it was to minister to his safety. + +After Hiram joined the church he was regular in his attendance on the +evening meetings. He always went to these meetings with some young girl, +whom, of course, he accompanied home after the services were over. As I +have said, he was a handsome fellow, and bestowed particular care on his +dress and his appearance generally. He was good-natured and obliging, +and withal sensible, so that the young men who envied him and might be +inclined to call him a fop or a dandy, could not prefix 'brainless' to +these epithets and thus ridicule on him. The fact is, he was shrewder +than any of them, and he knew it. They soon discovered it, and so did +the girls, to the utter discomfiture of his rivals. + +At all the village gatherings, including the sewing-societies, and the +lectures, the prayer-meetings, and meetings of Sunday-school teachers, +and so forth, Hiram was not only a favorite, but _the_ favorite with the +other sex. He had a winning, confidential manner, when addressing a +young lady even for the first time, which said very plainly, 'We know +all about and appreciate each other,' and which was very taking. He +assumed various little privileges, such as calling the girls by their +first name, giving notice that a curl was about to fall, and offering to +fix it properly, picking up a bow which had been brushed off, and +pinning it securely on again, holding the hand with a kind and amiable +smile for a brief space after he had shaken it, and sometimes, when he +had occasion to see one of his friends home, keeping her hand in his all +the way after it was placed within his arm. + +You may ask why such liberties were permitted. Simply because they were +so very equally distributed they had come to be regarded as a matter of +course. In fact, Hiram was a privileged person. He was so polite, so +attentive, so considerate, what if he did have his peculiarities--how +ridiculous to make a fuss about such trifles! So the 'trifles' were +acquiesced in. Besides, I am inclined to think each fair one supposed +she was the especial object of Hiram's regard, and that his attentions +to others were mere civilities. I do not say Hiram so announced it. I +know he did not; for he was not a person, even when a youth, to commit +himself foolishly. Yet if they _would_ mistake general politeness for +particular attentions, surely it was not his fault--oh! no. + +There were those who refused to give their adherence to Hiram's almost +unlimited sway. And as parties generally proceed to extremes, the girls +who formed the opposition generally declared him to be a pusillanimous, +mean-spirited fellow; they detested the very sight of his smooth, +hypocritical face; he had better not come fooling around them--no, +indeed! Let him attempt it once, they would soon teach him manners. It +is to be observed that these remarks did not emanate from the prettiest +or most attractive girls of the village--all of whom were decidedly and +emphatically on Hiram's side. They seemed to enjoy the excitement under +which their adversaries were laboring, and retorted by exclaiming, 'Sour +grapes!' asserting that those who so shamefully vilified Hiram, would be +glad enough to accept his attentions if--they only had the opportunity. + +Hiram, meantime, pursued the even tenor of his way, secure in his +position, enjoying to the full extent of his selfish nature all his +'blessings and privileges,' for which he thanked God twice daily, +wondering how men could be so blind and misguided as to turn their backs +on religion when there was such happiness and peace in giving up all to +God! + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +Mr. Bennett was correct in his surmise that there were two stores in the +little village of Hampton. Of one of these Thaddeus Smith was +proprietor. He was one of the solid men of the place, and had 'kept +store' there for the last forty years, succeeding his father, who was +one of the early settlers in the town. He had continued on with his +customers in the good old fashion, extending liberal credits and +charging a regular, undeviating profit of thirty-three and a third per +cent. About five years previous to Hiram Meeker's leaving school, Mr. +Smith's peace was greatly disturbed by the advent of a rival, in the +person of Benjamin Jessup, who took possession of an advantageous +locality, and after a week's bustle with teams and workmen transporting, +unpacking, and arranging, displayed his name, one fine morning, in large +gilt letters to the wondering inhabitants of Hampton, and under it the +cabalistic words: 'CHEAP CASH STORE.' A large number of handbills were +posted about the village, informing the good people of the opening of +the aforesaid 'cash store,' and that the proprietor was prepared to sell +every variety of goods and merchandise 'cheap for cash or ready pay,' by +which last expression was meant acceptable barter. Of course, the whole +town flocked to inspect Mr. Jessup's stock and price his goods. The +cunning fellow had valued them only at about cost, while he declared he +was making a living profit at the rates charged, and a living profit was +all he wanted. Furthermore, he allowed the highest prices for the +commodities brought in by the farmers, and gave them great bargains in +return. He was especially accommodating to the ladies, permitting them +to tumble his whole stock of dry goods for the sake of selecting a +pretty pattern for an apron, or finding a remnant which they were +'welcome to.' + +Mr. Smith was sadly grieved. Although some very old-fashioned people +stuck sternly to him, refusing to be allured by the bait of great +bargains, and so forth and so forth, yet his store was nearly deserted. +Thaddeus Smith was a perfectly upright man. It is true, he charged a +large profit on his goods--this was because it had always been his +habit, and that of his father before him. But he was accommodating in +his credit and lenient to debtors in default. His word could be relied +on implicitly, and his dealings were marked by scrupulous honesty. + +On this trying occasion he called his son, who was supposed to be his +partner, into consultation, and asked him what he thought of the state +of things. + +'I think this, father,' was the reply, 'that we can not expect to go on +longer in the old style. We must reduce our profits one half, and to do +this, we must be more particular in our credits, and buy with more care +and of different people. In this way I will engage--by pursuing a +straightforward, energetic course, we shall hold our own against the +cash-man over the way.' + +It was some time before Mr. Smith, Senior, could be persuaded. It was +not just the thing, taking advice from a 'boy,' although the boy was +past thirty, and had a family of his own. He yielded, however, and +Thaddeus, Junior, was permitted to carry out his plan. He made a trip to +New-York and purchased goods, instead of sending an order for them as +had been their habit, where he could find the best bargains at least ten +per cent cheaper than his father was in the habit of buying, came home, +got out handbills in his turn, requesting the people to call at the 'old +stand,' look at the fresh stock, selected personally with great care, +and bought cheap _for_ cash, but which would be sold as usual on +approved credit. This gave the tide a turn in the old direction, and Mr. +Jessup had to set to work anew. He was not a bad man in his way, but +neither was he a good one. He was not over-scrupulous nor severely +honest. His prices varied, so the folks discovered, and he, or rather +his clerks, sometimes made mistakes in the quality of articles sold. +After a while the cash system sensibly relaxed, and at last both +establishments settled down into a severe and uncompromising opposition. +There was a pretty large back country which received its supplies from +Hampton, and so both stores managed to do a thriving trade. The Smiths +retaining as customers the large portion of the staid and respectable +population, while Mr. Jessup's business depended more on his dealings +with the people from the surrounding country. There was a very different +atmosphere around the stores of these two village merchants. The Smiths +were religious people, father and son, not merely so in name, but in +reality. A child could have purchased half their stock on as favorable +terms as the shrewdest man in the place. Mr. Jessup, on the contrary, +varied as he could light of chaps, that is, according to circumstances. +He was, however, an off-hand, free-and-easy fellow, with many generous +qualities, which made him popular with most who knew him. He did not +hesitate to declare that his views on religious subjects were liberal--a +bold announcement for a man to make in Hampton. Indeed, his enemies put +him down for a Universalist, or at best a Unitarian, for which they +claimed to have some reason, since he seldom went to church, although +his wife was a communicant, and very regular in her attendance. + +I have been thus particular in describing the two rival establishments +because Hiram Meeker is to enter one of them. The reader will naturally +suppose there can be little doubt which, and he has a right to exhibit +surprise on learning that Hiram decided in favor of Mr. Jessup. I say +HIRAM decided. His father preferred that he should go with the Smiths. +His mother was of the same opinion, but she permitted her son, who now +was very capable of acting for himself, to persuade her that Jessup's +was the place for him: 'More going on--greater variety of business--much +more enterprise,' and consequently more to be learned. It would be +difficult to follow closely the train of reasoning which led Hiram to +insist so perseveringly in favor of Mr. Jessup. For the reasons he gave +were on the surface, while those which really decided him were keen and +subtle, based on a shrewd appreciation of the position of the two +merchants, and his probable relation to one or the other. With the +Smiths, Hiram saw no room for any fresh exhibition of talent or +enterprise; in the other place he saw a great deal. + +Once decided on, he was speedily settled in his new abode, where he +formed a part of the household of the proprietor, together with the +head-clerk, a 'cute fellow of five and twenty, who was reported to be as +'keen as a razor.' It was evident Mr. Jessup valued him highly, from the +respect he always paid to his advice and from his giving up so much of +the management of the business to him. Besides, it was rumored he was +engaged to Mr. Jessup's oldest daughter, a handsome, black-eyed girl of +eighteen, a little too old for the 'meridian' of Hiram; but who, with +her mother, was on excellent terms with the Meeker family. The name of +the head-clerk was Pease--Jonathan Pease; but he always wrote his name +J. Pease. There was also a boy, fourteen years old, called Charley, who +boarded at home. This, with Mr. Benjamin Jessup, constituted the force +at the 'cash store.' + +Hiram had taken the place of a pale, milk-and-water-looking youth, with +weak lungs, who had been obliged to quit on account of poor health. This +youth had been entirely under the control of Pease, so much so that he +dared not venture an opinion about his own soul or body till he was +satisfied Pease thought just so. All this helped add to the importance +of the head-clerk, so that even Mr. Jessup unconsciously felt rather +nervous about differing with him. Indeed, Pease was fast becoming master +of the establishment. This Hiram Meeker knew perfectly well before he +entered it. + +When Pease ascertained that Hiram was about to come there as clerk, +without his advice being asked, he regarded it as an invasion of his +rights. He did not hesitate to speak his mind on the subject to Mr. +Jessup. He tried strongly to dissuade him from taking a gentleman-clerk, +and declared it would require an extra boy to wait on him and another to +correct his blunders. It was of no use; Mr. Jessup had not the slightest +idea of the peculiar qualities of Hiram, but he knew if he received him, +it would be the means of making an inroad into the conservative quarter, +and he should secure the trade and influence of the Meekers beside. He +went so far as to explain this to Pease, in the most confidential and +friendly manner; but the latter was not to be persuaded or mollified. As +he could not prevent the advent of Hiram, he resolved to make his +position just as uncomfortable as he possibly could. But he little knew +the stuff he had to deal with. + +The first morning after he had taken possession of his new quarters--his +sleeping-room was over the store--Hiram rose early, and was looking +carefully about the place, when Pease came in and asked him why he did +not sweep out. + +'I have not yet learned the regulations, Mr. Pease, but am ready to +begin any time,' was Hiram's quiet reply. + +Now, Pease had purposely sent Charley away on an early errand, so as to +be able to put this work on the new-comer. He simply replied, in an +arrogant tone, that it was his business every morning to sweep out the +store, and then sand the floors, adding, in order to preserve a +semblance of truth: 'When the boy happens to be here, he will help you.' + +Pease was a little astonished to see how readily Hiram set to work. The +store was not only carefully swept, and the floors sanded, but many +articles which were scattered about were put in their place, and +carefully arranged, so that after breakfast, when Mr. Jessup came in, he +remarked on the neat appearance of the store, without knowing to what it +was owing. Thus was the first attempt of J. Pease to annoy Hiram +completely foiled. Furthermore, Hiram kept on sweeping and sanding, +although Charley was present; indeed, he declined his assistance +altogether, and once, when Mr. Jessup remarked (he had observed to whom +the change in the appearance of the store was due) that it was quite +unnecessary for him to do the boy's work, Hiram quietly answered, that +he much preferred to do it to seeing the store look as it did when he +first came there. + +It took our hero but a short time to familiarize himself with the +minutiae of Mr. Jessup's business. It was not long before Pease began to +feel that there was a person every way his superior who was fast +acquiring a more thorough insight into affairs than he had himself. He +began to fear that certain private transactions of his own would not +escape Hiram's observation. He felt magnetically that instead of +bullying and domineering over the new-comer, Hiram's eyes were on _him_ +whatever he did. This was insupportable; but how could he help it? The +more work he imposed on Hiram, the better the latter seemed to like it, +and the more he accomplished. + +'Damn him!' said Pease between his teeth; but cursing did not help the +matter, so Pease discovered. + +By degrees, several young ladies who were not in the habit of calling at +Jessup's began to drop in to look at the dry-goods. It was in vain Pease +stepped briskly forward to wait on them, with his most fascinating +smile; they wanted to see Mr. Meeker. Pease was bursting with rage, but +he was forced to restrain his passion. On one occasion, on seeing two +attractive-looking girls approaching, he sent Hiram to the cellar to +draw a gallon of molasses, and as the weather was cold, he calculated he +would have to wait at least a quarter of an hour for it to run. When the +young ladies entered, they inquired for Hiram; Pease reported Mr. Meeker +as particularly engaged, and offered his services in the most pathetic +manner. + +'Oh! we are in no hurry,' was the reply, 'we can wait.' + +And they did wait, greatly to Pease's disgust, and to Mr. Jessup's +delight, who happened to come in at that moment, for he knew Hiram would +be sure to make some handsome sales to them. At length came poor Pease's +crowning misfortune. Mary Jessup began to give token that she was not +slow to discover Hiram's agreeable qualities, and his superiority in +every respect over his rival. Now, if there is any one thing which the +sex admire in a man more than another, it is real ability. Mary Jessup +was a quick-witted girl herself, and she could not fail to perceive this +quality in Hiram. She had heretofore regarded him as a boy; but the boy +had grown up almost without her observing it, and now stood, with his +full stature of medium hight, admirably proportioned. It was not long +before she consented to accompany Hiram to the Thursday-evening lecture. +What a pleasant walk they had each way, and how gracefully he placed her +shawl across her shoulders. Pease was furious. 'How absurd you act,' +that was all Mary Jessup said in reply to his violent demonstrations, +and she laughed when she said it. What _could_ Pease do for revenge? He +thought, and cogitated, and dreamed over it; it was of no use. He began +to feel himself under the fascination of Hiram's calm, persevering, +determined manner, a manner distinguished by tokens of latent power. For +no one in praising him ever made the ordinary exclamations, 'Such a +smart, energetic fellow,' 'So active and efficient,' 'A driving business +chap.' No; on the contrary, one would set him down as quite the reverse, +for he was always very quiet, never in a hurry, and by no means rapid in +his motions. Yet he impressed you with an idea of his superiority, which +his peculiar repose of manner served to highten. It can easily be +guessed that Mary Jessup and J. Pease quarreled, at last seriously, and +the engagement, if there had been any, was broken. The next evening, on +her return from the sewing-society with Hiram, he ventured to retain her +hand in his, and from that time she felt that there was an +'understanding' between them. She would have found it difficult to say +why, for Hiram had never spoken sentimentally to her. His conversation +was on ordinary topics, yet always in a low, meaning, confidential tone. + +[Has the reader any desire that I should lay bare the innermost thoughts +and feelings of this youth not yet eighteen? Would you like to be told +how curiously he smiled to himself as he continued to sweep out and sand +that little village store? Would you care to know how he gloated over +the discomfiture of his rival? Shall I endeavor to depict his feelings +when he saw he had actually gained the affections of Mary Jessup, for +whom, beyond a sensuous enjoyment of her presence and her society, he +did not care a fig? Shall I explain how, while acting for his employer +quite as a good, honest man would act, his motive was to serve self and +self only? or shall I permit the reader gradually to acquire a knowledge +of Hiram's characteristics as the narrative proceeds?] + +This brings us to the end of Hiram's first year with Mr. Jessup. He had +accomplished nothing rapidly, but he had kept on accomplishing something +every day. He had not made a single false step. The consequence was, he +had not a single step to retrace. The end of the year found him already +very high in Mr. Jessup's esteem. Hiram had proved his value by +increasing his employer's business at least ten per cent in the village, +while he was daily becoming more popular with all who traded at the +store. To Pease this was an enigma, for Hiram never volunteered to wait +on a customer, when the former was present, and only stepped forward +when specially sought. Even with the young ladies who came to the place, +with whom he was on intimate terms of acquaintance, Hiram found no time +to laugh and talk, although he always managed to say an agreeable word +in a quiet, low tone. Toward Pease, Hiram's conduct was always the same, +perfectly respectful; as if never losing sight of the situation of the +one as head-clerk and of the other as subordinate. But by continually +making himself so useful in the establishment, he was gradually +undermining his comrade's position, and Pease felt his influence +dissolving, he hardly knew how or why; but he felt it all the more +forcibly for not knowing. + +Thus the commencement of the new year found the occupants of the cash +store. Hiram's situation had become very agreeable. He was putting into +practice the theories of his education. He was high in favor with his +employer, and whenever he entered the house, which was but a few steps +from the store, he was greeted by Mary Jessup with that peculiar welcome +so charming between those who love each other, yet which to him was +pleasing only because it gratified his animal nature and his self-love. + +Early in the second year, an incident occurred which served to bring out +Hiram's character, and change decidedly the state of affairs. One +morning, while he was engaged with a customer, Mrs. Esterbrook entered +the store. Now, that lady was the wife of Deacon Esterbrook, one of the +most substantial men of the town, and a strong supporter of the Smiths. +In fact, she had never set foot in Mr. Jessup's place before that +morning, but certain goods, lately ordered by the Smiths, were +unaccountably delayed, while Mr. Jessup's were fresh from the city and +just opened. The dress-maker had been engaged, and could not come again +for she did not know how long, and Ellen must have a nice school-dress +ready forthwith. So the lady determined for once to break over rule, and +step into the opposition store. No doubt the fact that so respectable +and pious a young man as Hiram was a clerk there had its influence in +the decision; it made the place itself more reputable, many said. And +now she came slowly in, a little distrustful, as if entering on +forbidden ground, and expecting to see some extraordinary difference +between the place of business of an ungodly person like Jessup and that +of the honest-minded Smith. Thanks, however, to Hiram's persevering +industry, it was a model of neatness and order, and Mrs. Esterbrook, who +was herself a pattern in that way, found her harsh judgment insensibly +relaxing, as she stepped to the counter where Pease stood, and asked +quite amiably to see some of the best calicoes, just in from New-York. +Pease, the narrow-minded idiot, thought this a good time to play off a +smart trick on one of Smith's regular customers. So he paraded a large +variety of goods before her, and took occasion to recommend a very +pretty article, for which he charged a monstrous price, because he said +it was a very scarce pattern, and it was with great difficulty they had +secured a single piece. As the lady herself could perceive, it had not +been opened before; not a soul in the village had even seen the outside +of it. Now, it must not be supposed that Mrs. Esterbrook was different +from the rest of her sex, and insensible to the pleasure of having the +first dress cut from the piece. Indeed, she determined, on this +occasion, to take two dresses instead of one; Emily was coming home, and +would want it. Just as Pease was about to measure off the desired +quantity, Mrs. Esterbrook exclaimed: + +'You are sure those colors are fast?' + +'Fast, ma'am! fast as the meeting-house round the corner. We will +warrant them not to run nor change. Why, for color, we have nothing like +it in the store.' + +All this time, Hiram had been serving his customer; but with both ears +and at least one eye attentive to what was going on near him. + +Again Pease commenced to measure, when Hiram stepped deliberately +forward and said: + +'Mr. Pease is mistaken, Mrs. Esterbrook, those colors are _not_ fast.' + +'What the----' hell do _you_ know about it? Pease was going to say; but +he stopped short at the second word, utterly abashed and confounded at +the extraordinary assumption of the junior clerk. Never before had Hiram +made such a demonstration. Now he stood calm and composed, firmly +fortified by the truth. He looked and acted precisely as if he were the +principal, and the objurgation of Pease died on his lips. He attempted +to cast on Hiram a contemptuous glance, as he managed to say: + +'Perhaps you know more about it than I do,' and turned away to attend to +a new-comer. + +'I am much obliged to you, Mr. Meeker, I declare,' said Mrs. Esterbrook. + +'On the contrary, it is I who should be obliged to you for looking in. +You must excuse the mistake. Mr. Pease is not so familiar with calicoes +as I am. But I will now wait on you myself. We have a box of goods in +the back-store, not yet open, and I am sure I can find in it just what +you want.' + +Any one who had seen Hiram's air, and heard him speak, would have taken +him for the proprietor. With what a low, respectful tone he addressed +the lady. How pleasantly it fell on the ear. An immense box of +merchandise to be opened and all the contents overhauled to please her! +Charley was summoned, hammer and hatchet freely used, and the goods +displayed. Hiram, who knew much better what Mrs. Esterbrook wanted than +she knew herself, selected something very acceptable. The price he put +at first cost. Not content with that, he actually sold the lady silk for +a dress, putting it at cost also, and no human being could have been in +better humor than she. + +'I am very sorry, Mrs. Esterbrook, for your disappointment about the +first calico you selected,' continued Hiram. 'I do hope you and other +members of your family will look in often, even if you do not purchase; +it sometimes helps one to form a judgment to look at different stocks. +But I must be perfectly frank with you. We profess to sell cheap, very +cheap, but I can never offer you similar articles at the price you have +these; they are given you precisely at cost, as a slight compensation +for your trouble in having to look a second time. Besides, it is a +matter of mere justice to those worthy people, the Smiths, to say we do +not sell our goods at these prices, and I beg you not to so report it.' + +'What an excellent young man you are,' said good Mrs. Esterbrook, in the +fullness of her heart. + +'My dear madam, really I can not see any special excellence in simply +doing my duty.' + +Hiram smiled one of his amiable, winning smiles, and bowed his new +customer politely out of the store. + +By this time the dinner-hour had arrived. Not a word had been spoken by +Pease to Hiram since the scene just recounted. Not a syllable did he +utter at table. Hiram, on the contrary, entered into familiar +conversation, placid as usual, and enjoyed his dinner quite as well as +he ever had done. When the meal was over, Pease asked Mr. Jessup if he +would step into the store a few minutes. Mr. Jessup accordingly walked +over. + +'I want to know, Mr. Jessup,' he demanded, when all were together, +including Charley, 'whether you are the owner in here or Hiram Meeker?' + +'Why do you put such a question, Pease?' + +Thereupon Pease told the whole circumstances very much as they occurred. +Mr. Jessup made no reply. He was taken aback himself. Hiram said not a +word. + +'It's so, an't it, Charley?' cried Pease. + +'I've nothing to say about it,' answered the boy. He liked Hiram, and +detested Pease, and was glad to see him humiliated. + +'It is so,' observed Hiram. + +Mr. Jessup was astounded. + +'I shall think the matter over seriously, young men, and make up my mind +about it this evening. Now let us attend to business.' + +Mr. Jessup had decided in his own mind that Hiram's conduct was very +reprehensible--not that he cared about Pease being snubbed, _that_ he +rather enjoyed than otherwise, but he thought what Hiram had done would +serve to cast discredit on the establishment. Before, however, deciding +to censure him in presence of his fellow-clerks, he determined to speak +with him privately. He took occasion without the knowledge of Pease, to +ask Hiram to step to the house, and once there, he requested him to give +his version of the affair. Hiram replied that Pease had stated it very +correctly. + +'What could be your object,' asked Mr. Jessup, 'in doing what would +throw disgrace on my store, for you know such an admission would +disgrace us?' + +'To serve your interests, as in duty bound,' replied Hiram. + +Mr. Jessup could not so understand it, and Hiram undertook calmly to +explain how dishonest it was for Pease to do as he did. It had very +little effect on Mr. Jessup. His nerves were too strong to be unsettled +by a moral appeal. He told Hiram he was to blame, and said he should be +obliged to so express himself, when they all met, and he must add a +caution for the future. + +'Fool!' exclaimed Hiram, startled out of his usual calm propriety, 'do +you not comprehend if that woman had gone out of your store with the +calico, that she not only would never enter it again, but she would +publish your name over town as a swindler and a cheat, and you never +would hear the end of it. Pease had charged her double prices, and the +goods would not stand a single washing. And you know whether or not you +are ready to pay off the mortgage Deacon Esterbrook holds on this +house.' + +Mr. Jessup colored deeply. When he purchased his house he left a pretty +large mortgage on it, which the owner had sold to Deacon Esterbrook, who +was a moneyed man, and who now held it quite content with his yearly six +per cent. + +'You seem to interest yourself in my private affairs,' said Mr. Jessup +in a sarcastic tone. + +'Why shouldn't I, sir, so long as I am in your employ,' answered Hiram, +without noticing the irony. + +'You're a devilish strange fellow, any how,' said Mr. Jessup, musingly, +'but I confess I never had a person about me half so useful.' + +'I could be of much more service to you if you would conduct your +business on strict mercantile principles.' + +'Why, what would you have me do different from what I am doing?' + +'I would have every thing done straight and HONEST, Mr. Jessup,' said +Hiram firmly. + +'Do you mean to say I am not honest?' + +'It is not necessary for me to say any thing on the subject. I am only +talking about the management of your business. You censure me for not +standing still and seeing one of your neighbors grossly cheated, by +which you would have lost some of the best customers in town, to say the +least. By taking the course I did, I saved the credit of the concern +instead of injuring it, and I even spoke of it as a mistake of Pease, +instead of a deception.' + +Mr. Jessup was already convinced, as indeed, his petulance proved, that +Hiram was right, but he had some pride in not appearing to yield too +soon. + +'I understand the matter better now, and really, Hiram, you did just +about the right thing, that's a fact. Honesty is the best policy, after +all. I shall tell Pease he did very wrong to attempt any of his tricks +on such a person as Mrs. Esterbrook, and in future--' + +'In future one of us must be an absentee from the premises,' said Hiram +coolly. + +'Why, what do you mean?' + +'Just this. Pease's year is up next week, and then one of us must +leave.' + +Mr. Jessup fell into a brown study. He reflected on the admirable manner +Hiram had performed his duties; he could not shut his eyes to the fact +that several excellent customers had been secured through his influence; +he considered the respectability of the Meeker family, and called to +mind how indifferent Mary had become to Pease, while she seemed +gratified when Hiram was near. Again, Pease, when measured by Hiram's +more comprehensive tact and shrewdness, seemed a booby, a nobody, and +Mr. Jessup wondered how he ever acquired such an influence over him, and +he was the more disgusted with himself the more he thought about it. + +'It is working right, after all,' he said to himself. 'I shall be well +rid of Pease, and Hiram shall take his place.' Then rising from his +seat, he observed: 'I will think the matter over carefully, and you +shall have my decision on the day. Now set to work as if nothing had +happened.' + +Hiram went back to the store as certain of the fate of Pease as if he +was himself to decide it. 'Check-mated'--something like that passed from +his lips. His countenance, however, gave no sign of triumph, nor, +indeed, of any feeling. + +In the evening Mr. Jessup announced that, after due consideration, he +was of opinion the conduct of Pease was so censurable that the +interference of Hiram was very proper, if not, indeed, praiseworthy. + +'Perhaps you would like to settle with me?' said Pease ferociously. + +'Just as you please,' replied Mr. Jessup. + +'Well, I guess I have staid about long enough in this place when I've +lived to see you coming the honest dodge so strong as that--darned if I +han't!' + +Next week Pease had quit, and Hiram Meeker was head-clerk. + +Great was the astonishment through the town when it was ascertained that +Pease had been 'discharged from Jessup's store for cheating'--so the +story went. Mr. Jessup was too shrewd not to make the most of the +circumstance. He declared, in his off-hand manner, that he never +professed to have the strait-laced habits of some people; he confessed +he did not like a fellow the less for his being 'cute in a trade, and +eyes open, but when it came to lying and cheating, then any of _his_ +folks must look out if he caught them at it, that's all. + +With most of the people this frank, open avowal was very convincing; but +there were certain obstinate persons such as are every where to be +found, and who are fond of going against the general opinion, who did +not hesitate to declare this was all gammon. They knew Jessup too well +to 'allow' he cared any thing about it, not he. Nothing but the fear of +that honest young Meeker led to the disgrace of Pease, who no doubt +would now be made the scape-grace for all Jessup's shortcomings in the +store-way. So it went. But in the balance of accounts Jessup was a great +gainer. Of course, numerous were the questions put to Hiram. He +preserved great discretion--would say little. It did not become him to +speak of Mr. Jessup's private matters. Good Mrs. Esterbrook was not +silent, however. The story was repeated and repeated. It reached the +parsonage; it found its way among the customers of the Smiths. Mrs. +Esterbrook felt herself a good deal raised in her own importance, that +the head-clerk of a store she was never in before should be summarily +dismissed for misconduct toward her. She began rather to like that Mr. +Jessup, (the calicoes and silk proved such bargains, and just what she +wanted,) a man to do as he did was not so very far out of the way, and +as for his wife, she was a charming woman, she always said so. Mary, +too, what a sweet girl! Well, she should at least divide her custom +between the two stores if the Deacon was willing--and the Deacon was +willing, for he wanted Jessup to do sufficiently well to keep up his +interest money prompt. Not only did Mrs. Esterbrook call frequently, but +so did many others of the Smith faction. I need not say that Hiram was +indefatigable. He secured the services of a nice, active young fellow, +whom he took great pains to teach, and every thing went on like +clock-work. Mr. Jessup was content, for he saw he was constantly gaining +custom, but, in fact, he was a good deal confused, and hardly felt at +home in his own place, so completely did Hiram bring it under his own +control. + +The first thing he undertook was an entire overhauling of the stock, and +a close examination of its value. Then he insisted, yes, insisted that +the prices should be marked in plain figures on the goods, so every body +could see for themselves. + +Jessup remonstrated: 'Thunder! what will become of us at this rate? I +tell you there are some it won't do to be frank with. Even old Smith +never undertook to expose his marks!' + +'The very reason why we should do so,' said Hiram. '_We_ are honest.' + +I wish you could have heard the tone in which Hiram said that, and have +seen the expression of his countenance. It made Jessup's flesh creep, he +did not know why. So Hiram, as usual, had his own way, and overhauled +every thing. Lots of old goods piled away out of sight, as unsalable, +were brought forward, carefully examined, and marked down, on an +average, to half cost. Then appeared hand-bills to the effect that Mr. +Jessup had determined, prior to getting in a complete new, fresh, +fashionable lot of dry goods, to dispose of the stock on hand at a +tremendous sacrifice. These were sent all over the country into the +adjoining villages, every where within twenty miles. How the people +rushed to buy, and when they came, and found really that great bargains +were to be had, they resolved to come again when the new goods should +arrive. + +Thus Hiram triumphed. In six months after J. Pease left, Benjamin +Jessup's store was _the_ store of Hampton, and Benjamin Jessup himself +on the road to prosperity and wealth. + +Hiram Meeker was sitting alone in his room over the store, late one +evening. He had been with Mr. Jessup a year and eleven months. Another +month, and the second year would be completed. + +'I believe,' so ran the current of his thoughts, 'I have learned pretty +much all there is to be found out here; have not done badly, either. +Cousin Bennett's advice to mother was right. I am not ready to go to +New-York yet. There is much country knowledge to be gained. Let me see, +I will drive over to Burnsville next week. Joel Burns is carrying every +thing before him, they say. All sorts of business. A first-class man; +neither a Smith nor a Jessup. I met Sarah Burns last week at a party +over at Croft's--lovely girl. I think Burnsville will suit me.' + +Thereupon Hiram Meeker took up his Bible, which lay on the table near +him, drew himself a little closer to the fire, moved the lamp into a +convenient position, and read one chapter in course; it was in +Deuteronomy. Then he kneeled in prayer for about five minutes. As soon +as he had finished, he went to bed, equally satisfied with his labors +and his devotions; complacently he laid his head on the pillow, and was +soon asleep, + + * * * * * + +'I _am_ sorry to go, Mr. Jessup, but I have my fortune to make yet, you +know, and I must look a little to my own interests.' + +'Yes, but confound it, Meeker, what is it you want? I expected to raise +your salary; in fact, it's no account what you charge me, you mustn't +go, that's settled.' + +'Indeed I must.' + +'Why, what is the matter? If you say so, I will take you into +partnership, though you are not one and twenty. Really, Hiram, don't +leave us in this way.' + +'I repeat, I am sorry to do so, but as I have no intention of living in +Hampton, it is now time I should quit.' + +'But what on earth am I to do without you?' + +'Persevere in the course you are now pursuing. Stick honestly to good +principles, Mr. Jessup, and you will continue to prosper.' + +'Damn it, I know better,' exclaimed Jessup pettishly; 'I mean--I swear I +don't know what I mean, [Hiram's cold blue eye was fixed calmly on him,] +cussed if I do; but I say 'tan't honesty which has done the thing for +me. No; old Smith is honest--so is his son; I respect both of them for +being so, yes I do. You are honest, too, Hiram; straight as a +shingle--have always found you so; but I can't tell why, yours seems +another sort of honesty from Smith's honesty, and that's a fact.' + +Benjamin Jessup had a dim perception of the truth, but the more he tried +to explain, the more he floundered, till Hiram came to his relief and to +his own also, for he did not greatly enjoy the comparison Jessup was +attempting to institute. + +'I think I understand you. The fact is, in the management of your +business, I have endeavored to combine what tact and shrewdness I am +master of with scrupulous fair dealing and integrity.' + +'That's it, Hiram, now you've hit it, but it's the shrewdness that's +done the work. Oh! I shall never get a man who can fill your place.' + + * * * * * + +In due course, Hiram left for Burnsville. The prayers and good wishes of +the village went with him. Mary Jessup was disconsolate; but why? Hiram +had never committed himself. All the girls said: 'What a fool she is to +think he was going to marry any body older than himself!' and they +laughed about Mary Jessup. + + + + +NEWBERN AS IT WAS AND IS. + + +That part of North-Carolina borders on the Sound, has within the past +six months became the theatre of events of the most exciting nature, in +which Newbern, its principal town, has borne a prominent part. + +It may be interesting to review its history. The earliest notice of it +dates back to the explorations of Raleigh's colony in 1584, when they +visited an Indian town named Newsiok, 'situated on a goodly river called +the Neus,' but the adventurers did not examine the river, and more than +a century elapsed before any further record of the visit of white men +occurred. The north-eastern counties had, however, been partially +settled by refugees from Virginia, where in the absence of law and +gospel they became as degraded a community as there was on the +continent. Their descendants have, to a considerable extent, overrun the +South to the Mississippi and on to Texas. + +But it was the good fortune of the counties on the Neuse to derive their +immigrants from and to have their institutions formed by a better class +than the inferior families of Virginia, further degraded by a residence +in Eastern North-Carolina, at that period known as the harbor for rogues +and pirates. + +The earliest settlers on the Neuse were French Huguenots, who first +located on the James River, in Virginia, but were afterwards induced by +the proprietors of Carolina to accept grants of land in what is now +known as Carteret County, to which place they removed in 1707. In 1710 +a colony from Switzerland and Germany, under the management of Baron de +Graffenreid and Louis Michell arrived, and were settled between the +Neuse and the Trent, and in the triangle formed by these rivers, laid +out a town with wide streets and convenient lots, which in remembrance +of the capital in the Old World, was called New-Bern. + +The settlers who already resided north of New-Bern soon rebelled against +their local government, and by continued depredations on the Indian +tribes in their vicinity at last brought on a fearful war, during which +a large part of both the white and red men were exterminated, so that +many of the poor Swiss and German Protestants found they had only +escaped their vindictive persecutors at home to find a bloody grave in +the forests of Carolina. + +After the surrender of their grant to the crown by the lords proprietors +of Carolina, in 1729, a better state of affairs succeeded, and a more +energetic government, with its blessings and prosperity was the result. +The country was then settled and Newbern gradually rose to be a place of +importance, and subsequently the capital of the province. + +The first printing-press in the province was established in 1764, and +the first periodical, _The North-Carolina Magazine_, issued the same +year, but it is doubtful if any book excepting the State laws was ever +published there. A public school was incorporated the same year, and +Newbern became the principal seat of education and social intelligence +in the province. As the seat of government and the residence of the +royal Governors, it attracted much wealth, and developed a degree of +culture which it has retained to a later day. + +Arthur Dobbs, for a long period the Colonial Governor, was at this time +closely identified with the history of Newbern. He was 'by birth an +Irishman, and by nature an aristocrat.' He died at an advanced age in +1764. + +In 1765, William Tryon succeeded Dobbs as Governor of North-Carolina. He +first resided at Brunswick, on the Cape Fear River, then a town of note, +but now a complete ruin, and where among its remains are still seen the +massive walls of St. Philip's Church, built by his request, at the +expense of the British government. + +As Newbern was a more central position, and possessed more social +advantages, Tryon took up his abode there, not, however, till he had +made himself odious by irritating the people of the western part of the +province into a rebellion, and had butchered many who were contending +only for justice and their rights. + +Tryon was aristocratic, tyrannical, and vindictive. To gratify his pride +he conceived the idea of erecting a magnificent palace, and to obtain an +appropriation from the Provincial Assembly he exhausted all his promises +and intrigues. In this effort on the legislators he was aided by the +blandishments of his lady and her sister, Miss Wake, relatives of Lord +Hillborough, and he was finally successful. The result was, that he +erected in Newbern, in 1770, the most elegant and expensive building on +the continent, the cost of which was far beyond the resources of the +province. The plans of it, which are still preserved, show that the old +descriptions of its splendor are not overwrought. Its foundations can +still be traced, and a part of one of the wings, though in a dilapidated +state, is yet in existence. + +A Provincial Congress was held at Newbern, in August, 1774, of which +John Harvey was President. In April, 1779, they elected delegates to the +famous Continental Congress which met at Philadelphia, and Newbern was +for some time the most important place in the province. + +During the Revolution, the State was twice invaded by the British, and +many towns suffered severely, but Newbern being remote from the seat of +war, did not particularly feel its effects. + +It is somewhat strange that in Newbern secession once found its +strongest opposition, and finally its death-blow. It will be +recollected that North-Carolina once extended to the Mississippi, and +included all of what is now the State of Tennessee, the whole of which +territory was ceded to the United States in 1784. It was then partially +settled, and before the general Government had accepted the grant, the +residents established a temporary government, and formally seceding from +North-Carolina, formed 'the State of Franklin.' + +On the 1st of June, 1785, the Legislature assembled at Newbern, when +Governor Martin addressed them on this subject. Declaring that 'by such +rash and irregular conduct a precedent is formed for every district and +even for every county in the State, to claim the right of separation and +independence for any supposed grievance as caprice, pride, and ambition +may dictate, thereby exhibiting to the world a melancholy instance of a +feeble or pusillanimous government, that is either unable or dares not +restrain the lawless designs of its citizens,' he advocated putting down +the movements by force if necessary. But the leaders were not to be +dissuaded from their ambitious purpose, and being joined by a few +adjoining counties in Virginia, they elected General Sevier, a hero of +the Revolution, as Governor, and the insurrection assumed a formidable +shape. But the old State met the trouble energetically, and after +exhausting all proper conciliatory measures, Sevier, with several of the +leaders, was arrested, their councils became divided, and the rebellion +was crushed. The leaders asked and obtained pardon, and an act of +amnesty was passed, so that in the subsequent political changes the +matter was forgotten. + +For a long period Newbern has been the residence of wealthy and +influential families. George Pollock, a descendant of one of the +original proprietors, who died some thirty years ago, dwelt there. He +owned immense tracts of the best land in the State, and over a thousand +slaves. + +There, too, was the home of Judge Gaston, a learned lawyer and a most +estimable man, who, though a Roman Catholic, was respected by all sects +and conditions, even in those days of fierce sectaries. John Stanly for +a long time gave celebrity to Newbern as a lawyer and legislator, his +oratorical powers being second to those of no man in the State. He was +the father of Edward Stanly, now appointed to act as military Governor +of the State. + +The country around Newbern was originally moderately fertile, but much +of it has become exhausted by reason of improper tillage. The forests +which were once a vast extent of stately pines, and from which great +quantities of turpentine and tar were for a century and a half exported, +are now little better than barren fields. Pine lumber and staves have +long been a large article of export, which with corn and cotton make up +nearly all the articles sent abroad. But the pines are now nearly +exhausted, the trade in naval stores and lumber lessened, and in +consequence a better state of agriculture has commenced. It is found +that by the aid of fertilizers good crops of cotton can be raised on the +pine lands and the fields kept in an improving condition. For the last +thirty years it can hardly be said that the town has improved; indeed, +as a whole it has hardly held its own. Still it is a place of wealth and +comfort. There is an air of respectability in its ancient and stately +buildings, its wide streets, and abundant shade-trees, and it is as +healthy as any Southern town can be. + +Some twenty years ago Newbern had what no other Southern town possessed, +a commerce of its own, that is, vessels built, owned, and sailed by its +own people. Many of these--then engaged in the West-India trade--were +partly manned by slaves who belonged to the proprietors of the vessel or +its captain, and at times, when other seamen could not be procured, +these slaves were allowed to make a voyage to a Northern port, but as +their value yearly augmented, and the risk of their suddenly +disappearing, not again to visit 'Dixie,' increased in a corresponding +ratio, they gradually retired to other duties where their services were +less precarious. + +And here I will relate an anecdote which an old salt once told me when I +was strolling along the wharves of this ancient town in his company. + +In consequence of a bar, or 'swash,' which stretches inside Ocracoke +Inlet, (at that time the only passage to the sea,) the vessels take in +but a part of their cargoes at Newbern, while lighters with the +remainder accompany them across the 'swash,' where the lading is +completed. Quite a number of small craft are thus constantly employed, +and they are generally manned and commanded by slaves. In this trade was +once engaged 'Jack Devereaux,' an intelligent black man who formerly +belonged to the Devereaux family--one of the F.F.s of Newbern--but who +had latterly become the property of H---- & C----, a mercantile firm +then doing a flourishing business there. He was captain of a famous +lighter, which for its enormous carrying capacity had received the +cognomen of 'Hunger and Thirst.' In due time the firm of H---- & +C----dissolved, and C---- 'moved West,' leaving an undivided half of +Captain Jack in the hands of his attorney. Jack had sailed the craft 'on +shares,' and compromised his services by monthly wages to his masters, +and so had gradually accumulated some hundreds of dollars. Not fancying +his new share-holder, he concluded to invest his hard-earned dollars in +his own bone and muscle, or in other words, buy half of himself. After +considerable higgling, he made the bargain, paying five hundred dollars +for the share. On the next trip to the bar, as the entrance to the sea +is usually called, there came up one of those sudden hurricanes known as +a Southeaster, whose force nothing can withstand. The small craft was +foundered, and Jack, after floating for a long time on a plank, finally +drifted on to a sand-spit, and was saved. + +Finding a passage home, he landed on the 'old County Wharf,' a +melancholy, disheartened, and depressed individual, and without +conferring with a single person, made his way to the attorney, from whom +he had so lately purchased himself, and by dint of persuasion succeeded +in having the trade canceled and his money returned. Jack was then +himself again. He recounted over and over his adventures by flood and +field to his wondering friends, and said no man, white or black, could +imagine the trouble he felt when floating on that plank, the waves +breaking over him every moment, when he considered he had just bought +half of 'dat nigger' that was now going to destruction, and paid all the +money he had for him. But he had 'traded back,' and then if he was +drowned, 'he wouldn't lose a cent by it.' It was long after this event +when he told me he would never again risk a cent in 'nigger' property, +it was too 'onsartin' entirely. Jack was a good deal of a wag, and told +this story with a gusto I can not describe.[A] But if Captain Jack is +still on this 'side of Jordan,' he has doubtless ere this found 'nigger' +property still more 'onsartin.' + +Let us, however, turn from the past to the present condition of affairs +in Newbern. Secession would never have originated there. When +South-Carolina passed its act of folly and madness, it met with a firm +opposition from the old Whig party, which still had here a vital +existence. Every exertion was made throughout the State to repel the +insidious influences of the demagogues of South-Carolina and Virginia, +and but for the Jesuitical management of the politicians at Richmond, +the 'Old North' would have remained loyal. But all the efforts of the +true Union men could not avail in warding off the storm that swept over +the South; and the Convention at Raleigh passed, or rather was forced to +assent to, the Act of Secession, on the twentieth of May, 1861. In +August the fortifications below Newbern were commenced, and continued +for some months, and well garrisoned, till they were supposed capable +of defending the town against any force that might be brought against +it. General Burnside, however, attacked them on the fourteenth of March, +1862, and after a sharp battle the rebels fled, and he occupied the old +place as a military conquest. All the wealthy and prominent citizens +fled, and have not returned. + +The present condition of things will not long continue; a more permanent +government, either civil or military, will soon be established, and with +it must come a new era which will settle for all time the destiny of +Newbern. + +Should the leading men of the town and all Eastern North-Carolina make +an effort and throw off the incubus that slavery has for a century +placed over it, a bright career of prosperity would open before them. A +new emigration, bringing energy and industry, would restore their +worn-out lands, drain their swamps, educate their youth, and make +Newbern echo with the hum of manufactures and commerce. The enterprise +of such a people would soon open a channel from the Neuse to Beaufort +harbor, and so avoid the shoals and dangers of Ocracoke and Hatteras, +and with the present railroads, make it the port of exchange for a wide +extent of country. The times are propitious; already the true men of the +State--and their name is legion--are anxiously awaiting the fall of +Richmond, when they will decide for the old flag and the Union, never +again to repudiate it. + + + * * * * * + + + + +OUR BRAVE TIMES. + + +I wonder if we, as a people, have any conception of the grandeur and +glory of the Times in which we are living; if we at all appreciate the +importance of the history which is being lived all around us; if we feel +the colossal magnitude of the every-day events which so crowd upon us +that we have hardly time to grasp them; if we are fully aware of the +infinite possibilities of what has been so well called this 'fearfully +glorious present'? I think not, and I do not know that it is possible +for us to do so. Only when we look back upon it from the hight of the +far-off future, shall we see the country through which we are journeying +in all its grand, sweeping outlines, its majestic proportions, and its +imperial tints of coloring. The days of peace and tranquillity in a +nation as in a life are robed in colors sweet and grateful to the +eye--softened hues of green and gold--but the days of war and +tribulation are days of scarlet and crimson, and all that can be seen in +heaven and earth is black and flame; but the days when Right achieves +great triumphs, even through bloodshed and desolation, are days of +imperial purple, hues royal in their magnificence. Thank Heaven that, +through the days of blood and black, we have at last reached the purple +days of life as a nation. A little more than a year of war, and now the +skies are brightening. Thank God! for they have been black, black, black +with horror and suffering and crime. And yet such a year as this, I am +almost persuaded, is worth a score of years of peace. It certainly has +achieved more for truth and humanity and God than the score of years +which preceded it. As a nation, we had become almost despicable. Such +supple, yielding slaves of 'Democratic' demagogues; such cringing, +fawning, knee-bending, hand-kissing agents of the diabolical, traitorous +Slave-Power; such apologists and supporters of Wrong; such +pusillanimous, weak-hearted advocates of the unpopular Right; such +slaves to Cotton and its threats, that we had almost lost the God-given +independence of American freemen, and seemed--thank God! events have +proved only _seemed_--to be entirely given up to money and mechanics, +to have become, indeed, a nation of peddlers. So much so, indeed, that +our prophets were stoned in their own lands, our apostles stricken down +in the national councils, and the few voices that were raised for God +and humanity, from out the miry slough of a trafficking age, were almost +unheard in the general din which went up from all the nations, and the +burden of whose song seemed to be: 'There is no God but Cotton, and we +are all his prophets.' But the moment the first gun was fired, how all +this changed! How regally the whole nation rose up! How magnificently +she threw off the garment of rags and filth which had hidden her fair +proportions, and donned the imperial toga of humanity, and wrapping the +rich folds of the gorgeous mantle around her, stood out before the world +in all the dignity of freedom and virtue--a form which made the whole +earth glad and the heavens clap their hands in exultation. What giant +leaps the nation made in manhood and heroism, strides following each +other thick and fast, until the most cynical of the doubters of humanity +began to open their eyes, and acknowledge that they would not have +thought her capable of such unexampled deeds. The national heroism which +the Northern people have displayed is indeed unparalleled. They have +risen up as one man to the support of the Government. They have offered +property and life and the most sacred treasures of the heart upon the +shrine of constitutional liberty. At the sound of the drum, they have +left the farm and the barn, the anvil and the mill, the church and the +forum, and formed into the grand army of invincibles which, at the word +of command, have marched forward, conquering and resistless. They have +borne patiently with delay and defeat, with blunders and crimes, with +humiliation and taxation, and have, in short, proved themselves +_Americans_ worthy of the name. Of course, national heroism has inspired +individual heroism, and to-day the country blazes from frontier to +metropolis with gallant records of daring deeds. Their number is +infinite; they can not be individually remembered, but only massed +together, one sublime mosaic by which the gallantry and heroism of the +free, untrammeled North is proved. We doubt not there is a leaf for each +hero in the heroic record of heaven, and the due share of hero-worship +paid to each by those angels who love to pore over the chronicles of +earth. And we mourn less over the coming of this war at the present time +than we should, did we not perceive that sooner or later it was +inevitable. It was written in the fate-book of God. Never before was war +so emphatically a war of principle. It mitigates the suffering much to +know this. It is something to know that all the brave men who have +fallen have fallen for the right; and when we believe so, we do firmly +believe that their death will give liberty and happiness to millions yet +to be. We can not think but that their lives are well spent. There are +some who are written upon God's muster-scroll as martyrs to liberty. Who +would not esteem it a happiness and a glory to belong to this Old Guard, +who from age to age have rallied and rallied and rallied to the support +of liberty, to the rescue of this holy sepulchre from the hands of +desolators and barbarians, who have ever fought where the fight was +thickest, have ever been the advance-guard of the world in its onward +progress, and been enshrined in the great heart of the world, there to +glow like the stars forever and ever? Is it a hardship to die that one +may live forever? Is it a hardship to die that millions who now live in +wailing and woe, in chains and degradation, may live in happiness and +freedom in all time to come? The voice of the great army of American +freemen rolls back the answer, like the majestic anthem of the sea, No! +a deep, continuous no, which echoes from the broad Atlantic to the +sunset-dyed Pacific, from the summits of Nevada to the great lakes of +the North. Yes, I tell you the whole people feel the depth and +sacredness of this war; they feel it to be, as Carlyle said of the +French Revolution, 'truth, though a truth clad in hell-fire.' + +Then forward, noble army of the brave and true! Rally and forward, and +forward again, until every Malakoff of Wrong is reduced, and every +suffering Lucknow of our country hears the slogan of deliverance. You +have glorious successes to cheer you now. You can think of Somerset and +Donelson, and all the glorious battles of the war--of forts taken, of +enemies driven, of towns evacuated, of the great cities of the enemy in +our hands, of all the stirring, glorious successes of our army and our +flag--and even had you none of these to think of, you could think of our +cause, and this would be enough. Then let the bugles sound, the trumpets +clang, the drums beat, the cannons roar, and we will march, and rally, +and forward, and charge and charge and charge, until victory or death +crown our labors; and if death to us, so let it be--it will be victory +to our successors. This is the spirit of our Northern army. Sing +plaudits to it, ye sons of song. Let your eloquence be inspired by it, +ye golden-mouthed men--ye Everetts and Sumners. Write of them, ye gifted +who would live in the coming time. Weave garlands for them, ye +white-handed and lily-browed. Write anthems and oratorios for them, ye +men of music. Pray for them, each and all of you, night and day, with +heart and voice. But we can not, if we would, overlook the desolation +which the war has brought and must bring upon our favored land. We can +not conceal from ourselves the fact that, end when it will, or how it +may, it must bring desolation to thousands of happy households, and +inflict never-healing wounds upon thousands of happy hearts. For every +man who falls in battle some one mourns. For every man who dies in +hospital-wards, and of whom no note is made, some one mourns. For the +humblest soldier shot on picket, and of whose humble exit from the stage +of life little is thought, some one mourns. Nor this alone. For every +soldier disabled; for every one who loses an arm or a leg, or who is +wounded or languishes in protracted suffering; for every one who has +'only camp-fever,' some heart bleeds, some tears are shed. In far-off +humble households, perhaps, sleepless nights and anxious days are +passed, of which the world never knows; and every wounded and crippled +soldier who returns to family and friends, brings a lasting pang with +him. Oh! how the mothers feel this war! If ever God is sad in heaven, it +seems to me it must be when he looks upon the hearts of mothers. We who +are young, think little of it, know nothing of it; neither, I think, do +the fathers or the brothers know much of it; but it is the poor mothers +and wives of the soldiers. God help them! But the theme is too sad--let +us leave it. And amid this wild rush of war, let us not forget our +individual duties and responsibilities. Carlyle truly says: 'Each of us +here, let the world go how it will, and be victorious or not victorious, +has he not a little life of his own to lead? One life--a little gleam of +life between two eternities--no second chance to us for evermore.' Let +us not forget the loves, the amenities and charities of social life. Let +us not forget that the education of the world must go on as ever, that +the great virtues of charity and self-denial must more than ever be +exercised, and that the discipline and perfection of our own characters +is as ever our grand life-work. Then let the angry waves of tumult dash +up and froth at our feet, let the skies blacken and the tempest roar, +God is over all. This one thing we are to remember, and be cheerful. +Browning says: + + 'God's in his heaven-- + All's right with the world.' + + + + +THE CRISIS AND THE PARTIES. + + +From two points of view, the great and preeminently _American_ nation +vibrates at present in a crisis of immense historical significance. The +first is, that of the war between the United and so-called Confederate +States, which is virtually a strife between Free Labor seeking to +enlarge its sphere and retain its power against agricultural aristocracy +maintained by slave labor. All the energies and theories of industrial +progress, of science, and of constant intellectual development; in a +word, all that is most characteristic of 'the spirit of the Nineteenth +Century,' is enlisted on the one side; all that is fading out and +wearing away, with all that characterizes the unwisest conservatism has +taken its last stand on the other. It is the old story of 'the +generation which comes and of that which goes,' reduced to the intense +form of a fierce fight. All of this--but little understood within a very +few years--has been of late made generally intelligible on this side of +the border, thanks, perhaps, as much to Mr. Hammond's word 'mudsill' as +to any other cause. In the short sentence which declared that there +should always exist, in every community, one ever-sunken and permanently +degraded class, the great point of difference between the South and +North was set forth in a form intelligible to the humblest capacity, and +it _was_ understood--how well has been shown in many a bloody field. + +The other crisis in which we are at present involved is domestic and +purely political. It is the growth of opposing political parties, and +its existence is undoubtedly to be regretted, if we take only a +_superficial_ view of the causes of its birth. We could all wish for +some time to come--perhaps forever--to see only a single Union-party, +with all men, looking neither to the right nor the left, pushing +steadily on to the great goal of unity, commercial development, and +social progress. But we forget that so surely as night follows day, even +so surely, in every community, will there be a conservative section and +a progressive; the 'extreme right' of the former consisting of frozen +conservatives, advocating the preservation of every antiquated evil, +because it has acquired in their eyes a halo of 'respectability,' while +on the 'extreme left' of their opponents will be found the radical +innovators, for whom no extravagance of reform is too great; so that as +each molecule or group of atoms has its positive and negative electrical +point, and as each atom in turn obeys the same law, so we see the +positive and negative poles of North and South again reflected in the +rapidly increasing divisions among us of Conservatives, who, by a +singular fatality, still indicate the plebeian origin which they would +now so gladly disown by the term Democrats; and, on the other hand, of +Republicans, nick-named at present Radicals--somewhat unjustly; since +the term is strictly applicable only to a very limited portion of their +number. + +There were men of high intelligence among the founders of the _old_ +Democratic party; men who understood in many respects the true interests +of humanity and its inevitable tendency, under the influences of free +labor, free schools, and science. But with the masses, it owed its +growth to the old assumed 'natural antagonism' of labor to capital, or +of 'the poor against the rich.' It was essentially the same party as +that which was played upon by low demagogues like Cleon in the old Greek +day; by men who stirred up the poor and ignorant against the privileged +and rich, for their own selfish advantage. Of late years, more +enlightened and intelligent views have prevailed in all parties, and the +Cleons of the present day have been compelled to adventure more and more +among the lowest and most ignorant for dupes. For the workman is +gradually learning with his employer that there is a harmony of +interests and a gradual adjustment of the prices allotted to the +relative values of time, labor, brains, and capital, and that the most +serious obstacle to this adjustment is, the keeping up of a constant +warfare between laborers and employers. It is the skilled _employe_ who +becomes himself the capitalist in due time, under a peaceable and +well-organized system, as labor and brains rise in value, and the +greatest impediment to his rise is a settled state of war between +himself and the employer. Education and political equality, the +competition of capital, and the ever-increasing appreciation of +intelligence, are constantly promoting this harmony and enabling labor +to secure its rights. + +It is easy to see how the ancient Democracy, or rather its leaders, +having for many years held political supremacy and shared the spoils, +actually took the place of their opponents, and, in their decline, +naturally enough, formed a coalition with the intensely aristocratic +South. Meanwhile, what became of the once aristocratic Opposition, with +its 'silk-stocking gentry,' as they were termed? Like the Democracy, it +died a natural death, so far as the active enforcement of its principles +was concerned, after those principles had no longer a foundation in the +social developments of the age. Here and there, an old and incurable +devotee to mere forms or party shibboleth, who could not comprehend the +new order of thought, went over to the 'Democratic' conservatives. Of +such were the old gentlemen who, in Philadelphia, voted for the white +waistcoat and immaculate snowy neck-tie of James Buchanan. They fled to +their ancient foes, that they might die happily in the holy odor of +respectability, quite ignorant that a new gospel of what may be termed +Respect Ability was being preached, and building up a higher and grander +order of nobility than they had ever dreamed of. + +Meanwhile, the arrogance of the South and its desperate struggle to +secure political preponderance, by extending slavery to the territories, +developed in the North a free-soil and free-labor party, which received, +most appropriately, the name of Republican. The doctrine of free-labor +being intimately allied to every other form of social freedom, and of +active thought and social science, had a natural affinity for +'intellect.' The old Opposition, which had boasted, or been taunted +with, possessing 'all the dignity,' including that of superior culture, +swelled the ranks of this new party with writers and thinkers of +eminence. So it grew in power, taking in, of course, many varied +elements, both good and bad. + +As might have been expected, the proper conduct of the war, and the +disposal of the enemy in case of victory, soon led to decided +differences between the Democracy, who could not--owing to ancient +custom--throw aside their love for the name, or their antipathy to the +new doctrines which threatened their power. The mass of them had grown +up in firm alliance with the South, and duped and cat's-pawed as they +had been--irritated as they were at the treachery of their old allies +and despite the noble service which many of them rendered, in fighting +the common foe--many have never been able to hate _ab imo pectore_ the +men of that false and foul feudal party which, when the rupture fairly +came, expressed for their old allies a scorn and contempt deeper even +than they felt for 'the Abolitionists.' In vain the South protested +fiercely that it meant disunion and nothing but disunion, and made its +words good by offering, both in Europe and in its own press, to +sacrifice, if need be, even slavery, rather than be longer bound to the +North; still, the remaining ultra Democracy could not, would not, even +now _will not_ believe that the South would or could be so unfriendly. +It was this hope of compromise and conciliation which lost us forts, and +ships, and millions of dollars in munitions of war; for it was said: +'The South is only boasting, and must not be driven to extremes.' With +eyes wide open to the thefts, the Democratic leaders smiled a languid, +cowardly assent, and let the enemy prepare for war. And war came. It +might have been prevented; it might, beyond all doubt, have been limited +and crushed; but the hand of the braggart South had been so long on the +throat of the doughfaces, that they dared not move, and the doughfaces +were in power. The country at large has had to pay dearly for that old +doughface love for the South; it is paying every day in lives and money. + +Even now, it is amazing to see how the leaders among the Democracy, +while pecking the South with the bill, continue to fondle it with the +wing. Again and again, since the war began, they have humiliated the +North and encouraged the desperate foe by efforts at peace-parties, +conciliations, outcries for amnesty, and entreaties not to 'exasperate' +the enemy. They have urged and advocated the maintenance of slavery, the +great cause of Southern arrogance and secession, with as much zeal as +any Southron of them all, and fiercely deprecated any allusion to a +subject which can no more he kept from consciousness than can a deadly +and madly irritating cancer. Every suggestion, even the mildest and most +equitable, for arranging this difficulty, has been stigmatized by them +as out of place and time, while their press has, without exception, as +we believe, given currency to statements denouncing directly as +swindlers and prostitutes the innocent and well-meaning men and women +who went South with the sole object of clothing, nursing, and teaching +the disorganized masses of blacks set free by our army. In all of this, +we have a melancholy illustration of the difficulty with which +unthinking men of the blind mass which rolls itself away into 'parties,' +and follows its leaders, embrace new truths or shake off old habits of +slavery. + +While the modern Democratic party firmly believed--as its majority still +seems to--that all this trouble was caused solely by the Abolitionists, +and simply for the sake of liberating some four millions of blacks, they +had at least some color for their iron conservatism. European humanity +did not agree with us; but we of America are more tropical in our +feelings, and so we made up our minds that it _was_ too bad to cut one +another's throats for the sake of benefiting certain 'fat and lazy +niggers,' who were probably rather better off as chattels than as free +men. But it is not from this point of view that the world is now +beginning to view the subject. Common-sense has ascertained clearly +enough that without the agitation of Abolition, the South would have +become intolerable and tyrannical--it was imperious, sectional, and +arrogant in the days of its weakness, while the Abolitionists scarcely +existed, and given to secession for any and every cause. The insolent, +individual independence which prompted the wearing of weapons, wild law +and wild life, free from mutual social obligations, contained within +itself the germs of withdrawal from a civilized and superior people and +a stable government. For such men, one pretense served as well as +another. They of South-Carolina employed Nullification long before they +dreamed of Anti-Abolition. + +Still more absurd is the 'Democratic' opposition, since Abolition for +the sake of the Negro has been changed into the cry of _Emancipation for +the sake of the White Man_. Before this cry, before the inevitable and +mighty demand of the free white labor of the future on the territories +of the South, all protestations against 'meddling' with emancipation +shrivel up into trifles and become contemptible. The prayer of the ant +petitioning against the removal of a mountain, where a nation was to +found its capital, was not more verily frivolous and inconsiderable than +are these timid ones of 'let it alone!' And _why_ let it alone? The +Emancipation-for-the-sake-of-the-white-man party, as represented by +President Lincoln's Message, commending remuneration, asks for no undue +haste, no violent or sudden aggressive measures. It is satisfied to let +the South free itself when it shall be disposed so to do; simply +offering it a kindly aid when this measure shall become popular and +expedient. More than this we have never asked for in these columns; yet +it would be hard to imagine a term of 'newspaper abuse,' which has not +been given us by the 'Democratic' press. Yes, at a time when ninety-nine +men in a hundred in the free States avow that they would like to see +slavery 'out of the way,' if only to avoid the endless war which its +continuance _must_ entail, all mention of it is tabooed by the men who +claim to head the party of the virtual majority! No matter how far off +the friends of Emancipation and of the Administration are willing to +postpone the practical execution of the measure, 'it must not be +mentioned.' For the greater part, these Northern friends of the South at +present still earnestly desire the perpetual establishment of slavery +'on a constitutional basis.' + +The contemptible efforts at Washington to build up a separate and +distinct Democratic party, when no party save that of the Union existed, +will condemn to everlasting opprobrium the Vallandighams, Carlisles, +Garret Davises, and other false friends of freedom, who at such a time +crowded together like hungry political cormorants, to hatch out the egg +of faction, and secure a prospective share of the spoils. Have these +'Conservatives' reflected on the disgraceful show which their names will +make _in history_, in after-years, when freedom shall have been +proclaimed throughout the land, and when those who opposed its progress +will appear like nothing else than traitors! Heaven help the men who, at +a time when others were gathering in full measure of glory in a holy +cause, were piling up naught but shame for their posterity. For it is +not more certain that God is just, than that the full measure of +iniquity will be heaped upon their names in the after-chronicles of +freedom. + +Even to the present moment, the 'Conservative' alias the +'Democratic'--or the Black, alias the White--party struggles with might +and main to defend and protect its old Southern whippers-in, even at the +risk of dividing and distracting the Union. To effect this, it +has--almost successfully--insolently thrust the Commander-in-chief +forward as _its_ centre, and broadly slandered the Secretary of War and +President in no measured terms, as having toiled to defeat McClellan and +prolong the war. Through all the glossy web of lies, the light of truth +shines or will shine to their disgrace. + +Chiefly and most unwisely is the conservative hand shown at present in +opposition to every proposition for confiscation or punishing the +rebels. After having hurried us by their cowardice and Southern +toad-eating into this war; after urging it by their contemptible +procrastination to its present tremendous proportions, they cry out +'humanity!' for the men who have murdered our relatives, and shake the +Constitution for protection over estates which have been directly used +to contribute to Southern war! While every mail from the South gives +fresh instances of desperation, and while we search in vain for a trace +of proof that there is the slightest hope of reconciliation, we are +still entreated to restore every thing in _statu quo ante bellum_, and +bear all the results of the war ourselves, as if forsooth we had been +after all in the wrong. And so the Vallandighams and Davises declare +that we were. 'Abolitionism caused it all,' they say, 'nothing but +Abolition.' + +Meanwhile, the question urges itself on us every day with more pressing +power, how we are really to settle the whole difficulty? We see but one +course--the 'Northing' of the South. We are content to waive for the +present all theory or project of confiscation, save so far as promoting +the settlement of those soldiers and emigrants who may wish to settle in +the South is concerned. _This_ question demands consideration, and must +have it. Whether the lands to be appropriated for this purpose come +from rebel estates which have ministered to the war, or whether they are +to be taken from State property, they must be had; for the settlement of +the South and the proper rewarding of the army are matters of paramount +importance. The South can no longer exist in its present social +condition. People who believe, to use the language of their most +respectable journal, the Richmond _Whig_, that: + + 'Yankees are the most contemptible and detestable of God's + creation; vile wretches, whose daily sustenance consists in the + refuse of all other people; for they eat nothing that any body else + will buy;... who have long very properly looked upon themselves as + our social inferiors, as our serfs:' + +People, we say, who believe this of us, must be taught to think +differently and truthfully. If they lived in China, it would be +otherwise; but linked to us as they are, we can no longer tolerate such +outrageous superciliousness as they manifest. Those among them who will +learn, may be taught; those who will not, must be supplanted by people +who are not too proud to work, who do not 'abominate the system of free +schools, because the schools are free,'[B] and revile free labor, +because it consists of 'greasy mechanics, filthy operatives, and +small-fisted farmers.' The task is great; but it must be accomplished. +The war is drawing to an end; but a greater and nobler task lies before +the soldiers and the free men of America--the extending of +_civilization_ into the South. Let us lift our minds above the narrow +limits of 'party,' and realize the mighty work which we have in hand. +Let the introduction of free labor to the South be in future the subject +to which every thinking American mind shall be devoted. Let them stream +in by millions!--the free laborers of all the world!--there is room for +them all; and the right of man to work never yet had such fair and just +opportunity to have justice done it. Agricultural aristocracy, supported +by involuntary servitude and unsupported by manufactures, has been +tried, and found worse than wanting. Let its place be filled as promptly +as possible by that truly higher aristocracy of industry and of culture +which is at present common to Europe and our own portion of America. The +turn of the North to rule has at length come. Let its reign be +inaugurated by great, noble, and philanthropic efforts to extend the +blessings of true civilization to all the continent. + + + + + + I WAIT. + + + I wait--watching and weary, I wait; + You wander from the way! + My heart lies open, however late, + However you delay! + + I wait--watching and weary, I wait; + But day must dawn at last! + Together, beyond the reach of fate, + Love shall redeem my past. + + I wait, ah! forever I can wait; + Forever? I am brave: + Time can not fathom a love so great-- + It waits beyond the grave! + + + + +TAKING THE CENSUS. + + +Moses Grant sat in his vine-grown arbor one fine afternoon in August. A +fine afternoon, I call it--a little sultry, to be sure, which made Moses +Grant's eyes heavy; but the hum of the bees that played around the white +clover-blossoms, and the sound of the leaves as they rustled in the warm +wind, and the richly colored clouds that floated around in the deep, +deep blue of the summer sky, and a thousand other things which I will +not pause to note, but which every observing reader has noted on many an +August day, made the afternoon I speak of as glorious as any afternoon +could be in all our glorious summer. + +Moses Grant's eyes were heavy--or eye-lids, if the reader should be a +critic. He had brought a book from his daughter's book-case. He +remembered the volume--it was called _A Book of a Thousand Stories_--as +the one his daughter Mary read aloud one evening, when the witty turns +of speech put all the company into the best of humor. But, somehow, the +wit had now lost its point--the joke had lost its zest--and let him try +as he would to collect his scattered thoughts, and let him set his eyes +on his book never so firmly, his fancy would go on long journeys into +the past, and come back again, wearied more and more with each journey, +till at last it had sunk to rest, and Moses Grant's eyes were closed. +The bees buzzed on, the leaves quivered as before, and the great world +moved in its wonted way, yet our hero did not heed it; the world moved +on just the same, O reader! as it will one day move--one long, long +day--when you and I will not heed it. + +Suddenly Moses Grant heard his name spoken. When aroused, he saw his +neighbor, Johnson, seated in the rustic chair that mated the one in +which he himself sat. + +'Good-day, neighbor Johnson,' said Moses Grant. 'What in the world are +you doing with that great book?' + +'I am taking the census.' And he began turning the leaves as if +searching for a lost place, remarking, laconically: 'Sultry.' + +'Yes, a very close afternoon. But is it ten years since the census was +taken? It seems but as many months. Oh! well, time flies!' + +And he looked at the beautiful sky and at the beautiful landscape, and +lingeringly at his own stately mansion, guarded by venerable trees that +his own hand had transplanted from the forest--and the great truth, +half-realized, yet almost as common as our daily life, that time was +sweeping all things into the dead past, day by day and year by year, +gave him a passing thought of how much he loved them. + +The name of Moses Grant was duly inscribed in the book. Then the +question was asked by neighbor Johnson: + +'When were you born?' + +'In the year 1800--sixty years ago the day before yesterday--though I +declare I forgot all about my birthday.' + +'Well, how much real estate shall I set down to you?' + +'I _have_ said that I owned about fifty thousand dollars in that kind of +property, perhaps a little more, but not half as much as some persons +estimate.' + +'Well, how much personal property?' + +'I guess about twenty thousand will not go far out of the way, reckoning +mortgages and all.' + +After a few minutes, which neighbor Johnson occupied by telling how Sime +Jones tried to get the appointment of census-taker by wriggling about in +an undignified way, and in talking about the prospects of his political +party, the visitor left the old man, (such we have a right to call him +since he has confessed his age,) and the old man (he would not thank us +for using the term so often, for he tries to think he is still +young--the old man, I must again repeat) fell a thinking. His eyes were +no longer closed, although his book _was_; he leaned forward in his +rustic chair, and commenced to talk aloud--which is said to be a growing +habit with most old men: + +'Sixty years of human life!' The words were uttered slowly, as though +their full meaning were felt in the speaker's heart. After a little +while they were repeated: 'Sixty years of human life!' There was a +mournfulness in his voice now; it had sunk to the low, tender tones +that, years before, when his faithful wife vanished from earth, revealed +to all his friends that there was sadness in his heart, while there +seemed cheerfulness in his words. 'Welladay!' he continued; 'I have, at +any rate, been a _successful_ man. My business has prospered beyond my +expectations, and I am what people call a rich man. There was a time +when I feared I should come to want; but now, if I could but think so, I +have enough. And mine has been an industrious life. When I was elected +to the State Senate wasn't my name held up in the newspapers as an +example for young men? Wasn't my reputation admitted to be spotless? +Yes, I _have_ been a successful man--more successful than nearly all who +started with me.' + +And he began to look more cheerful and contented. He again looked at his +mansion and broad fields, and again he opened his book. The jokes were +better now than a little while before. + +But the bees buzzed on; the trees sang their old soothing song; the air +remained warm; and soon Moses Grant began to nod assent to his book, +though the matters it contained were not of opinion, but of fancy. By +which I mean that he grew sleepy. + + * * * * * + +Sudden darkness fell upon the earth. The sun, after sending its rays to +glitter in the river so brightly that Moses Grant put his hand over his +eyes as he looked from his arbor-door, went out, and the blackness of +night wrapped itself about the world. The elms, that had rattled their +deep green leaves in the wind, and the birch, that had so gracefully +bowed its slender, yellowish head, were all colorless now. There was no +storm-cloud to veil the heavens, and yet the sad-faced moon came not out +to remind the world of their lost loves and deferred hopes--nor the +stars, to twinkle in their silence, as though there were a great Soul in +the skies that longed to speak to men, but had no utterance save a +thousand love-lit eyes. All was darkness--dense, universal. + +Yet Moses Grant had sat unmoved in his vine-grown arbor. His soul was +passionless, his face was calm. His book had fallen to the ground, and +his head rested on the back of his chair. + +Suddenly there came a visitor to the arbor. Moses raised his head and +saw a being--whether man or woman I can not tell--with a face, oh! so +bright and calm, with eyes that looked from the deepest soul, and a pure +forehead that spoke of unworldly rest--a face that shone in its own +vista of light when all around was dark. The Presence bore an open book +in its hands, and came and stood before Moses Grant and looked earnestly +into his face. + +'Who are you?' he cried, half in fear, before the calm look of his +visitor, and half in confidence, because of the look of love. + +'I am the census-taker.' + +'No, no; it was he who came a little while ago.' + +'He was one census-taker--he came to learn how much you _seemed_ to +possess; I come to learn your _real_ possessions. I am the real +census-taker.' + +Moses Grant knew not what it meant; he sat speechless, in wonder. He +would have fled, but he knew not where he could flee in the darkness; he +must remain with his strange visitor, as all men must one day stand +alone with an awakened Conscience. + +'When were you born?' asked the Presence. + +'Sixty years ago,' answered Moses. + +'You understand me not. I do not ask for the time when you were born +into your outward show of life, but when you commenced to live.' + +'Still I do not know your meaning,' said Moses. + +'Then you have not yet been born. You exist--you do not live. Say not +again that you have lived sixty years, for your being has not yet +expanded into life.' + +Oh! what great thoughts and dark memories came into the mind of Moses +Grant! Great thoughts of a nobler life of love than he had ever +known--of realities to which he was fast approaching--and a thousand +dark memories that he had often tried to obliterate from his mind. A +little while before, he thought he possessed a spotless reputation--and +so he did possess a spotless reputation when judged by human law. No man +ever knew him to steal; no man ever knew him to transgress any important +law. Nevertheless, he had had his own ends to gain, and he had gained +them. Yes--we might as well confess it--Moses Grant had lived a selfish +life. He knew how to take advantage of the technicalities of law, and he +knew how to be severe and unmerciful toward the poor. He remembered how, +years before, his son had longed for an education, and how the mother +had pleaded that he might go to school and to college, and how sternly +he said, 'No, I want him in my business;' and he remembered how he kept +him slaving at his uncongenial tasks, how he scolded because he still +pored over his books, until at last the mother had laid the poor boy in +the grave before he had attained to manhood. He remembered how the +mother grew paler day by day--she who had been such a help-meet in all +his selfish schemes of hoarding and saving; how she had talked more and +more about her 'dear lost boy,' till he, Moses Grant, commanded her +never to utter that name again in his presence; how the mother still +faded and faded, till at last she too, was laid in a quiet grave beside +her boy. All this came into the mind of Moses Grant. And then he +remembered how he had taken a poor widow's cottage, because his +mortgage-deed gave him the privilege--he never thought the _right_--to +take it; he remembered her sad face, that told of silent suffering, when +she moved with her children from the cottage her husband had built. +'How,' he asked, in the silence of his own mind, 'oh! how could they say +my reputation was unspotted?' Yet he had transgressed no outward law, +had forged no mortgage-deed. He only acted like a man who thought that +this world could only be enjoyed when he possessed a title-deed to it +all; like one who thought that above and beyond this world there was +nothing. + +All this time has the Presence stood before Moses Grant, looking into +his troubled face with its piercing eyes, and reading his every thought. + +'Answer me now,' it said, 'have you yet begun to live?' + +Then there was another and greater struggle in the mind of Moses. Pride +said to him: 'Send this intrusive visitor away, or flee yourself.' But +still the visitor stood there, waiting so calmly, and again Moses +realized that the great world had faded from his vision; so he could +neither send away the intruder, nor fly himself. Still those calm eyes +looked into his inmost soul. + +'Oh!' he cried at last, 'you have searched me through and through. No, I +have not lived--I have not been born, I have no life for you to record +in your book. Now, pray leave me--leave me in peace!' + +'That were impossible,' said the Presence, 'you know not peace. You +pride yourself on your possessions; but how can you have life or +possessions, if they are not recorded in my book? The earth, that you +love so well, has faded away. It will return to you for a brief moment, +and then it will fade forever. What you now possess is but a shadow, +like a sun-gilt cloud in a summer sky--changing and changing, and fading +and fading, till at last it disappears. You have, if God wills, a few +more years of mortal existence, and then, oh! then, you must exchange +shadows for realities.' + +'Leave me, oh! leave me!' cried Moses. + +'Not yet; my mission is not fulfilled. Here in this book your name was +written sixty years age, as one _to be_ born. Here your ledger has been +kept, though you knew it not. Read the pages with your soul, and see how +your account stands.' + +Oh! how dark the page. A line was drawn through the middle, from top to +bottom, and the good deeds were recorded on one side, in letters of +gold, and the bad deeds on the other side in letters of ink. As the +pages were turned, Moses looked eagerly for the bright letters, but they +were few--too few; while every page was almost filled with the black +records of selfish and sinful deeds. Every page made Moses Grant sicker +at heart, and he would gladly have withdrawn his eyes from the book, but +they were riveted, and he could not. + +'O poor man!' exclaimed the Presence, in pity; 'how poor do you find +yourself, you who were a little while ago so rich! But you must read no +more, lest you sink in despair.' + +And the book was closed. Moses Grant said not a word; his heart was too +full to speak--too full of grief--too empty of hope. + +'Despair not,' continued the strange Presence. 'Your record is not yet +completed. You may yet cancel all those black letters by writing golden +ones over them--which is to pray with your remaining strength and days +for forgiveness. You have been a hard, selfish man, for sixty years. +Men, for their own interests, have called you respectable; but before +God you have merited displeasure and disapprobation. In the little time +you have left, perhaps you may not be able to leave the world as pure as +you began it; but you may hope for wonderful mercy and forbearance from +God our Father. Have courage, and faith, and hope, and you will yet be +rich indeed--rich in love and joy and peace undefiled, that fadeth not +away.' + +Then the Presence vanished. Still Moses sat in his chair. But a hand was +laid on his forehead, and he awoke as he heard Mary say: 'Father, supper +is ready.' He drew his hand across his eyes, and arose from his chair. +He looked from his arbor-door. The world was all bathed in the light of +the declining sun. As he came out and looked on the landscape, he +thought that never before had he seen it so dreamy--never before had he +seen it so beautiful and so glorious, for never before had he so felt +the use of this world as a place in which to attain to the good and to +shun the evil, to overcome temptation and to aspire to life. + +His daughter wondered what caused his tone to be so tender that night; +the next day his neighbors wondered that he visited a certain poor, +struggling widow, and gave her the house her husband once owned; and in +the months that have since passed, many a poor family has wondered what +has turned their former oppressor into such a provident friend. + +_I_ only wonder that so old and selfish a man could have had so bright +and heavenly a dream. + + * * * * * + + A SENSIBLE EPITAPH. + + + 'Reader, pass on: ne'er waste your time + On bad biography or bitter rhyme: + For what I _am_, this cumbrous clay insures, + And what I _was_, is no affair of yours.' + + + + +THE PELOPONNESUS IN MARCH. + + 'Fair clime I where every season smiles. + + * * * * * + + There, mildly dimpling, Ocean's check + Reflects the tints of many a peak + Caught by the laughing tides that lave + These Edens of the Eastern wave. + And if, at times, a transient breeze + Break the blue crystal of the seas, + Or sweep one blossom from the trees, + How welcome is each gentle air + That wakes and wafts the odors there!' + + +It was with thoughts like these running in our heads, that we found +ourselves, at about half-past four o'clock, on a dark, cloudy, windy +morning, March fifteenth, 18--, rolling slowly along the uneven road +that leads from Athens to the Piraeus. Our guide was Dhemetri, of +course--who ever heard of a guide that was not named Dhemetri? An +excellent guide he was, too, never missing his way, answering correctly +all our questions to which he knew the answers, and fabricating answers +to the rest as near the truth as his moderate knowledge of antiquity +would permit; providing us sedulously with creature comforts, and +besieging our hearts daily with delicious omelettes and endless strings +of figs. Arrived at the Piraeus, we were transferred, with beds, cooking +apparatus, and baggage, to the Lloyd steamer, whose cloud of steam and +smoke was seen dimly in the gray morning. At a reasonable time after the +hour advertised, we sailed into the open bay, passed near enough the +island of AEgina to see the ruined temple on one of its hights--almost to +count its columns--then coasted along the rugged shores of Argolis, +which we eagerly studied with the aid of a map. Here was the peninsula +Methana, and half hiding it, the island Calauria, where Demosthenes put +an end to his life, once the seat of a famous Amphictyony. Then the bold +promontory which shuts in the fertile valley of Troezer, then the +territory of Hermione, stretching between the mountains and the sea. We +touched at Hydhra, famed in the history of the Greek Revolution, a +strange, rambling town, picturesquely situated on a cleft in a bare +island of gray rock, and shortly after at Spetzia, a town of much the +same character; then toward night sailed into the beautiful bay of +Napoli, or Nauplia, once the capital of Greece. + +It had been our intention to procure horses that night, and ride as far +as Mycenae, but we were too late, so contented ourselves with a walk to +Tiryus, and a rapid examination of its ruins. The massive walls of this +venerable town--they were a wonder in the age of Pericles as in +ours--still stand in their whole circuit, and here and there apparently +in their whole hight. It is a small, steep, mound-like hill--you can +walk around it in fifteen minutes--and within the walls the terraced +slope, thickly sprinkled with fragments of ruins, is grown over with the +tall purple flowers of the asphodel--a fit monument to the perished +city. From the citadel of Tiryus the view over the wide plain of the +Inachus, the broad bay beyond, covered with sails, the bold headland of +Napoli crowned with the ruined castle, the noble citadel of Argos, and +the mountain ranges on every side, made a picture beautiful even under +the dull sky of that March evening. Our walk--quickened by the fear that +the city gates would be found closed--gave us a hearty appetite, and a +classic smack was imparted to our modest viands by the fact that Orestes +himself waited on our table. We slept well, notwithstanding the +uncomfortable reputation of the inn, and set off early the next morning +upon our wanderings. + +Traveling in Greece is no child's play. Roads there are none, except +between some large towns; indeed, the nature of the country hardly +allows of them, as it is made up chiefly of mountain ridges and ravines. +Neither would the poverty-stricken inhabitants be able at present to +make much use of them. When I expressed to Dhemetri the great benefits I +conceived that roads would confer upon the community, he asked +contemptuously: 'What good would roads be to them, when they have no +carriages?' Inns, too, there are none, or almost none; after leaving +Napoli we found none until we returned to Athens. In their stead, each +village has its _khan_, a house rather larger than ordinary, and +containing one large unfurnished room for guests. Here a fire is made on +the hearth, (the smoke escaping, or intended to escape, through a hole +in the roof, for chimneys do not exist,) and the traveler pitches his +tent metaphorically in this apartment. The beds, which he carries with +him, are spread on the floor, to do double duty as seats during the +evening and beds by night. Thus the accommodations are reduced to their +lowest terms--shelter and fire; to which add a lamb from the flock, eggs +in abundance, or sometimes a chicken, loaf of bread, or string of figs. +Wine, too, flavored with resin in true classic style, and tasting like +weak spirits of turpentine, is to be had every where. But for any +entertainment beyond this, the host is no-way responsible. If you do not +choose to sleep on the bare floor, you must bring beds and bedding with +you. If you wish the luxury of a knife and fork, you must furnish them +yourself. Kettles, plates, saucepans, cups, coffee, sugar, salt, +candles, all came from that mysterious basket which rode on the +pack-horse with the baggage. Were I visiting Greece again, I would +eschew all these vanities--carry nothing but a _Reisesack_, or +travel-bag, as the Germans are wont to call every variety of knapsack--a +shawl, and a copy of _Pausanias_, and live among the Greeks as the +Greeks do; but I was inexperienced then. + +So we set out with great pomp and circumstance, each on his +beast--_alogon_, the Unreasonable Thing, is the word for horse--while a +fifth, with two drivers, carried our goods. A ride of about three +hours--passing the silent and deserted Tiryus--brought us to the village +of Charvati, the modern representative of the 'rich Mycenae.' Here, +while Dehmetri prepared our breakfast, we followed a villager, who led +us by rapid strides up the rocky hill toward the angle formed by two +mountains. As we rose over one elevation after another, he plucked his +hands full of dry grass and brush, and then leading us into a hole in +the side of the hill, informed us in good classic Greek that it was the +tomb of Agamemnon. It is a large, round apartment, rising to the hight +of forty-nine feet, and of about the same width, the layers of masonry +gradually approaching one another until a single stone caps the whole; +not conical in shape, however, but like a beehive. A single monstrous +stone, twenty-seven feet long and twenty wide, is placed over the +doorway. The whole is buried with earth, and covered with a growth of +grass and shrubs, and a passage leads from it into a smaller chamber +hewn in the solid rock, in which our guide lighted the fuel he had +gathered. The gloomy walls were lighted up for a moment, then when the +fire died away, we returned to the open air. A little further on is the +famous gateway with two lionesses carved in relief above--the armorial +bearings, we may call it, of the city--and in every direction are seen +massive walls, foundation-stones, ruins of gates and of subterraneous +chambers like the first we visited, conical hillocks, probably +containing others in equally good preservation, and other marks of the +busy hand of man--'_Spuren ordnender Menschenhand unter dem Gestraeuch_.' +Sidney Smith says: 'It is impossible to feel affection beyond +seventy-eight degrees or below twenty degrees of Fahrenheit.... Man only +lives to shiver or to perspire.' I think it is so with the sublime and +beautiful, and deeply as I felt in the abstract the privilege I enjoyed +in standing on the citadel of Agamemnon, and seeing the most venerable +ruins that Europe can boast, that keen March wind was too much for me, +and I was not sorry to return to the khan, where, sitting cross-legged +on the floor, we ate with our fingers a roast chicken dissected with the +one knife of the family, and drank a bumper of resinous wine. + +After dinner we remounted and rode back through the broad plain to +Argos, traversed its narrow, dirty streets, stared at by the Argive +youth, examined its grass-grown theatre, cast wistful eyes at the lofty +citadel of Larissa, which time forbade us to ascend, then wound along +the foot of the mountain-range, saw at a distance on the seashore a spot +of green, which we were told was Lerna, where Hercules slew the hydra, +and near the road an old ruined pyramid, which we afterward examined +more closely, then followed a mountain-path, catching now and then a +glimpse of the bay, following the crest of the ridge into the valley +beyond. On one of the undulations of the path we passed over the site of +an ancient city, evidenced only by that most sure sign, a soil thickly +covered with potsherds. No classic writer mentions it, no inscription +gives it a name; perhaps the careless traveler would pass without a +suspicion that he was treading on the street, or forum, or temple of a +once thriving town. Striking soon into the carriage-road from Napoli to +Tripolitza, and descending into a charming little valley with the +euphonious name of Achladhokamvo, we were not sorry to find a khan, and +take up our quarters for the night. We found the family sitting on the +floor around a fire blazing on a hearth in the middle of a room, and +here we placed ourselves, watching the women spinning and Dhemetri +making his preparations for supper. Out of the afore-mentioned basket +quickly came all the afore-mentioned articles. A lamb was killed, and +shortly an excellent supper was served up to us. Soon the guest-chamber +was announced to be ready for us, a large open room having a fire at one +end, and containing our beds, spread on the floor, a cricket three +inches high, that served as a table, two windows closed by shutters +instead of glass, and a large quantity of smoke. + +The next morning a steep and picturesque path over Mount Parthenion--the +same path, I suppose, on which Phidippides had his well-known interview +with the god Pan--brought us to Arcadia. And at the name of Arcadia let +not the fond mind revert to scenes of pastoral innocence and enjoyment, +such as poets and artists love to paint--a lawn of ever-fresh verdure +shaded by the sturdy oak and wide-spreading beech, watered by +never-failing springs, swains and maidens innocent as the sheep they +tend, dancing on the green sward to the music of the pipe, and snowy +mountains in the distance lending repose and majesty to the scene. +Nothing of this picture is realized by the Arcadia of to-day, but the +snowy mountains, and they, indeed, are all around and near. No, let your +dream of Arcadia he something like this: A bare, open plain, three +thousand feet above the level of the sea, fenced in on every side by +snow-topped mountains, and swept incessantly by cold winds, the sky +heavy with clouds, the ground sown with numberless stones, with here and +there a bunch of hungry-looking grass pushing itself feebly up among +them. Not a tree do you behold, hardly a shrub. You come to a river--it +is a broad, waterless bed of cobble-stones and gravel, only differing +from the dry land in being less mixed with dirt, and wholly, instead of +partly, destitute of vegetation. But your eye falls at last on a sheet +of water--there is surely a placid lake giving beauty and fertility to +its neighborhood. No, it is a _katavothron_, or chasm, in which the +accumulated waters of the plain disappear. For as these Arcadian valleys +are so shut in by mountains as to leave no natural egress to the water, +it gathers in the lowest spot it can reach, and there stagnates, unless +it can wear a passage for itself, or find a subterraneous channel +through the limestone mountain, and come to light again in a lower +valley. Such a reaeppearance we saw near Argos, a broad, swift +stream--the Erasmus--rushing from under a mountain with such force as to +turn mills; it is believed to come from a _kalavothron_ in the northern +part of Arcadia. And not far from thence a fountain of fresh water +bubbles up in the sea a few yards from the shore; this is traced to a +similar source. In some parts of Greece the remains may still be seen of +the subterranean channels by which in ancient times the _katavothra_ +were kept clear, and thus prevented from overflowing. In this way much +land was artificially redeemed to agriculture. + +If, now, you seek for the dwellers in this paradise, behold them in yon +shepherd and his faithful dog--_Arcades ambo_--the shepherd muffled +against the searching wind in hood and cloak, under his arm a veritable +crook, while his sheep and goats are browsing about wherever a blade of +grass or a green leaf can be found. His invariable companion is--I was +about to say a tamed wolf; but in reality, an untamed animal of wolfish +aspect and disposition, always eager to make your acquaintance. These +creatures are the torment of the traveler throughout Greece, and most of +all in Arcadia. If on foot, he can pick up a stone, at sight of which +the enemy will beat a hasty retreat. Greece seems to have been +bountifully supplied with loose stones of the right size for this very +purpose, just as the rattlesnake-plant is said to grow wherever the +rattlesnake itself is found. If on horseback, he can easily escape, +although the animal will not scruple to hang to the horse's tail or bite +his heels. Such was Arcadia in March. No doubt, at another season it is +a delightful retreat from the overpowering heat of the Greek summer. It +may have a beauty of its own at that season; but there can be little of +that quiet rural landscape which we call Arcadian. + +After crossing this plain, visiting by the way the ruins of Tegea, which +consisted of a potato-field, sprinkled with bits of brick and marble, +and a medieval church, with some ancient marble built into its walls, we +came to a broad river, the Alpheus, whose water, when it has any, +empties in a _katavothron_ which we left on our right; followed it up in +a southerly direction until we came to a little water in its bed, then +crossing over some rolling land which divides the water-courses of +Arcadia from those of Laconia, we found ourselves in a country of a very +different character. The land was better, and was covered with a low +growth of wood; we could even see extensive forests on the sides of +Parnon. The scenery became highly picturesque, and the weather, although +still rigorous, was more comfortable than in the morning. Night came on +us long before we reached our journey's end, the wayside khan of +Krevata. There was a little parleying at the door, and Dhemetri seemed +dissatisfied with what he saw, and disposed to carry us on to another +resting-place. But thoroughly benumbed as we were, the blaze of light +that fell upon us from the half-open door quite won our hearts, and we +felt willing to risk whatever discomforts the place might have rather +than go further. As we entered the door, the scene was striking. A large +fire was roaring in the middle of the room, filling it with smoke. On +cushions and scraps of carpet, disposed about the fire, were crouched +six or eight men and women, dressed in their national costume, very +dirty and equally picturesque. Two or three children were among them, or +lay stretched at random on the floor asleep. A large, swarthy man +opposite us held a child of two or three years, now nestling in its +father's arms, now climbing over to its mother, now gazing bashfully and +curiously at the strangers. Basil, ever ready on occasion, seized his +pencil and soon transferred the group to paper, to the admiration of +them all. They moved to right and left as we came in, and made room for +us on the side next the door, where our faces were scorched, Our backs +shivering, and our eyes smarting with the smoke. An old woman who sat +next me eyed us inquisitively, and would gladly have entered into +conversation; but almost our sole Greek phrase, 'It is cold,' (_eeny +krio_), we had exhausted immediately on entering the room. Basil +essayed Italian, having a vague idea that it would pass any where in +Greece, as French does in Italy, but with no success. Neither was our +conversation among ourselves brilliant. We were tired, cold, sleepy, and +hungry, and we thought despairingly on the long miles back that we had +last seen our baggage. At length a shout at the door gladdened our +hearts; our beds and that ever-welcome basket were handed in, and +Dhemetri was soon deeply engaged in preparing supper. Meanwhile, a fire +had been built in the upper room, and we went up by a ladder. But here +we were worse off than below. Roof, floor, walls, and (wooden) windows, +all were amply provided with cracks and knot-holes, through which the +wind roved at its will. A wretched fire was smoldering on the hearth, +and a candle was burning in a tin cup hanging by its handle on a nail in +the wall, which, set it where we would, flickered in the wind. And when +our supper came, fricassee, boiled chicken, roast hare, omelette, bread, +cheese, figs, and wine--for such a bill of fare had Dhemetri made ready +for us--we swallowed it hastily, huddled our beds about the fire, +wrapped ourselves in our blankets, and lay down at once. The inquisitive +old lady below, on seeing the extensive preparations for the supper of +three fellow-mortals, was struck with reverence for us, and expressed +her belief that those, who lived on such marvelous and unheard-of +delicacies would never die. We, indeed, had requested Dhemetri to cater +more simply for us; but his professional pride would not suffer it. + +We were right glad when morning came, and after a mug of thick coffee, a +bit of bread, and a handful of figs, we bid farewell to Krevata with no +regrets. A short ride brought us to the brow of the range on which we +were traveling, and there lay the valley of Sparta at our feet, and +beyond it the Taygetus, if not the highest, the boldest and sharpest +mountain-range in Greece. Its white and jagged crest was still tipped +with clouds, and it appeared to rise from the valley of Sparta in an +almost unbroken ascent to its hight of seven thousand feet. This was the +finest single prospect of our journey; but we gladly left it, after a +short pause, to push on to the warmth and sunshine of the valley below. +The precipitous descent was soon accomplished; we forded the Eurotas, a +broad, clear, shallow stream, the only real river we saw in Greece, and +stood in Sparta, its site marked by a group of low hills and a few +unimportant ruins. The ground is good, and was then green with young +wheat; the valley was sheltered from the winds which had persecuted us +on the highlands, and for a few hours in the middle of the day, the +clouds were scattered, and we basked in the sun's rays. It seemed an +Elysium. A small and thrifty village has recently sprung up south of +this group of hills, still within the limits of the ancient city, and +here we dined in a cafe (_kapheterion_) kept by one Lycurgus, not on +black broth, but on roast lamb, omelette, figs, oranges, and wine. +Truly, if national character depended wholly on physical geography, we +should be inclined to look in the valley of the Eurotas for the rich and +luxurious Athens, and seek its stern and simple rival among the bleak +hills and sterile plains of Attica. We had a short ride that afternoon +up the valley of the Eurotas, with a keen north wind in our faces, and +were not sorry to reach Kalyvia at an early hour. + +Dhemetri had sent the pack-horse with our baggage across by a shorter +path, and now announced that we were to sleep to-night in a house +instead of a khan, that the mayor (_demarchos_) of Kalyvia had consented +to receive us. Great was our exultation at the prospect of spending a +night in this aristocratic mansion, and in truth we found the +accommodations here much the most comfortable--nay, we reckoned them +luxurious--which we had on our journey. We were first shown into a small +room with one glass window, with tight walls, and a chimney. A fire was +burning cheerfully on the hearth--that is to say, a stone platform +slightly elevated above the floor. The floor around the fire was spread +with mats, and in one corner the lady of the house was--what shall I +say?--squatted upon the floor, engaged in domestic work. Her daughter, a +pretty, blue-eyed maiden, of some fourteen years, named Athena, +glaykhopis Hathhena, was working by her side, and the demarch himself, +with his stalwart son, were similarly seated on the opposite side of the +hearth. Three rough, unpainted stools, an extra luxury for guests, were +brought in for us, and we at once plunged into conversation. + +'_Eeny kriho_!' said we. + +'_Mhalista, mhalista, eeny krio_!' was the prompt reply. + +Stimulated by our success, we made another attempt, and were overwhelmed +by a flood of Romaic, to which we could only nod our heads gratefully, +with 'Malista, malista, chari, chari,' (certainly, certainly, thank you, +thank you.) When we retired to our room, we found our beds laid on a +sort of shelf along the wall, instead of on the floor, and our supper +was served on a table instead of in our laps, as we were used. The +family shook hands with us cordially when we took leave, in the morning, +placing their hands on their hearts. + +This day we rode through a rolling country, quite well watered and +wooded, separating the waters of the Eurotas from those of the Alpheus, +Laconia from Arcadia. As we reached the highest point, and were about to +descend, Dhemetri pointed out a village, distinguished by a single tall, +slender cypress, with the words; 'There is Megalopolis.' This is the +city founded by Epaminondas, almost the only statesman of antiquity who +seems to have had a dim conception of the modern policy of the balance +of power, as a point of union for the jealous and disunited States of +Arcadia, and as a sentinel stationed at a chief entrance to Laconia. The +whole of his great project was not realized, and Megalopolis, instead of +becoming 'the great city' of Arcadia, was only a mate to Tegea and +Mantinea. Even thus, the work was by no means lost; a Spartan army, to +reach Messenia, whose independence was to be secured, must pass through +the territory of Megalopolis, and even a second-rate city would answer +as a guard. But not even Epaminondas could make of Arcadia a first-class +power, and a sufficient counterpoise to Sparta. Megalopolis is now +wholly deserted, and represented only by the little village of Sinanu, +half a mile distant, where we stopped at a khan kept by an old soldier +of Colocotroni, and ran, while dinner was preparing, to examine the +scanty ruins of the great city--interesting only from their association +with a great name. + +Reluctantly, we now turned our backs upon Messene, with its renowned +fortress of Ithome, the sacred Olympia, and the beautiful temple of +Phigalia, and began our homeward journey. Passing over a mountain from +which we had a wide and beautiful view, we rode through a barren and +uninteresting plain to the lonely khan of Frankovrysi, and early the +next day arrived at Tripolitza. We had had a clear sky at Megalopolis +and Frankovrysi, but here, in the high table-land of Arcadia, we found +the self-same leaden sky and bleak winds we left three days before. This +valley or table-land stretches from north to south, nearly divided in +two by the approach of the mountains from east and west. Thus the valley +takes the shape rudely of the figure eight; the southern part, through +one corner of which we had passed before, being occupied by Tegea, the +northern by Mantinea. Tripolitza, to the northwest of Tegea, represents +the ancient Pallantium, the birthplace of Evander. Here Dhemetri brought +us bad news. We had intended to go to Mantinea, thence north through +Orchomenus, Stymphalus, and Sicyon, to Corinth; but the passes, we +learned, were impracticable for the snow, and we must recross Mount +Parthenion, and revisit Achladhokamvo and Argos. First, however, we took +a rapid ride to Mantinea, about eight miles through a level, tolerably +well-cultivated country. At the narrow passage between the mountains, +there stood in ancient times a grove of cork-trees, called 'Pelagus,' +the sea. Epaminondas, warned by an oracle to beware of the 'Pelagus,' +had carefully avoided the sea. But it was just in this spot that he drew +up his troops for the great battle which cost him his life. When +mortally wounded, he was carried to a high place called +'Skope'--identified with the sharp spur of Mount Maenalus, which projects +just here into the plain, and from this he watched the battle, and here +he died, like Wolfe, at the moment of victory. The well-built walls of +Mantinea still stand in nearly their entire circuit, built in the fourth +century before Christ, after Agesipolis of Sparta had captured the city, +by washing away its walls of sun-burnt brick, and had dispersed the +inhabitants among the neighboring villages. The restoration of the city +was a part of the great system of humbling Sparta, set on foot by +Epaminondas after the battle of Leuctra. + +After spending the night at Achladhokamvo, where we visited the ruins of +Hysiae close by, we went next day through Argos, passing within sight of +Mycenae, to Nemea, where, in a beautiful little valley, three Doric +columns, still standing, testify to the former sanctity of the spot. +Then to Kurtissa, the ancient Cleonae, to pass the night. When Dhemetri +pointed it out to us from the hill above, it looked like a New-England +farm-house, a neat white cottage peeping out from among the trees, and +we rejoiced at the prospect. But lo! the neat white cottage was a +guardhouse, and our khan was the rude, unpainted, windowless barn. It +was, nevertheless, very comfortable. There was a ceiling to the room, +and the board windows were tight. The floor, to be sure, gaped in wide +cracks; but as there was a blazing fire in the room beneath, the cracks +let in no cold air, nothing but smoke, a sort of compensation, as it +seemed, for our having a chimney, lest we should be puffed up with pride +and luxury. For we not only had a chimney, but a table and two stools, +one sitting on an inverted barrel spread with a horse-blanket. Here +Dhemetri concocted for our supper an Hellenic soup, of royal flavor, the +recollection of which is still grateful to my palate. And here a youth, +named Agamemnon, son of George, came and displayed to us his +school-books, a geography, beginning with Greece and ending with +America, where Bostonia as put down as capital of Massachoytia. Longing +to hear a Greek war-song, we requested him to sing, at which he warbled +Dehyte pahides ton Hellhenon to a tune which we strongly suspected he +composed for the occasion, following it up with others, with such +delight that we were fain at last to plead sleepiness and let him +depart. + +We were up betimes the following morning, for we had a long day's work +before us. We were approaching Corinth, and knew that from the +Acrocorinthus, a very high and steep hill over-hanging it, a prospect +was to be had inferior to none in Greece. The morning, though not +actually unpleasant, was chill and hazy, and Dhemetri tried to dissuade +us from wasting the time. But we were determined to see what there was +to be seen, and after a ride of two or three hours over a rough country, +we entered the fortifications of this chief citadel of Greece. It is now +guarded by a handful of soldiers, two or three neglected cannons thrust +their muzzles idly over the rampart, and shepherds with their flocks +roam at will within. A sharp wind was sweeping over the summit, and the +mountains and islands--Parnassus, Cyllene, Helicon, Pentclicon, Salamis, +AEgina--were veiled with a dull, opaque haze. While Basil, with stiff +fingers, was sketching the view from the top, I wandered about with my +other companion, picking spring flowers, reading the descriptions of +Pausanias, and studying the distant landscape. There is a thriving town +at the bottom of the hill, and hither we descended, asking for the inn +(Xenodhekeon) where Dhemetri had told us to meet him. But alas! modern +Corinth can not sustain an inn; and we were obliged to eat our dinner in +a grocery, stared at by all the youth of Corinth. Half a dozen Doric +columns, belonging to a very old temple, are the only considerable +relics of ancient Corinth. And as we had a long afternoon's work before +us, we set off before twelve. We galloped at good speed across the +Isthmus, about an hour's ride; Dhemetri, who understood the management +of Greek horses, driving us before him like a flock of sheep. We paused +a moment at the Isthmic sanctuary of Poseidon, passed through the +village of Kalamaki, whence steamers run to Athens, then continued along +the shore between Mount Geroneia and the sea, through a low, uneven +country, well grown with pine, heather, arbute, gorse in the full +splendor of its yellow blossoms, and sweet-smelling thyme. The afternoon +was warm and bright. Here and there were flocks of long-haired sheep and +sturdy black goats, cropping the grass and the shrubs, and it was well +in keeping with the scene when we passed a shepherd, with his cloak +thrown carelessly aside, leaning on his crook, and playing a few simple +notes--not a _tune_--on his flageolet to while away the time. We delayed +half an hour at the miserable hamlet of Kineta, to rest one of the +horses, exhausted with our fast riding, then began the ascent of our +last mountain-pass. A spur of Mount Geroneia runs boldly into the sea, +forming a wall between the territories of Corinth and Megara. It is +called 'Kake-Scala,' 'Bad Ladder,' an odd mixture of Greek and Italian. +Here, as the ancients fabled, dwelt the robber Skiron, plundering and +mutilating all wayfarers, and throwing them into the sea; but Theseus +subdued him and subjected him to a like treatment, and thereafter +traveling was secure. No doubt Theseus crowned his labors by building a +road, as we know one existed here in antiquity, but it has long since +disappeared, and King Otho was then imitating him, as we found, +presently, to our cost. The sun had already set, when the road became +impassable, and shouts from two men some distance above, informed us +that the building of the new road had rendered the old bridle-path +impracticable. We had to urge our horses down a steep, narrow path to +the water's edge, then as the beach was blocked up with huge rocks, to +ride a rod or two through the water, then climb up the steep rocks on +the other side, where one horse slipped and came near tumbling with his +rider into the sea below. Ten minutes later, and we must have returned +to Kineta, or waited an hour or two for the moon, for as soon as we were +over this dangerous spot it became quite dark; but the path was now safe +and easy to find. The full moon was up when we reached the top of the +cliff, and the valley of Megara, the mountains, the bay, and the islands +of AEgina and Salamis lay distinctly before us. We made all speed to +Megara, cheered by the fame of its khan as one of the best in Greece, +and by the certainty that there was now a good road all the way to +Athens. + +It was suggested that we should take a carriage the rest of the way, but +as our horses were hired to Athens, we decided not to incur the extra +expense. Soon after arriving, however, while Dhemetri was making us a +soup, and Diomedes was taking care of our horses, and Epaminondas was +roasting us a joint of lamb, while we were squatting half-asleep on +bolsters on the floor, hugging our knees, looking dreamily at the fire, +and longing for supper and bed, the driver of the carriage came in, and +addressed us in recommendation of his establishment in his choicest +Frank, "_Carrozza-very good-ye-e-e-s_!' then squatted down on the hearth +beside us, hugged his knees, and looked at the fire with infinite +self-satisfaction. Whether it was his eloquence that prevailed on our +attendants, I know not, but it was determined to provide us with a +carriage the next day, at no extra expense. The day was perfect, and the +luxury of an easy drive of four hours was very grateful to us after our +uncomfortable ride in the Peloponnesus. We dined at Eleusis, and reached +Athens early in the afternoon. + + + + + ADONIUM. + + + Far dimly back in distant days of eld, + There lived a pretty boy, as parchments tell, + As formed for love and life in lonely dell, + With mien as fair as never eyes beheld; + Because who saw, to love him was compelled + Straightway, so wizardly he wielded Beauty's spell. + + His name Adonis--sad of memory! + Whose life, though fair, his death was fairer still, + In dying for a cause, or good or ill; + For he heart-crazed the daughter of the sea, + Who loved him well, though wisely loved not she: + True hearts are never wise, as worldlings selfish will. + + Him Venus loved--Love's cherished creatures they! + And Venus wooed with perseverance sore, + Till weary was the lad, the wooing o'er; + And while he, hiding in the forest lay, + O'ershaded from the sun's unfriendly ray, + Ah me! there came to kill a maddened, foaming boar! + + Oh! see! from limbs too fair for touch of earth, + As tusk and tusk is savage through them drove, + While rain their dainty power 'fending strove, + The pure red liquid life all wasting forth! + All wasted, lost? Nay! thence, thence took its birth + ADONIUM, eternal bloom of martyred Love! + + Love's martyr is a-bleeding now again; + Sweet Liberty, beloved of earth, doth bleed: + The maddened, foaming boar hath come indeed, + And tears our life on many a gory plain; + But we--as bled the boy--bleed not in vain: + Our blood-drops--our sons--will be Adonium seed! + + Who die for Liberty--they never die! + Adonis, dead for Love, doth live anew! + They bloom blood-flowers in the tearful dew, + Forever falling on their memory! + In veins that are and veins that are not to be, + They ever coursing live, the right, the good, the true! + + Where sinks the martyr's blood within the sod, + A spirit-plant of universal root, + Divinely radiant, doth upward shoot, + Appealing from a wicked world to God! + And seen for once, down drops the tyrant's rod; + For men at last have tasted of a heavenly fruit. + + All good and beautiful of soul thus sprung + From blood, e'en as the Adonium I sing; + And where the blood is purest, thence doth spring + Such flowers as by heavenly bards are sung; + For since from Christ the fierce blood-sweat was wrung, + Have growths of nobler fruit on earth been ripening! + + + + +POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTES. + + +There is positively no class of writers entitled to higher praise, or +actuated by nobler motives, than those who are now distinguishing +themselves by their labors for Education. They have laid their hands on +what is to be the great social motive power of the future--the great +subject of the politics of days to come--and are working bravely in the +sacred cause. + +Yet it can hardly be denied that amid the vast mass of every practical +observation and suggestion contained in the educational works with which +we are familiar, or even among the really _scientific_ contributors to +it, there is very little founded on the great social wants and +tendencies of the age. Education is, at present, merely an _art_; it has +a right, in common with every conceivable department of knowledge, to be +raised to the rank of a _science_. This can only be done by putting it +on a progressive basis, and placing it in such a position as to aid in +supplying some great demand of the age. + +The great fact of the time is, the advance from mere art upward to +science, from the blossom to the fruit. Practical wants, 'the greatest +good for the greatest number,' the fullest development of free labor, +the increase of capital, the diminution of suffering, the harmony of +interests between capital and labor--all of these are the children of +Science and Facts. During the feudal age, nearly all the resources of +genius--all the capital of the day--was devoted to mere Art, for the +sake of setting off social position and 'idealisms.' As with the +nobility and royalty of England at the present day, society enormously +overpaid what is, or was, really the police--whose mission it was to +keep it in order. But from Friar Bacon to Lord Bacon, a movement was +silently progressing, which the present century has just begun to +realize. This movement was that of the development of all human ability +and natural resources, guided by science. It was a tendency toward the +practical, the positive, which is destined in time to bring forth its +own new art and literature, is breaking away from the trammels of the +old literary or imaginative sway. + +At the present day, up to the present hour, Education--especially the +higher education, destined to fit men for leading positions--is still +under the old literary regime. We laugh when we read of the two first +years of medical study at the school of Salerno being devoted to dry +logic, yet the four years' course at nearly all our modern Universities, +or, in fact, the course of almost any 'high-school,' is as little +adapted to the real wants of the practical leading men of this age as a +study of the Schoolmen would be. The 'literature' of the past still +rules the practical wants of the present. It is not that the study of +the thought of the past is not noble, nay, essential, to the highly +cultivated man; but it should be pursued on a large, scientific scale. +The study of Greek and Latin, as languages, is not so disciplining nor +so valuable as that of the science of language, as taught by Max +Mueller; and if these languages must be learned, (and we do not deny that +they should,) they can better be studied in their relations to all +languages than simply by themselves. And as if to make bad worse, the +genial and strictly scientific use of literal translations, advocated by +Milton and Locke, and generally employed at the Revival of Letters, and +during the days when Europe boasted its greatest classic scholars, is +prohibited. 'A college education' suggests the employment of the best +years of life in studies of little practical use in themselves, and +seldom revived, save for pleasure, after graduation. And even where such +studies are exceptionally practical; nay, where science and a free +choice of languages and literature are left to the somewhat advanced +student, we still find the shadow of the past--of the old, formal, and +rapidly growing obsolete literature--overawing the more enlightened +effort. Deny it as we may, the University is still a feudal institution. +Within the memory of man, there existed in England positively no school +where the would-be engineer or manufacturer could be fitted for his +career and at the same time be 'well educated.' George Stephenson was +obliged to send his son to an 'University,' where some scraps of +practical science--scanty scraps they were--most insufficiently repaid +the expense of education. + +The great want of the age is the Polytechnic School, or more correctly +speaking, of the Technological Institute, in which the labors of the +Society of Arts, aided by the Museum and Library, may serve the two-fold +object of informing the public on all matters of science and industry +and of aiding the School of Industrial Science. Developed on its largest +scale, such an institute should be devoted to the acquisition and +dissemination of all knowledge, but under strictly scientific guidance +and influences. Literature should there be taught historically, in close +connection with mental philosophy, a system which, it may be observed, +results in interesting the pupil more in details than the old plan +devoted to a few mere details ever did. Art should there be taught, not +in rhapsodies over Raphael, Turner, and the favorite fancies of an +individual, but according to its unfoldings in human culture, based on +architecture as an illustrative medium. 'The lines of connection' +between these and the exact sciences should be ever kept in sight, so +that the student may never forget 'the countless connecting threads +woven into one indissoluble texture, forming that ever-enlarging web +which is the blended product of the world's scientific and industrial +activity.' + +The great aim of such an institute should be the aiding of industrial +progress, and the application of generous, intelligent culture to +practical pursuits--the whole to be based on exact science. When we look +into this community, and see the vast demand for talent in its +manufactures, and see how many thousands there are who would gladly be +'liberally educated' men, if the education could only be allied to +practically useful knowledge, we at once feel that the time has come for +the establishment of such institutes. The demand exists on every side; +the supply must come, and that speedily. England, France, and Germany +are rapidly improving their manufactures by scientifically educating +their master-workmen--the Conservatoire des Arts, and Ecole Centrale, of +Paris, the art-schools of the British capital and provinces, the many +museums devoted to scientic collection, are all keeping up their +factories--shall we be behind them? Let Capital consult its interests, +and answer. + +We have been induced to put the query, from a perusal of two pamphlets, +both directly bearing on this subject. The first is the _Ninth Annual +Announcement of the Polytechnic College of the State of Pennsylvania, +Session_ 1861-1862, _and Catalogue of the Officers and Students_; while +the second sets forth the Objects and Plan of an Institute of +Technology, including a Society of Arts, a Museum of Arts, and a School +of Industrial Science, proposed to be established in Boston.'[C] This +latter, it may be added, was prepared by direction of the Committee of +Associated Institutions of Science and Arts, and is addressed to +'manufacturers, merchants, agriculturists, and other friends of +enlightened industry in the commonwealth.' + +The Polytechnic College of Philadelphia, now in its ninth year, is a +truly excellent institution, the practical results of which are shown in +the fact that its students, immediately on graduating, have generally +received appointments as civil and mechanical engineers, or otherwise +stepped at once into active and remunerative employment. Its object, as +we are told, is to afford to the young civil, mining, or mechanical +engineer, chemist, architect, metallurgist, or student of applied +science, every facility whereby he may perfect himself in his destined +calling. It is, in fact, a collection of technical schools, or schools +of instruction in the several departments of learned industry. It +comprises the school of mines, for professional training in +mine-engineering, in the best methods of determining the value of +mineral lands and of analyzing and manufacturing mine products. Also the +schools of civil engineering, of practical chemistry, of mechanical +engineering, architecture, general science, and agriculture. To these is +added a military department, now under superintendence of a former +instructor in West-Point, with the use of the State armory near the +college, generously granted by the State, with a supply of arms. We are +glad to say that in all these schools the instruction is thorough, not +only in theory but in actual _practice_. The course of the school of +chemistry, for instance, comprehends the principles of the science and +their actual application to agriculture, to the arts, and to analysis; +to the examination and smelting of ores; to the alloying, refining, and +working of metals; to the arts of dyeing and pottery; to the starch, +lime, and glass manufacture; to the preparation and durability of +mortars and cements; to means of disinfecting, ventilating, heating, and +lighting. Its students are also practiced in manipulations, testing in +the arts qualitative and quantitative; in analysis of minerals and +soils, and in many other important practical matters. + +The students of geology and mining, of machinery and metallurgy, make, +with their professors, frequent visits to the many interesting +localities in Pennsylvania or New-Jersey, to the many large +machine-shops with which Philadelphia abounds, visit mines and furnaces, +and are in every way practically familiarized with their future +callings. Instruction in languages and literature, in drawing and in the +elements of practical law is, we believe, given in common to all. It is +the first, we may say, _unavoidable_, characteristic of a _scientific_ +school, that its work is always well done. Other schools may or may not +be specious contrivances, well or ill managed; but the very nature of +science is to _clear itself_ in whatever it touches, and be honest and +practical. Its tendency is to classify and select, to cast away the +obsolete and test and adopt the new and true. Such is by no means an +exaggerated statement of the real condition of the excellent college to +which we refer, which testifies, by its success, to the excellence of +its plan and the competency of its teachers, especially to the +administrative ability of its worthy President, Dr. Alfred L. Kennedy. + +It can not be denied, that for many years, radicals have inveighed +against 'Greek and Universities,' but it has been in a narrow, vulgar, +and simply destructive manner, with no provision to substitute any +thing better in their place. The growth of science, of the knowledge of +history, of culture in every branch, has, however, of late, so vastly +increased, that the proposition to reform the old system of study is +really one not to tear it down, but to build it up, to extend it and +develop it on a grand scale. Since, for example, the influence of +science has been felt in philology, how inconsiderable do the Bruncks +and Porsons of the old school, appear before the Bopps, Schlegels, +Burnoufs, and Muellers of the new! For as yet, even where here and there +in colleges a liberal and enlightened method is partially attempted, +still the old monkish spirit appears, driving away with something like a +'mystery' or 'guild' feeling the merely practical man, and interposing a +mass of 'dead vocables,' which must be learned by years of labor, +between him and the realization of an education. The young man who is to +be a miner, a cotton-spinner, an architect, or a merchant, may possibly +find here and there, at this or that college, lectures and instruction +which may aid him directly in his future career, but he soon realizes +that the general tendency and tone of the college is entirely in favor +of abstract studies quite useless out in the world, and apart from +preparation for one of 'the three professions.' He himself is as a +'marine' among the regular sailors, a surgeon among 'regular doctors,' +or as a dentist among surgeons. And this in an age when we may say that +what is not to be studied scientifically is not _worth_ studying. As our +principal object in writing these remarks has been to assert that the +Polytechnic Institute, in its either partial or entire form, should +exist entirely independent of all other influences, we might be held +excused from any mention of such scientific schools as are attached to +our Universities. That of Cambridge, Massachusetts, would, however, +deserve special mention, from the celebrity of its teachers. In this +institute, which has between seventy and eighty students, we have a +single school divided into the following departments: that of Chemistry, +under supervision of Professor Horseford, in which instruction is both +theoretical and practical; that of Zooelogy and Geology, in which the +teaching consists alternately of a course of lectures by Professor +Agassiz, on Zoology, embracing the fundamental principles of the +classification of animals as founded upon structure and embryonic +development, and illustrating their natural affinities, habits, +distribution, and the relations which exist between the living and +extinct races, and a course of geology, both theoretical and practical. +To this are added the departments of Engineering under Professor Eustis, +that of Botany, under Professor Gray, that of Comparative Anatomy and +Physiology, under Professor J. Wyman, that of Mathematics, under +Professor Peirce, and that of Mineralogy, under Professor Cooke. It is +needless to speak in praise of a school boasting men of such world-wide +names as teachers, or to commend it as affording facilities for +bestowing a sound education. We do it no injustice, however, in +asserting that its tendency is to develop students of abstract science +and teachers, while the aim of the _Polytechnic_ school proper is, in +addition to this, to supply the manufactures of the country with +_working men_, and the country at large, including those already engaged +in labor, with technological information of every kind. It should be a +vast reservoir of practical knowledge, where the man of the +'print-works,' in search of a certain dye or of a new form of machinery, +may apply, certain that all the latest discoveries will be found +registered there. It should be a place where capitalists may go as to an +intelligence-office, confident of finding there the assistants which +they may need. It should be, in fact, in every respect, an institute +simply and solely for the people, and for the development of +_manufacturing industry_. If, as we have urged, it should embrace +eventually thorough instruction in _every_ branch of knowledge, this +should be because experience shows that the most commonplace branches +require the stimulus of genius, which can only be fairly developed by +universal facilities. No young man, however practical, could have his +_Thaetigkeit_ or 'available energy' other than stimulated by even an +extensive familiarity with every detail of philosophy, literature, and +art, provided that these were properly _scienced_, or taught strictly +according to their historical development. + +It is, therefore, needless to say that we welcome with pleasure the plan +of An Institute of Technology, which it is proposed to establish in +Boston, and which, to judge from its excellently well prepared +prospectus, will fully meet, in every particular, all the requirements +which we have laid down as essential to a perfect Polytechnic Institute. +Indeed, the wide scope of this plan, its capacity for embracing every +subject in the range of science, and of communicating it to the public +either by publication, by free lectures, by a museum of reference, or by +collegiate instruction, leaves but little to be desired. That there is +great need of such an institution in this State is apparent from many +causes. In the words of the prospectus, we feel that in New-England, and +especially in our own Commonwealth, the time has arrived when, as we +believe, the interests of Commerce and Arts, as well as General +Education, call for the most earnest cooperation of intelligent culture +with industrial pursuits. It is no exaggeration to state that probably +no project was ever before presented to the wealthy men of Massachusetts +which appealed so earnestly to their aid or gave such fair promise of +doing good. The institute in question is one which will in every +respect, socially and mentally, elevate the business man or practical +man to a level with the college graduate or the practitioner in the +three learned professions. It will stimulate progress by still further +refining industry, and ally the action of capital to the advance of +intellect. It will perform a noble and distinguished part in the great +mission of the age and of future ages--that of vindicating the dignity +of free labor and showing that the humblest work may be rendered +high-toned and raised to a level with the calling of scholar or +diplomatist through the influence of science. If we were called on to +set forth the noble spirit of the _North_ with all its free labor and +all its glorious tendencies, we should, with whole heart and soul, +choose this magnificent conception of an institute whose aim is to +confer dignity on what the wretched and ignorant slaveocracy believe is +cursed into everlasting vulgarity. It is fitting that this practical and +eminently intelligent and progressive community should build up, on a +grand scale, an institution which will be not only eminently useful and +profitable, but serve as a culminating exponent of the great and liberal +ideas for which the North has already made in every form the most +remarkable sacrifices. + + 'While the vast and increasing magnitude of the industrial + interests of New-England furnishes a powerful incentive to the + establishment--within its borders of an institution devoted to + technological uses, it can not be doubted that the concentration of + these interests in so great a degree, in and around Boston, renders + the capital of the State an eligible site for such an undertaking. + Indeed, considering the peculiar genius of our busy population for + the Practical Arts, and marking their avidity in the study of + scientific facts and principles tending to explain or advance them, + we see a special and most striking fitness in the establishment of + such an Institution among them, and we gather a confident assurance + of its preeminent utility and success. Nor can we advert to the + intelligence which is so well known as guiding the large + munificence of our community, without taking encouragement in the + inception of the enterprise, and feeling the assurance, that + whatever is adapted to advance the industrial and educational + interests of the Commonwealth will receive from them the heartiest + sympathy and support.' + +As we have stated, the plan proposed is to establish an Institution to +be devoted to the practical arts and sciences, to be called the +Massachusetts Institute of Technology, having the triple organization of +a Society of Arts, a Museum or Conservatory of Arts, and a School of +Industrial Science and Art. Under the first of these three +divisions--that of the Society of Arts--the Institute of Technology +would form itself into a department of investigation and +publication--devoting itself in every manner to collecting and rendering +readily available to the public all such information as can in any way +aid the interests of art and industry. If our manufacturers will reflect +an instant on the vast amount of knowledge relative to their specialties +extant in the world, which they have as individuals great difficulty in +procuring, and which would be useful, but which an Institute devoted to +the purpose could furnish without difficulty, they will at once +appreciate the good which may be done by it. For many years the only +comprehensive summaries of American Manufactures were a German work by +Fleischmann, _On the Branches of American Industry_, to which was +subsequently added Whitworth and Wallis's Report--drawn up for the +British government, and Freedley's Philadelphia Manufactures--to which +we should in justice add the invaluable series of Hunt's _Merchant's +Magazine_, and the Patent Office Reports. The community needs more, +however, than books can furnish. It requires the constant accumulation +and dissemination of technological knowledge of every kind. It is +proposed in the new Institute to effect this partly by publication and +in a great measure by the labor of committees, devoted to the following +subjects: + +1. _Mineral Materials_--having charge of all relating to the mineral +substances used in building and sculpture, ores, metals, coal, and in +fact, all mineral substances employed in the useful arts, as well as +what pertains to mining, quarrying, and smelting. + +2. _Organic Materials_--embracing whatever is practically interesting in +all vegetable and animal substances used in manufacturing, having in +view their sources, culture, collection, commercial importance and +qualities as connected with manufacturing. This department presents a +vast field of immense importance to every merchant and importer of raw +material. + +3. _On Tools and Instruments_--devoted to all the implements and +apparatus needed in all processes of manufacture. + +4. _On Machinery and Motive Powers._ + +5. _On Textile Manufactures._ + +6. _On Manufactures of Wood, Leather, Paper, India-Rubber, etc._ + +7. _On Pottery, Glass, and Precious Metals._ + +8. _On Chemical Products and Processes._ + +9. _On Household Economy._ This department would embrace attention to +whatever relates to warming, illumination, water-supply, ventilation, +and the preparation and preservation of food, as well as the protection +of the public health. + +10. _On Engineering and Architecture._ + +11. _On Commerce, Navigation, and Inland Transport._ This department +alone, developed in detail, and on the scale proposed, would of itself +amply repay any amount of encouragement and investment. To collect and +classify for the use of the public all available information on the +subject of shipping, the improvement of harbors, the construction of +docks, the location and efficiency of railroads, and other channels of +inland intercourse; 'keeping chiefly in view the economical questions of +trade and exchange, which give these works of mechanical and engineering +skill their high commercial value,' is a project as grand as it is +useful. + +12. _On the Graphic and Fine Arts._ + +Of the importance of the proposed Museum of Industrial Science and Art, +it is needless to speak. It would be for the public the central feature +of the Institute, and of incalculable value not only to it, but to all +engaged in all active industry whatever. + +As regards the School of Industrial Science and Art, with its divisions, +we see no occasion for material cause of difference between its +constitution and that of the excellent Polytechnic College in +Philadelphia. New departments of instruction could be added as the means +and power of the Institute increased, until it would ultimately form +what the world needs but has never yet seen--a thoroughly _scientific_ +University, in which every branch of human knowledge should be _clearly_ +taught on a positive basis--a school where literature and art would be +ennobled and refined by elevation from mysticism, 'rhapsody,' and +obscurity, to their true position as historical developments and indices +of human progress. We are pleased to see that in the plan proposed, +provision would be made for two classes of persons--those who enter the +school with the view of a progressive scientific training in applied +science, and the far more numerous class who may be expected to resort +to its lecture-rooms for such useful knowledge of scientific principles +as they can acquire without continually devoted study, and in hours not +occupied by active labor. + +This whole plan, though in the highest degree practical, has, it will be +observed, 'no affinity with that instruction in mere _empirical routine_ +which has sometimes been vaunted as the proper education for the +industrial classes'--an absurd and shallow system which has been urged +by quacks and dabblers in world-bettering, and which has been exhausted +without avail in England--the system dear to single-sided Gradgrinds and +illiterate men who grasp a twig here and there without knowing of the +existence of the trunk and roots. It lays down a perfectly scientific +and universal basis, believing that the most insignificant industry, to +be perfectly understood and pursued, must proceed from a knowledge of +the great principles of science and of all truth. + +Under the charge of Professor W.B. Rogers, Messrs. Charles H. Dalton, +E.B. Bigelow, James M. Beebee, and other members of a committee +embracing some of the most public-spirited men of Boston, this plan has +been thus far matured, and now awaits the sympathy, aid, and counsel of +the friends of industrial art and general education throughout the +community. We have gladly set forth its objects and claims, trusting +that it may be fully successful here, and serve as an exemplar for the +establishment of similar institutions in every other State. + + + + +SLAVERY AND NOBILITY vs. DEMOCRACY. + + +Few political convulsions have hitherto transpired, which have so much +puzzled the world to get at the entire motives of the revolt, as the +present insurrection in this country. Were public opinion to be made up +from the political literature of Great Britain, or its leading journals, +very little certainty would be arrived at as to the merits or demerits +of the attempted revolution. The articles of De Bow's _Review_ smack +little more of a secession origin than the late dissertations on +American politics appearing in the British periodicals. The statements +of most of the leading English journals are quite in keeping. Any one +accustomed to the 'ear-marks' of secession phraseology and declamation +would be at little loss to identify the Southern emissary in connection +with the periodicals and press of the British islands. Hence the +hypocrisy and studied concealment of those hidden motives necessary to +be made apparent, in order to judge of the merits of secession. + +The world has known that for thirty years past there has been a feverish +and jealous discontent expressed in the cotton States. It had its first +ebullition in 1832, when South-Carolina assumed the right to nullify the +revenue laws of Congress. Since that time the North has continually been +accused of an aggressive policy. Various extravagant pretenses have +from time to time been raised up by the South, and urged as causes for +dissolving the Union. They have always, until recently, been met by +forbearance and compromise. + +The extension and perpetuation of slavery has been prominent as the open +motive for Southern political activity; and equally prominent as one of +the motives for dismembering the Union. There has been another project, +however, in connection with the attempted dissolution of the Union, of a +most alarming nature: that project was the intended prostration of the +democratic principle in Southern politics. While a privileged order in +government was made the basis of political ambition by the aspirants or +leading spirits, it was also to be made the means of perpetuating the +institution of slavery. Whether these adjuncts, slavery perpetuation, +and government through a privileged class, were twins of the same birth, +is not very material; but whether they existed together as the joint +motive to overthrow the national jurisdiction, involves very deeply the +present and continuing questions in American politics. + +To many gentlemen of intelligence and high standing in the South, the +intended establishment of a different order of government, based on +privilege of class, has appeared to be the ruling motive. They have set +down the expressed apprehension as to the insecurity of slavery as a +hypocritical pretext for revolution; believing that the more absorbing +motive was to establish an order of nobility, either with or without +monarchy. There is some plausibility for giving the ambitious motive the +greater prominence; but a more severe analysis of the whole question +will, it is believed, place slavery perpetuation in the foreground as +the origin of all other motives for the conspiracy. + +In classifying slaveholders, it is undoubtedly true that a small portion +of them were Democrats in principle, and ardently attached to the +National Government--perhaps would have preferred the abolition of +slavery to the subversion of its jurisdiction. Another class, composing +a majority, though distrusting the National Government, connected as it +was and must be with a voting power representing twenty-six or seven +millions of free labor, yet more distrusted the attempt at revolution. +This class saw more danger in the proposed revolt than from continuing +in the Union. Another class were politically ambitious; had ventured +upon the revilement of the Democratic principle; had become +secessionists _per se_, and were the instruments and plotters of the +treason. This was substantially the condition of public opinion among +slaveholders at the time of the election of Mr. Lincoln to the +Presidency. These three classes, embracing the slaveholders and their +families, composed about one million five hundred thousand of the white +population of the South. + +Of the seven millions non-slaveholding population South, a small portion +was engaged in trade and commerce, and naturally inclined to oppose +secession; but timid in its apprehensions as to protection, was ready to +acquiesce in the most extravagant opinions; in other words, like trade +and commerce every where, too much disposed to make merchandise of its +politics. The balance of the non-slaveholding population, if we except a +venal pulpit and press, had not even a specious motive, pecuniary or +political, moral or social, that should have drawn it into rebellion. It +was a part and portion of the great brother-hood of free labor, and could +not by any possibility raise up a plausible pretense of jealousy against +its natural ally--free labor in the North. + +In estimating the strength of a cause, we are obliged to take into +account the actually existing reasons in favor of its support. Delusion, +founded on a fictitious cause of complaint, is but a weak basis for +revolution. It may have an apparent strength to precipitate revolt, but +has no power of endurance. There is a reflection that comes through +calamity and suffering that rises superior to sophistry in the most +common minds. If not already, this will soon be the case with the whole +Southern population. The slaveholder and the man of trade and commerce +who feared the tumult, and would have avoided it, will have seen their +apprehensions turned into the fulfillment of prophecy. The +non-slave-holding farmer, mechanic, or laborer, will be made to see +clearly that his interest did not lie on the side of treason. The +political adventurer who planned the conspiracy, is already brought to +see the fallacy of his dream. He may now consider the incongruous +materials of Southern population. He may view that population in +classes. He may contemplate it through the medium of its natural motives +of fidelity to the Government on the one hand, and of its artificial +delusion on the other. He may now go to the bottom of Southern society, +and find in its conflicting elements the antagonistic motives that +render the plans of treason abortive. These will be sure to continue, +and sure to strengthen on the side of fidelity to the National +Government. When the South is made a solid, compact unit in political +motive, it will become so, disarmed of all purposes of treason. + +It has been repeatedly asserted that the South was a political unit on +the question of the attempted revolution. This declaration has been +reiterated by the Southern press, by travelers, and by all the +influences connected with the rebellion. It is not now necessary to +delineate the _quasi_ military organization of the Knights of the Golden +Circle, or their operations in cajoling and terrorizing the Southern +population into acquiescence. Much unanimity through this process was +made to appear on the surface; but it is more palpable to the analytic +mind acquainted with Southern society, that the very means employed to +enforce acquiescence afforded also the evidence that there was a strong +under-current of aversion. Willing apostasy from allegiance to the Union +needed no terrorizing from mobs or murders. The ruffianism of the South +had been fully armed in advance of the full disclosure of the plot to +secede. Loyalty had been as carefully disarmed by the same active +influences. It had nothing to oppose to arms but its unprotected +sentiments. As soon as the law of force was invoked by the conspirators, +the day of reasoning was wholly past. Flight or conformity became the +condition precedent of safety, even for life. The bulk of the Southern +population was as much conspired against as the Government at +Washington; and force against the same population was rigorously called +into requisition to consummate what fraud and political crime had +concocted. This was the boasted unity of the South. + +The inquiry is often made: 'How was it possible to have inaugurated the +rebellion, without the bulk of the slaveholders, at least, acting in +concert?' This inquiry is not easily answered, unless its solution is +found in the fact that slaveholders, through jealousy, had parted with +their active loyalty to the National Government. This was generally the +case. Whilst the bulk of them hesitated for a little to take the fearful +step of revolt, their hesitation was more connected with apprehension of +its consequences than with any attachment to the Government. The +deceptive idea of peaceable secession first drew them within the lines +of the open traitor. The supposed probability of success made them +allies in rebellion. As a general sentiment, they made their imaginary +adieux to the Government of their fathers without apparent regret. + +There has been much misapprehension as to the process of reasoning that +brought slaveholders in the main to repudiate their Government. They +were influenced by no apprehension of present danger to the institution +of slavery. It was something far beyond the power of any party to +stipulate against. Their apprehensions were connected with the laws of +population and subsistence and the certain motive to political +affiliation that underlies the platform of free-labor society. When +indulging in the belief of peaceable secession, they expressed their +sentiments truly in the declaration that 'they would not remain in the +Union, were a blank sheet of paper presented, and they permitted to +write their own terms.' This declaration merely characterized the +foregone conclusion. It was the evidence of a previous determination, +merely withheld for a season, in order to gain time. + +But to come to a more definite delineation of the reasons that operated +to raise up the conspiracy. There was a partial feud that had long +existed in the mutual jealousies between the slaveholders and +non-slaveholding population. Nothing very remarkable, however, had +transpired to indicate an outbreak. Southern white labor was continually +annoyed with the appellation of 'white trash,' and other contemptuous +epithets; but still was obliged to toil on under the continuous insult. +The habits and usages of slaveholders and their families, indicated by +manners toward white labor, that white labor did not command their +respect. Too many of the accidental droppings of foolish and stupid +arrogance were let fall within the hearing of white labor to make it +fully reconciled to the pretended monopoly of respectability by +slaveholders. Under this corroded feeling, much of the white labor of +the South had emigrated to the free States. In 1850, seven hundred and +thirty-two thousand of these emigrants were living. Their communications +and intercourse showed to their old friends, relatives, and +acquaintances, that they had found homes and friendly treatment on +Northern soil; and in addition thereto, a much better and more +encouraging condition of society for the industrious white man. The +feeling reflected back from the free to the slave States was analogous +to that thrown back from the United States to Ireland. Its effect was +also the same. Under its influence, nearly two millions are now living +in the free States, who are the offshoot and increase of a Southern +extraction. Slaveholders merely complained of this flow of population, +on the ground that it contributed to overthrow the balance of political +power. It would not, perhaps, be amiss to conclude that they saw with +equal clearness the incentives that induced the emigration--a silent +logic of facts against slavery. + +The census statistics, commencing with 1840, have contributed much to +play the mischief with the equanimity of slaveholders. They have always +known that thorough education in the South was mainly confined to their +own families. When, however, the discovery was made public that only one +in seven of the aggregate white population of the South was receiving +instruction during the year, the disclosure became alarming.[D] It stood +little better than the educational progress of the British Islands, +which had crept up, under the fight with Toryism, to the alarming +extent of one in eight. That one in four and a half of the aggregate +population of the free States was receiving school instruction, made the +contrast unpleasant to the mind of the slaveholder. He knew that the +fact was 'world--wide,' that slaveholders had always controlled the +policy of Southern legislation. He was aware that slaveholders had made +themselves responsible for this neglect of the children of the South; +and knew also that public opinion would visit the blame where it +legitimately belonged. Pro-slavery sagacity was quick-sighted in its +apprehensions that it could not dodge the inquiry, 'Whence comes this +disparity?' + +The statistics of the two sections presented a still more obnoxious +comparison to the pro-slavery sensibilities, as it respects the physical +condition of the respective populations. The cotton States have mostly +been the advocates of '_free trade_,' some of them tenaciously so. They +deemed it impossible to introduce manufacturing, to much extent, into +sections where the yearly surpluses in production were wholly absorbed +by investment in land and negroes. The consequence has been, want of +diversified industry and want of profitable occupation for the poorer +classes. In the Northern and in some of the Border States, a different +industrial policy has been pursued. Diversified occupation has raised up +skilled labor in nearly every branch of industry. Notwithstanding the +greater rigor of climate, adult labor on the average, under full and +compensated employment, performs nearly three hundred solid days' work +in the year. The eight millions of white population in the South, in +consequence of this want of profitable occupation, perform much less, +perhaps not one hundred and fifty days' work on the average. The +following table, published in 1856-1857, by Mr. Guthrie, then Secretary +of the Treasury, discloses a condition of things very remarkable; but no +wise astonishing to those who have investigated the causes of the +disparity. The ratio of annual _per capita_ production to each man, +woman, and child, white and black, in the respective States, exclusive +of the gains or earnings of commerce, stood as follows: + +------------------------------------------------------- +Massachusetts, $166 60 | Indiana, $69 12 +Rhode-Island, 164 61 | Wisconsin, 63 41 +Connecticut, 156 05 | Mississippi, 67 50 +California, 149 60 | Iowa, 65 47 +New-Jersey, 120 82 | Louisiana, 65 30 +New-Hampshire, 117 17 | Tennessee, 63 10 +New-York, 112 00 | Georgia, 61 45 +Pennsylvania, 99 80 | Virginia, 59 42 +Vermont, 96 62 | South-Carolina, 56 91 +Illinois, 89 94 | Alabama, 55 72 +Missouri, 88 66 | Florida 54 77 +Delaware, 85 27 | Arkansas, 52 04 +Maryland, 83 85 | District of Columbia, 52 00 +Ohio, 75 82 | +Michigan, 72 64 | Texas, 51 13 +Kentucky, 71 82 | North-Carolina, 49 38 +Maine, 71 11 | +------------------------------------------------------- + +It is seen by this table that the income, or product of the +non-slaveholding population South, mainly disconnected as it is with +mechanical industry, is reduced to the extreme level of bare +subsistence, while the population of the States which have introduced +diversified industry stand on a high scale of production. Contrast +Massachusetts and South-Carolina, the two leading States in the +promulgation of opposite theories. These two States have often been +censured for the contumelious manner in which they have sometimes sought +to repel each other's arguments. The one is in favor of 'free trade.' +The other says: 'No State can flourish to much extent without +diversified industry.' The one says: 'Open every thing to free +competition.' The other replies: 'Are you aware that the interest on +manufacturing capital in Europe is much lower; that skilled labor there +is more abundant; and that it would dash to the ground most of the +manufacturing we have started into growth under protection through our +revenue laws?' 'Let it be so,' says Carolina; 'what right exists to +adopt a national policy that does not equally benefit all sections?' +'The very object of the policy,' replies Massachusetts, 'is, that it +_should_ benefit all sections; and the most desirable object of all, in +the eye of beneficence, would be, that it _should_ benefit the laboring +white population of the cotton States, as well as others.' 'But,' says +Carolina, 'this diversified industry can not be introduced, to much +extent, where slavery exists.' 'That is an argument by implication,' +says Massachusetts, 'that you more prize slavery than you do the +interests and welfare of the bulk of your white population.' 'Who set +you up to be a judge on the question of the welfare of any part of the +population South?' says Carolina. 'I assume to judge for myself,' +replies Massachusetts, 'as to that national policy which is designed to +affect beneficially the twenty-seven millions of people who are obliged +to obtain subsistence through personal industry; theirs is the great +cause of white humanity in its shirt-sleeves; and it behooves the +National Government to take care of that cause, and to foster it; and +not to submit to the narrow selfishness of a few slaveholders.' + +It may readily be seen that this controversy, growing out of the +opposite theories of selfish slaveholders on the one hand, and a spirit +of beneficence, blended with the idea of a wide-spread advantage on the +other, not only involves directly the demerits of slavery, in its +prejudicial effect on the non-slaveholding population South, but also +the great question of raising up skilled labor in all the States. It is +thus clearly demonstrated that our national policy should be exempt from +the control of an arrogant and selfish class. Slaveholders have had +little sympathy with the great bulk of the white people in the Union; at +most, they have never manifested it. Few of them can be trusted +politically, where a broad industrial policy is concerned. No one is +better aware than the political slaveholder of the crushing effect of +slavery on the interests of the non-slaveholding population in the slave +States: hence their jealousy of this population as a voting, governing +power. The Southern political mind, connected with slaveholding, is +astute when sharpened by jealousy. There is no phase in political +economy, bearing on the disparity of classes in the South, that has not +been taken into the account and analyzed. The fear with slaveholders has +been, that the great majority, composed of the white laboring population +South, would become able to subject matters to the same scrutinizing +analysis. + +It would be difficult to convince the American people that slavery is +not 'the skeleton in their closet.' Any one who has encountered for +years the pro-slavery spirit; who has watched it through its +unscrupulous deviations from rectitude, morally, socially, and +politically, will have been dull of comprehension not to have +appreciated its atrocious disposition. Its great instrumentality in the +management of Southern masses, consists not only of a disregard, but of +a positive interdict of the principles of civil liberty, in all matters +wherein the prejudicial effects of slavery might directly, or by +implication, be disclosed. It is true, people are permitted to adulate +slavery--so they are allowed to adulate kings, where kings reign. No one +in recent years has been allowed the open expression of opinion or +argument as to the bad effect of a pro-slavery policy on the great +majority of Southern white population. This would bring the offender +within the Southern definition of an 'incendiary,' and the offense would +be heinous. The pro-slavery spirit has always demanded sycophancy where +its strength was great enough to enforce it, and has ever been ready to +invoke the law of force where its theories were contradicted. Even the +fundamental law of the South, contained in Southern State Constitutions +in favor of the 'freedom of speech, and freedom of the press,' is mere +rhetorical flourish, where slavery is concerned. It means that you must +adulate slavery if you speak of it; and woe to the man that gives this +fundamental law any broader interpretation. In its amiable moods, the +pro-slavery spirit is often made to appear the gentleman. In its angry, +jealous moods, it is both a ruffian and an assassin. Mr. Sumner, of the +Senate, once sat for its picture--twice in his turn he drew it--each +portrait was a faithful resemblance. + +Had we been exempt from slavery and its influences, it is difficult to +conceive what possible pretense could have been raised up for +revolution. What position could have been taken showing the necessity of +disenthrallment from oppressive government? There would have existed no +element of political discontent that could by any possibility have +culminated in rebellion, aside from the active, jealous, and +unscrupulous influence of slaveholders. Rebellion and treason required +the lead and direction of an ambitious and reckless class; a class +actuated by gross and selfish passions, in disconnection with sympathy +for the masses. It required a class stripped and bereft by habits of +thinking of the spirit of political beneficence, devoid of national +honor, national pride, and national fidelity. Nothing less unscrupulous +would have answered to plot, to carry forward, and to manage the +incidents of the attempted dismemberment of the Union. It required +something worse in its nature than Benedict Arnold susceptibility. His +might have been crime, springing from sudden resentment or imaginary +wrong. The other is the result of thirty years' concoction under adroit, +hypocritical, and unscrupulous leaders. The slaveholders' rebellion has +assumed a magnitude commensurate only with long contemplation of the +subject. Making all due allowance for the honorable exceptions, this is +substantially the phase of pro-slavery infidelity to the Union. + +Were further argument needed to establish this position, it is found in +the fact that the seeds of rebellion are wanting in proportion to the +absence of slavery. There is no reason to believe that Kentucky or +Maryland, without slavery, would have been less loyal than Ohio. In +Eastern Kentucky, Western Virginia, Eastern Tennessee, Western +North-Carolina, a small portion of Georgia, and Northern Alabama, the +Union cause finds a friend's country. These sections, in the main, +contain a population dependent upon its own labor for subsistence. +Schooled by diligent industry to habits of perseverance, and learning +independence and manhood by relying on itself, it has preserved its +patriotism and attachment to the Government under which it was born. It +saw no cause of complaint, imaginary or real. Six or seven per cent of +slave population has not proved sufficient as a slave interest, to +prostrate or corrupt its national fidelity, nor to undermine its +national pride. It still retains its representation in Congress against +the influences of surrounding treason. There is a cheering satisfaction +in the belief that this plateau of civil liberty and freedom, even +unassisted, could not have been permanently held in subjection by the +myrmidons of rebellion. The secessionists themselves bestow a high +compliment to the patriotism of this people, when they complain of its +'idolatrous attachment to the old Government.' + +The time has come when the American people, from necessity, must analyze +to their root the whole aptitudes and incidents of slavery. They are now +obliged to deal with it, unbridled by the check-rein of its apologists. +Under the best behavior of slaveholders, the institution could not rise +above the point of bare toleration. There is so much inherent in the +system that will not bear analysis, so much of collateral mischief, so +much tending to overturn and discourage the principles of justice that +ought to be interwoven into the relationships of society, that it is +impossible for the ingenuous mind to advocate slavery _per se_. It is +not, however, to the bare dominion itself, that the objection is +exclusively raised up. It is the inevitable result of that dominion, in +connection with the worst cultivated passions of human nature, that the +exception is more broadly taken. The dominion of the master over the +slave involves in a great measure the necessary dominion over the +persons and interests of the balance of society where it exists. The +lust of power on the part of slaveholders, and on the part of the +privileged classes in Europe, in nature, is the same. The determination +through the artificial arrangements of power, to subsist on the toil of +others, is the same. The arrogant assumption of the right to maintain as +privilege what originated in atrocious wrong, is the same. The +disposition to crush by force any attempt to vindicate natural rights, +or to modify the status of society under the severity of oppression, is +the same; and no tyranny has yet been found so tenacious or +objectionable as the tyranny of a class held together by the 'bond of +iniquity.' Our forefathers had a just conception of the nature of the +case, on one hand, when they interdicted by fundamental law the +establishment of any order of nobility. Many of them were sorely +distressed at the contemplation of slavery on the other hand, in +connection with its probable results upon the national welfare. Our +calamity is but the fulfillment of their prophecies. They well knew the +nature of the evil we have to deal with. + +It is matter of astonishment to most minds that slaveholders should have +contemplated the bold venture of subordinating the Democratic principle +in government. It will be less astonishing, however, when it is duly +considered that it is utterly impossible for Democracy and Slavery to +abide long together. The one or the other must ere long have been +prostrated under the laws of population, and it is not very likely that +the twenty-seven millions and their increase would consent to be +subordinated to the policy of three hundred and fifty thousand +slaveholders. Slavery must exist as the ruling political power, or it +can not long exist at all. This the slaveholders well knew; hence the +necessity of fortifying itself through some political arrangement +against the Democratic power of the masses. + +The South-Carolina platform for a new government had close resemblance +to the ancient Roman--a patrician order of nobility, founded on the +interested motive to uphold slavery; but allowing plebeian +representation, to some extent, to the non-slaveholding classes. Others +in the South had preference for constitutional monarchy, with a class of +privileged legislators, and House of Commons, composing a government of +checks and balances, analogous to the English government. Whatever the +plan adopted, the leading idea was to institute a government that should +be impervious, through one branch, to the future influence of the +non-slaveholding majority. + +It is difficult to make entirely clear the ambitious motives and mixed +apprehensions that have combined to precipitate the Southern +slaveholders into rebellion. The defectiveness of the educational system +of the South, and the known responsibility of slaveholders for such +defect and its consequences; the defect in the industrial policy, and +the responsibility of slavery itself for the depressing consequences to +the non-slaveholding population, were fearful charges. A knowledge that +the causes of depression must soon be brought to the examination of +Southern masses, in contrast with a better state of things in the North, +filled the minds of slaveholders with jealous and fearful apprehensions +toward the non-slaveholding population. They knew that its interests +were identified with the Northern educational and industrial policy. +They appreciated fully that through these interests, free labor in the +South had every motive to affinity with the North, educationally, +politically, and industrially. They were astute in the discovery that +under the operation of the Democratic principle, free discussion, and +fair play of reason, the pro-slavery prestige must soon go down in the +South before the greater numerical force of Southern masses. It was, +therefore, not only necessary, as supposed, to overturn the power of the +masses in the South, but also to make them the instruments of their own +overthrow as to political power. + +The measurable acquiescence of the non-slaveholding population was +indispensable to the revolutionary project. Without it, there was but +little numerical force. It was, therefore, of entire consequence to make +this population hate the North--to hate the National Government, and to +train it for the purposes of rebellion. The press was suborned wherever +it could be. The pulpit manifested equal alacrity, in order to keep pace +with the workings of the virus of treason. Leading men, assuming to be +statesmen and political economists, taxed their ingenuity in the +invention of falsehood. The effort of the press and politicians was +directed to misrepresenting and disparaging the condition of free labor +in the North; whilst the Southern pulpit was religiously engaged in +establishing the divinity of slavery. It would require a volume to +delineate the arts and hypocrisy resorted to, and the false reasoning +employed, to impose upon the masses of white labor South, and to make +them contented with their disparaged condition. It is needless to say, +the work of imposition was too effectually accomplished. It must be +confessed that too much of the non-slaveholding population had been +induced to follow the political Iagos of the South, and thus to assist +the first act in the plan for its own subversion--separation from the +North. The next step in the plan of subversion, the 'abrogation of a +government of majorities,' was carefully kept from the public view. + +The inquiry naturally arises, as to how or why this design for the +arrangement of political power in the Southern Confederacy has been +confined within such narrow degrees of disclosure. The answer is plain. +A bold proposition to change the principles of their government would +have alarmed the people of the South into an intensified opposition. The +politicians of South-Carolina, more open and frank in the exposition of +their views than other leaders in the South, have been obliged to submit +the control of their discretion to the more crafty and subtle influences +of other States. Policy required that the contemplated new form of +government should be confined to the knowledge of the leading spirits +only. It would not bear the hazards of submission to the people as a +basis of revolution. Its success depended upon secresy and coupling the +adoption of the plan with a sudden _denouement_ after revolution. Any +one conversant with the pages of De Bow's _Review_ for the last ten +years, and who has watched the drift of argument in reviling the masses, +and contemning their connection with government; and accustomed also to +the 'accidental droppings' from secessionists in their cups, has had +little difficulty in determining the ultimatum in the designs of +treason. He will have become convinced that it is nothing less than a +warfare against the continuation of Democratic government in the +South--that this warfare is stimulated by the fixed belief that a +government of majorities must be superseded, in order to perpetuate the +institution of slavery. + +Were argument wanting to force this conclusion on the mind, it would be +supplied in the established affinity between the emissaries of secession +in Europe and the virulent haters of Democratic government there found. +The liberalists of England and elsewhere have been sedulously avoided; +not so those who would connive to bring Democratic government into +disrepute. With these last-mentioned classes, the secessionists have met +with a ready sympathy and encouragement, almost as much so, as if +treason in America involved directly the stability of privileged power +on that continent. The Tories of England, the Legitimists of France, the +nauseous ingredients of the House of Hapsburg, the degenerate nobility +of Spain, and from that down to the 'German Prince of a five-acre +patch,' have been the congenial allies of secession emissaries in +Europe. It mattered not to these haters of enfranchised masses how much +misery might be inflicted on the American people. They cared little for +the anguish of mind that was being every where felt by the supporters of +liberalized opinions. They rejoiced at the supposed calamities of that +government whose beneficent policy had always been to keep the peace, to +avoid the necessity of standing armies, to foster industry and +education, and in addition thereto, to encourage the depressed of Europe +to come and accept homes and hospitable treatment on the soil of the +country. These revilers of Democracy in Europe were long advised with, +were consulted beforehand, and knew the plottings of the pro-slavery +spirit, in its preparation for rebellion. They were indifferent as to +the character or hateful deformity of the agency to be employed, +provided it could be made instrumental in breaking the jurisdiction of a +government, heretofore more esteemed by the enlightened liberalists of +the world than any other that ever existed. Neither the secessionists +nor their co-plotters in Europe required seducing or proselyting. They +stood on the same level of affinity, the moment the secessionists +proposed the overthrow of the Democratic principle. This was the +promise, the condition precedent, and this the basis of alliance between +the plotters of treason in free America and their coaedjutors abroad. It +would be both shallow and useless to charge the origin of sympathy with +rebellion projects, expressed by political circles in Europe, to the +mercenary motives of commerce, trade, or manufactures. Those were +standing on a broad foundation of contented reciprocity, and were the +first to dread the tumult that could not fail to prove prejudicial. We +shall hunt in vain to find the motive for European sympathy in +rebellion, elsewhere than in hatred of Democracy. We shall also search +in vain to find the motive for the wide-spread sympathy expressed by the +liberalists of Europe in the Union cause, elsewhere than in their +attachment to liberalized institutions. + +Having glanced at the compound motive for establishing the Southern +Confederacy, that is, slavery perpetuation through prostration of the +Democratic principle, it may not be amiss to refer to the contemplated +management of its _politico-economic_ interests. These were to be built +up, of course; but not through a system of diversified industry; for +free trade, as is well known, would have the effect to prostrate what +little manufacturing had been commenced in the South, and afford a +perpetual bar to the success of future undertakings. It was believed +that the foul elements North and South, and the illicit traders of the +world beside, could be brought together in the business of free trade +and smuggling. The immense frontier would render it impossible for the +Northern States to protect themselves to much extent from illicit trade, +through any preventive service possible to be adopted. The Mexican +frontier would be entirely helpless. Thus reasoned _Secesh_. This was to +have been the basis of competition with Northern mechanism. The +reasonings of the conspirators were consistent with the merits and +morals of the conspiracy. They calculated upon the active cooeperation of +the mercenary in the North, and actually believed that the temptation to +gain would prove predominant over any efforts the Northern Government +could make to protect its revenue policy. They boldly ventured upon the +assumption that the influences of illicit traffic would soon become too +strong to be resisted, and that in this manner, in conjunction with the +agency of 'King Cotton,' the commerce of the North would be transferred +to the South. + +Another item in Southern political economy was the project of reoepening +the African slave-trade. The leaders of the secession programme had made +this a prominent feature in starting the rebellion into growth. The +various phases which this branch of the question afterward underwent, +was owing to the opposition of the Border States. So much were the +people of the Border States averse to being brought into competition +with slave-breeding in Dahomey, that the original conspirators were +obliged to forego, for a time at least, this incident in the motives of +the earlier revolutionists. + +A government founded on the supremacy of a class, and that class to be +composed of slaveholders; a political economy founded on slave labor, +free trade, illicit trade, and African kidnapping, were associations +that would require great strength and influence to sustain them. The +strongest military organization was therefore contemplated. In this, +much employment could be given to the non-slaveholding masses, while +military qualities of supposed superiority would enable the Southern +Confederacy to enter into a successful contest with the North for +empire. The potency of 'King Cotton' was to be made the powerful agency +with which the rest of the civilized world was to be dragooned into +acquiescence. On this delusive dream was built the fabric of that mighty +empire, whose history, from its origin to its subversion, is nearly +ready to be written. + +It must be acknowledged that the leading influences of the rebellion +were as sharp-sighted as political vice, or political immorality is ever +capable of becoming. Like all other vice, however, it based its +reasonings and supposititious strength exclusively on its powers of +deception, in conjunction with the iniquitous aptitudes of itself and +its coadjutors. It found co-plotters in Mozart Hall, in the stockholders +of the African Slave-trade Association, scattered from Maine to Texas, +and in its suborned press in New-York, Baltimore, Charleston, and +New-Orleans. It had bargained with the politically vitiated portion of +the Northern Democracy for assistance, and had received a wicked though +fallacious assurance from the Northern kidnappers, to the effect, that +the Democracy of the North would neutralize any attempt to oppose +secession by force. They had arranged for their diplomatic influence on +the other side of the Atlantic, and bargained for the subversion of +Democracy in the South. It planned beforehand for arming treason and +disarming the Union, and most adroitly were its plans in this respect +carried into effect. It had gained over to its side most of the Southern +material in the little army and navy of the country, and prepared it for +perfidy, in committing devastation or theft on the public property. Thus +allied and thus equipped, in the confidence of its pernicious strength, +it commenced its warfare on society. + +'How much injury can we inflict upon the North? How much of the debts +owing to Northern citizens can we confiscate? How much property in the +South owned by Northern men can we appropriate? How much can we make +Northern commerce suffer by depression of business, privateering, or +otherwise? To what extent can we paralyze Northern mechanical industry, +subvert Northern trade, and lay it under disabilities? How much can we +distress the laboring classes in England, in France, in other countries +in Europe, whereby we may compel them to clamor for the intervention of +their respective governments against the North, and against its attempts +to uphold the Union?' The whole reasoning of the conspirators was based +on the supposed power, coupled with the intent and effort to inflict +wide-spread and common injury. The scheme and all its contemplated and +attempted incidents of management were such as the pro-slavery spirit in +politics only could engender. + +It required many years of gradual development, in connection with the +ultimate culmination of treason, to shake the confidence of the North in +the disposition of the people of the South. There was, and could be, no +possible intelligent motive for the masses of the South to change their +form of government, or to enter into rebellion against it. The arguments +of the plotters of treason against a 'government of majorities'--the +doctrine of 'State rights,' with the right to secede at the option of a +State--the _quasi_ repudiation of the 'white trash,' so called, as an +element of political equality, were regarded as the ebullitions of a +politically vitiated class who would be willing to overthrow the +National Government, but who were supposed to be too few in numbers to +taint with poisonous fatality the political mind of the South. It is not +established as yet that the Southern political mind in the main has +become depraved. It is, however, established, that the leading political +influences South have cajoled and terrorized the bulk of the Southern +population into apparent acquiescence in treason. It yet remains to be +seen what disposition will be disclosed by the Southern people, as soon +as protection is guaranteed to them against the tyranny and usurpations +of the rebel influence. It is prophesied that there will be found a +heart in the bulk of the Southern population; that it will still cling +with affection and pride to that government which was their guarantee, +and which no power now on earth is competent to shake. It is not against +the deluded, the timid, or the helpless of the South that we would make +the indictment for political crime. It is the perfidious pro-slavery +spirit in politics that we seek to arraign. + +The analysis of developed motives in which the slaveholders' rebellion +had its origin, must naturally excite the inquiry in the American mind, +as to how far the slaveholding element can be trusted. As a political +force, we find it sowing the seeds of political discontent. As an +anti-democratic element, we find it plotting the overthrow of democratic +government. In its efforts to denationalize republican government in +America, it has not scrupled to seek aid from, and alliance with, the +haters of republican institutions every where. Under such calamitous +teachings as it has inflicted, can we longer conclude that it can, from +its aptitudes and nature, be converted into an element of national +strength? There is a South, and a great South, and would continue to be, +were there not a negro or slaveholder sojourning there. The seven +millions non-slaveholding population in the Southern States have rights, +social and political, based on the motive to maintain republican +government. The Constitution of the Union, as the highest principle of +fundamental law, guarantees in express terms, to every State, the form +of a republican government; and not less by implication, the essential +qualities of an actual one. It matters not how much the non-slaveholding +population of the South may have been deluded, nor how much it may have +been incited, under that delusion, to act as the instrument of its own +overthrow. This population is not less the object of just political +solicitude than any equal number of people North. That its general +education has not been advanced to the appreciative point, is its +misfortune. That it has been surrounded by a pro-slavery influence, +selfish, arrogant, and contemptuous of the interest of the masses, is +equally so. That it has been less favored than its brother-hood of free +labor in the North--that it has been placed under disabilities in the +comparison, are only additional reasons for increased solicitude for the +welfare and future advancement of this portion of Southern population. +While it has been imposed upon, and much of it deluded in its motives to +action, its actual condition is in reality coupled with every natural +incentive to alliance and adhesion to the National Government. It has +drunk the bitter cup of calamity in rebellion. It has tasted the dregs +of treason that lie at the bottom of political vice, and been victimized +by destitution, by the diseases of camp-life, by the casualties of the +battle-field, and by the widowhood and orphanage that have followed the +train of rebellion. This population is a natural element of national +strength, having the same incentives as its brotherhood in the North. +Arms will soon remove the blockade to its intercourse with the North, +and civil liberty once established, will most likely secure it to the +side of national patriotism. + +There is a question of equal magnitude respecting the colored +population, not only of the South, but of the whole country. It is +involved in the inquiry: Can the colored population be converted into an +element of national strength? Physiologically and mentally, the native +negro race stands as the middle-man in the five races--the Caucasian and +Malay being above, and the American aborigines and the Alforian below. +The mixture of blood with the Caucasian in America, places the negro +element of the United States at least upon a level with the Malay race +in natural powers, and from association, much the superior in practical +intelligence. Notwithstanding the crushing laws designed by slaveholders +to perpetuate the ignorance and helplessness of the negro, he _would_ +improve. Notwithstanding the brutal and studied policy of slaveholders +to slander and disparage the negro capacity for improvement, all the +arts of lying hypocrisy have occasionally been set at naught by some +convincing exhibition of truth, springing from a fair experiment on the +colored man's susceptibilities. The white man's dishonoring inclination +to strike the helpless--made helpless by brutal laws--has occasionally +recoiled in an exposure of the atrocious practice. The late attempt to +introduce a bill into the South-Carolina Legislature, providing for the +sale of the free negroes of the State into slavery, led to a disclosure +worthy of contemplation. The Committee to whom the bill was referred +stated that-- + + 'Apart from the consideration that many of the class were good + citizens, patterns of industry, sobriety, and irreproachable + conduct, there were difficulties of a practical character in the + way of those who advocated the bill. The free colored population of + Charleston alone pay taxes on $1,561,870 worth of property; and the + aggregate taxes reach $27,209.18. What will become of the one and a + half millions of property which belongs to them in Charleston + alone, to say nothing of their property elsewhere in the State? Can + it enter into the mind of any Carolina Legislature to confiscate + this property, and pot it in the Treasury? We forbear to consider + any thing so full of injustice and wickedness. While we are + battling for our rights, liberties, and institutions, can we expect + the smiles and countenance of the Arbiter of all events, when we + make war on the impotent and unprotected, enslave them against all + justice, and rob them of the property acquired by their own honest + toil and industry, under your former protection and sense of + justice?'[E] + +This slight exhibition in the Carolina Legislature presents an epitome +of the whole argument of cultivated brutality on the one hand, and of +humane sense and rationality on the other. What were the protection and +sense of justice here spoken of; and what the sequences flowing from +such protection and justice? The whole question is answered in three +words: Improvement, following encouragement. What was the 'robbery' +proposed by the bill, other than the concomitants of slavery, that have +robbed the colored man from generation to generation, not only of his +toil, but of every practical motive TO BE A MAN? It would be needless, +however, to discuss the question of the colored man's capacity to +improve, were it not for considerations that now make it necessary, +under national calamity, to take it into truthful account. The white +man's cultivation of barbarity under the teachings of slaveholders has +hitherto proved an overmatch for the colored man's claims in the +abstract. Things and conditions are now changed. The slaveholders' +rebellion has softened the obduracy of manufactured prejudice, and +necessity has become allied with humanity. Tho pro-slavery spirit in +politics is now discovered to be little short of a demon--a snake's egg +that hatches treason. The American mind is nearly forced to the +conclusion, that as long as colored women are compelled to breed slaves, +their white mistresses will continue to breed rebels. Slavery, of +course, must yield to the necessity of national security. A remnant may +exist for a while, and linger through modifications of a broken and +hopeless pro-slavery prestige, the duration depending entirely upon the +disposition of slaveholders to become subordinated to law. Perpetuation, +however, has become a word that has no meaning in connection with the +duration of slavery. The word in that sense has become obsolete; and +what shall become of the colored man, and how shall he be treated, is, +and is to be, the sequence of the conspiracy to overthrow the +jurisdiction of the Government. It being established that the +pro-slavery spirit, by nature, is the antagonist of the democratic +principle--the antagonist of the interests of the masses, the hot-bed +for the cultivation of brutality, devoid of fidelity, and a rebel by +practice, it has become an intolerable element of national weakness. We +can not avoid the inquiry, now to be made on the basis of humanity: Can +the colored man, by proper and just encouragement, be converted into an +element of patriotism and national strength? + +What is the solution of the riddle as it respects the strength of +democratic government? It has heretofore been said by the revilers of +the masses in America, that 'for two hundred years the scum, the crime, +and poverty of Europe have been cast upon the shores of the Atlantic.' +It is immaterial to the question of humanity, whether such has been the +seed from which a new nation has been raised up in the wilderness. A few +months since, 'Democracy on its trial,' was the favorite theme of +democracy-haters in Europe. The indictment against our free institutions +was freighted with fearful charges. The government of the Union was a +'delusive Utopia.' 'The people of the North had degenerated into a mob.' +'Society was drifting into the maelstrom of anarchy, and law and order +becoming extinct.' A little time, and an apparently unwarlike people had +changed into an astonishing organization, disciplined for warfare. Seven +hundred thousand bayonets, as if by enchantment, bristled in menace to +the slaveholders' rebellion. The navy-yards and arsenals resounded with +the clang of hammers, and soon the suddenly created armaments appeared +on the waters. Power in finance exhibited by the Government, based on +the confidence and patriotism of the people, was no less astonishing. +New inventions of warfare changed the scoffings in Europe into alarm for +their own security. The trans-Atlantic revilers of republicanism in +America have discovered a people who had a heart in them. Patriotism in +America is reassured of success by the exhibition of a deep-seated +attachment on the part of the Northman to his Government. Seven words +suffice to solve the riddle of free democratic strength--THE MASSES +CONVERTED INTO BEINGS OF POWER. This is the theory, the basis, the +strength of free institutions in America. They have no other foundation. +They have nothing else to rely on for enduring support. + +Let the Southern rebel attempt to disguise it as he may, the colored man +of the South is already a patriot on the side of the Union. He has heard +of a people in the North who believed that every human being, by nature, +was entitled '_to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness_.' He +knows that his oppressor hates this people of the North, and for the +sole reason that they entertain this generous sentiment. While the +Pharisaic theologian of the Southern pulpit is expounding his +Bible-doctrine in justification of kidnapping, and appealing to Heaven +for assistance, the colored man turns in disgust at the impiety, and +turns into secret places to beseech Omnipotence to favor the success of +the national arms. Perhaps there is an interfering Providence already +manifest in results. If the plagues of Egypt had been visited on the +rebellious States by an overruling Power, they would scarcely have +afforded a parallel to the calamity which rebel slaveholders have +inflicted on their country. They have exhausted and destroyed much of +what the long toil of the colored man South had assisted to raise up. +Devastation has followed the train of rebellion. The blood of the first +and of the second-born has been the sacrifice on the altar of slavery. +The brutal ruffianism of the pro-slavery spirit has far enough disclosed +its natural aptitudes to have become disgustingly odious in comparison +with the positively better characteristics of the colored man. The rebel +himself has taught a lesson to the world, which he can never unteach. +The twenty-seven millions of free labor in the Union have learned a +lesson through the teachings of slaveholders in rebellion, which they +can not forget. This teaching is nothing less than that the colored man +is capable, by protection and encouragement, of being converted into a +better element of national strength and national prosperity than +slaveholders, as _such_, would ever become. + +Could any contemplative mind doubt for a moment the ability of the white +population of the Union, if justly disposed, to raise the colored +population of the country, in a short time, to the platform of a decent +respectability? With unjust prejudice laid aside, and the work of +beneficence acquiesced in, no one could reasonably doubt it. Who +deserves best at the hands of the nation's power, the oppressor or the +oppressed? The one that grasps at the throat of the nation and attempts +its overthrow merely to perpetuate his power of oppression, or the other +who is crying to humanity for protection? The voice of nature, if +undefiled, will answer this question on the side of humanity--if not, +NECESSITY WILL. + +The democratic theory which seeks to absolve humanity from oppression, +is not confined to the resistance of a single despot. It goes in the +same degree to a privileged class that arrogates to itself the right to +oppress; nor does it stop at the half-way house of mere negative +protection. It allows in its onward course the full fruition of +'EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW.' In theory, the law is the sovereign, and we +seek to attach such qualities to that sovereign as are compatible with +the general good of society. That theory places no man above the law, +nor any man below its protection. As soon as the individual in society +is raised to the point of negative protection, he is in a measure +converted into a being of power. He can then appeal to his sovereign, +THE LAW, for the vindication of his rights. Experience is continually +demonstrating that men are respected in proportion to their power to +command respect. The very existence of slavery requires and demands the +brutalization of the governing power that upholds it. Were society +absolved from this tyranny, matters would begin to mend. Equalized +protection would be the consequence. Protection, not only to the colored +man, but protection in an almost equal degree to the non-slaveholding +white population, hitherto brought under the ban of disability by a +depressing pro-slavery policy. + +Until recently, when the colored race in the United States was spoken of +in connection with the subject of its release from oppression, it was +subjected to the same arguments that kept the white men in slavery in +olden times. The arguments of slaveholders were never truthful, and only +convenient for themselves. They damaged the slave; they damaged every +collateral interest; they damaged the strength of nationality; and more +than all, they damaged every humane principle of civilization. The whole +reasoning in favor of slaveholding has been a vicious fallacy; and +perhaps the time has come, attended by sufficient calamity, to set the +American population to thinking and acting in the right direction. + +The colored people South are better fitted for freedom than is commonly +imagined. They are quite well skilled in practical industry, more +especially in agricultural pursuits. There are many of them qualified in +skilled labor in the coarser mechanic arts. The whole of this population +has been trained to diligent labor, under habits of continuous toil. It +has acquired patience in performing labor, by the discipline which +unremitting labor gives. The colored man South has not been brought up +in idleness, or with habits calculated to make him a renegade. Were he +permitted to enjoy the fruits of his industry, there can be no doubt of +his disposition and patience to toil on. In case his rebel master would +not hire him for wages, there would be enough amongst the +non-slaveholding population who would. Production in the South, under +emancipation of the slaves of rebel masters, would not materially fall +off. Give to colored men the fruits of their industry, and many of them +would soon set up for themselves. Perhaps in connection with the soil of +the South, that yields most abundantly in annual value of product, the +rest of the colored population would soon get to emulate the free +colored people of Charleston. The law of subsistence would as much +compel the South to go on without compulsory labor as it does the North, +and there are just as many reasons for it in one section as in the +other; that is, just none at all. Under emancipation, there is little +doubt that actual production could and would soon be put on the +increase, with better distribution of wealth, more widely diffused +comforts, and a broader and better public policy. The only things that +would be curtailed in their proportions would be slave-breeding, +rebel-breeding, and ruffian cultivation. + +It may, perhaps, continue to be easier for a time to strike the colored +man than to strike off his shackles. There is a mean and low side of +humanity, a sort of defiled infirmity, that runs into a disposition to +strike the helpless. This is the bravery of ruffianism. There is apt to +be a shrinking away from duty, when the contest involves a conflict with +arrogant power. This is the cowardice of pusillanimity. The American +citizen has been noted for his superior bravery. He has certainly shown +himself brave in the battle-field, and more brave and determined than +any other nation in the vindication and maintenance of the natural +rights of the white man; but he is not done with the business of +disenthrallment. His language is the language of liberty. It must not, +it will not long continue to be spoken by slaves. This was the meaning +of Jefferson, when he penned the _text-words_ of disenthrallment: 'All +men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable +rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' +Where is to be found the evidence that these rights have been forfeited? +Who dare deny the right of the colored man morally, religiously, or +politically, to assert them? It is true, we have hitherto acted in +defiance of these acknowledged rights. We have outraged them. We have +waged a shameful and shameless warfare against them. The sequences of +that warfare are now upon us. The sin is now being atoned for in blood. +It has not yet been ordained that the principles of injustice should +have permanent duration. If not restrained by humane rationality, they +will culminate in convulsion. The light is now breaking upon the +heretofore obscured vision of the American people. We can now begin to +see with clearness that the colored man's disenthrallment is to become +the white man's future security. This would almost seem to be the +harmony of divine justice in the affairs of men. + +No substantial amelioration in the depressed condition of race or class +has yet been brought about in disconnection with the powerful agency of +such race or class. Human nature forbids it. The selfish tenacity of +advantage, resting on what is misnamed 'vested rights,' but having its +foundation in vested wrongs, yields only on compulsion. It is only when +the depressed race or class, acting in somewhat intelligent concert, +exhibits the disposition to aid in the purposes of protection, that the +mercenary power succumbs to necessity. History furnishes no examples to +the contrary. It may not be impossible that our own times may make +history to corroborate the truth of these premises. + +When it is asserted that the colored man is wanting in bravery, and is +not endowed with the natural courage to assert and maintain his rights, +we are apt to forget that physical bravery is a thing of cultivation. +There is not the least evidence that, with military discipline and +something to fight for, the colored population of the United States +would not prove as brave as the black regiment of the Revolution. With +such bravery as that regiment exhibited, the four millions and their +prospective increase would require a gigantic force to make profitable +slaves of them. Again, there is something beyond the protection from +domestic violence that demands consideration, in connection with the +military discipline of the colored man. We may reasonably expect that a +large colonization in some quarter will soon take place, and be carried +forward. Education and military discipline, in addition to knowledge in +practical industry, are necessary concomitants to successful +colonization. With these qualities, the colored man will cease to feel +helpless, and be fitted for enterprise, he will have the confidence to +go forward, and the aspirations to impel him. It may be the lot of the +colored man to encounter in some foreign land powers and influences +quite as barbarous as those he has hitherto encountered in the white +man's prejudices. If he is armed for the encounter, he will have little +inclination to shrink from it. Every humane consideration clusters to +the policy of disenthralling the colored man, and of making him a being +of power. Nothing can oppose it but the pro-slavery spirit that seeks to +enslave the American mind to barbarism and the colored millions and +their increase to perpetual bondage. + + + + + WATCHING THE STAG. + + [AN UNFINISHED POEM, BY FITZ-JAMES O'BRIEN.] + + + Hela and I lie watching here, + Above us the sky and below the mere. + long + Through distant gorges the-b-l-u-e-moors loom + Till the heath looks blue in the endless gloom. + + The eagle screams from the misty cliff, + With a quivering lamb in his taloned griff. + And the echoes leap over hill and hollow, + As the old stag bells to the herd to follow. + + The purpled heather is wet with mist, + Till it shines like a drowned amethyst, + And the old, old rocks with furrowed faces + Start up like ghosts in the lonely places. + + With forefeet crossed, stanch Hela lies + Watching my face through her half-closed eyes, + -u-s- + -B-e-t-w-e-e-n--i-s--i-s--s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d-deer + While ^ I pillow my head on the stiffening-s-t-a-g- + + + + +LITERARY NOTICES. + + +BAYARD TAYLOR'S PROSE WRITING'S. Vol. V. A Journey to Central Africa, +with a Map and Illustrations by the Author. New-York: G.P. Putnam. +Boston: A.K. Loring. + +This work deservedly ranks as among the best, if not the best, by Bayard +Taylor. The East, as we feel in his poems, was full of the scenes of his +widely varied travels, that which most aroused his sympathy and stirred +his artistic creative powers, and it is of the East that he speaks most +freely and brilliantly. It was in Central Africa that he encountered his +most thrilling adventures, and forgot, as we can there only do, the +civilization of the Western World. Something we would say of the +beautiful typography and paper of this series. If the term _mise en +scene_ were as applicable to books as to dramas, it might be truely said +of Mr. Putnam's that they appear as well between boards as other works +do upon them. + + +EL DORADO. PROSE WRITINGS OF BAYARD TAYLOR. Vol. IV. New-York: G.P. +Putnam. Boston: A.K. Loring. 1862. + +Possibly some twenty years hence 'El Dorado' will be regarded as by far +the best of Bayard Taylor's works--certain it is that in it he is among +the pioneer describers of a land the early accounts of which will be +carefully investigated and duly honored. In picturing lands, where +others have been noting and sketching before, he is strong indeed who is +not driven into mannerism; but in fresh fields and pastures new there is +less danger of seeing through thrice-used spectacles. It is this +consciousness of being the first that ever burst into their silent seas +that made Herodotus and Tudela and Rubriquis and Mandeville so fresh and +vigorous--and there is much of the same peculiar inspiration due to +first-ness perceptible in this volume, which we cordially commend to all +who would be California-learned or simply entertained. Somewhat we must +say however of the fine paper, exquisite typography, and two neat steel +engravings with which this 'Caxton' edition is made beautiful and most +suitable either for a lady's _etagere_-book-shelf or the most elegant +library. + + +LES MISERABLES. I. FANTINE. BY VICTOR HUGO. Translated by CHARLES E. +WILBOUR. New-York: Carleton. Boston: Crosby and Nichols. 1862. + +A novel written twenty-five years ago by Victor Hugo is a curiosity. The +present was kept in reserve because the sordid publisher, who had a +contract for all of Hugo's works, would not give the sum demanded--the +author kept raising his price--it was like Nero and the Sybil, or the +converse of the conduct of the damsel who annually reduced her terms to +Martial: + + 'Millia viginti quondam me Galla poposcit; + Annus abit: bis quina dabis sestertia? dixit.' + +Finally the publisher died, the work was printed, and its first section +now appears in 'Fantine'--a capital picture of life, manners, customs, +in fact of almost every thing in France in 1817. It deals with much +suffering, many sorrows, as its title indicates--for it is easier to +make sensations out of pains than pleasures, and M. Hugo is preeminently +and proverbially 'sensational.' Still it is deeply interesting, +extremely well managed in all art-details, and above all things, is +extremely humane--as a book by Victor Hugo could hardly fail to be. And +as every page bears the impress of a certain characteristic originality +of thought and of observation, we may safely predict that 'Fantine' will +deservedly prove a success. We like the manner in which Mr. Wilbour has +translated it--neither too slavishly nor too freely, but in one word, +'admirably.' + + +ARTEMUS WARD HIS BOOK. New-York; Carleton. Boston: N. Williams and +Company. 1862. + +Once in five or six years we have a new humorist--at one time a Jack +Downing, then a Doesticks, then again a Phoenix-Derby. Last on the list +we have 'Artemus Ward,' as set forth in letters to the Cleveland +_Plaindealer_ and _Vanity Fair_, purporting to come from the proprietor +of a 'side-show,' as cheaper, or less than twenty-five cent exhibitions, +are called in this country. To say that they are excellent, spirited, +and racy--full of strong idioms of language and character, and abounding +in novelties in type which are no novelties to those familiar with +popular life--would be doing them faint justice. They embody a new and +perfectly truthful conception of one of the multitude, and have nothing +that is hackneyed in them. + +It is a great test of real stuff in a writer when he dashes off, or +picks up, phrases which are at once taken up by the people. 'Artemus +Ward' has originated many of these, and is perhaps at the present day as +much quoted 'in the broad and long' as any man in the country. It is +needless to say that all who relish broad eccentric humor will find his +Book very well worth reading. We regret that it does not embrace certain +other excellent sketches which we know he has written, but trust that +these will appear in due time in a second part or in a new edition. The +volume before us is very neatly got up, well illustrated, and tastefully +bound. + + +LYRICS FOR FREEDOM AND OTHER POEMS. UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE +CONTINENTAL CLUB. New-York: Carleton, 413 Broadway, Boston; Crosby and +Nichols. + +At a regular meeting of the 'Continental Club,' held at their rooms in +New-York, it was resolved and carried that a volume of poems written by +certain of the younger members be published 'under its auspices.' As a +noted Democratic sheet, the Boston _Courier_, has declined to notice the +volume on the plea that the name of the society from which it sprung +suggested too forcibly the CONTINENTAL MONTHLY, possibly a favorable +mention by us of our young New-York brother-in-literature may seem +partial and too en-famille-iar to be fair. Be this as it may, we can not +resist the expression of the honest conviction, for which we have many a +good indorser, that while it would be a matter of some difficulty to +compile a better collection of lyrics from the vast number which the war +has thus far called forth, its production by a limited number of a +single association is indeed remarkable. There is the right ring and the +true feeling perceptible in all of them; earnest enthusiasm flowing +bravely on the tide of musical words, and a clear conviction of the +justice of our cause springing from liberal and progressive political +views. It is enough indeed to say of most of the lyrics that they are +written from a principle, and with faith in the necessity of +Emancipation, and are not mere war-songs, full of commonplace, as +applicable to one cause as another. They are songs of the American war +of freedom in 1861, and as such will rank high in our literary history. + + +THE REJECTED STONE; OR, INSURRECTION VERSUS RESURRECTION IN AMERICA. By +a Native of Virginia. Second Edition, Boston: Walker, Wise and Company. +1862. + +We are as gratified at the reappearance of this glorious work as we are +astonished to learn that it has only reached a second edition. As it is +beyond comparison the most remarkable literary result thus far of the +war, as it has made a strong sensation in very varied circles, as it is +a book which has given rise to anecdotes, and as its wild eloquence, +bizarre humor and intense earnestness, have caused it to be read with a +relish even by many who dissent from its politics, we had supposed that +ere this its sale had reached at least its tenth edition. Meanwhile we +commend it to all, assuring them that as a fearless, outspoken work, +grasping boldly at the exciting questions of the day, it has not its +equal. We should mention that in the present edition we find given the +name of its author, the well-known and eloquent Rev. Moncure D. Conway, +formerly of Virginia, now of Cincinnati. + + +OUR FLAG: A Poem in Four Cantos. By T.H. UNDERWOOD. New-York: Carleton. +Boston: N. Williams. 1862. + +During the past year Mr. Underwood has published several poems of +remarkable merit, referring to the war. In the present we have a work of +higher ambition, and one which is truly well done. In it the horrors of +slavery, the iniquitous abuses to which it so often gives rise--the +tortures, vengeances, murders, and fiendish punishments, which in their +turn follow the crime--are portrayed with striking truthfulness and real +power. The author is evidently no Abolitionist on hear-say--the whole +poem gives evidence of practical familiarity with 'the institution,' and +the sense of truth has inspired his pen in many passages with wonderful +power. The terrible sufferings of an _almost_ white man and slave as +here portrayed, his revenge and punishment at the stake, are as moving +as they are manifestly true to life. We commend this little +pamphlet-poem to every friend of freedom, and sincerely trust that it +will attain the large circulation which it deserves. + + +SKETCHES OF THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND DECLINE OF SECESSION. With a +Narrative of Personal Adventures among the Rebels. By W.G. BROWNLOW, +Editor of the _Knoxville Whig_. Philadelphia: Geo. W. Childs. 1862. + +A decided character this 'Parson Brownlow,' and a representative man; +truly and bravely American, very Western in his traits; a man fond of +fierce argument and tough antagonisms, and not fearing the death either +by halter or revolver, which he will probably meet some day, for the +sake of Jehovah and his own stern convictions. Not exactly a man of +_salons_ and elegant _reunions_--yet full of real courtesies and gifted +with the kind heart of a true hater of wickedness, which flashes into +fury at witnessing deeds of cruelty and shame. And he has seen many +such--seen what few have done and lived--he has passed through a life's +warfare with men of his own grim obstinacy without his own honesty and +stern Puritan-like morality. We have followed his course for years--we +have met him 'afore-time,' when quite other subjects of quarrel engaged +him, and could have prophesied then with tolerable accuracy what part he +would play when it came to a question between bayonets and prisons for +the truth. + +As we have hinted, he is a splendid hater, and a ferocious antagonist, a +prince of vituperators and a very vitriol-thrower of savage sarcasms at +his enemies and those of humanity. And why should he not be all of this, +when we consider that in the stage whereon his part of life is played a +more delicate student of all the proprieties would have about the same +chances of success as attended the unfortunate cat which ventured +without claws among panthers. Measure such men by their moral worth and +by the good they do, and do not require of the hard-shell Methodist +preacher and tough polemical grappler with Satan in his most bristly and +thick-skinned Western incarnations that he display too much delicacy. +Those who will read his book may gather from it, beyond the interesting +personal and political narrative of which it consists, many useful and +curious hints as to the social development of America and of what men +the country is truly made. It is a _real_ work--one of value--interesting +to all, and very truly one of the monuments of this war and +of the scenes which preceded it in Tennessee. + + + + +EDITOR'S TABLE + + +The proclamation of President Lincoln in reference to General Hunter, +and the bold measures of the latter calling forth Executive +interference, form one of the most interesting episodes of the war of +Freedom. Regarded from the high standpoint whence acts are seen as +controlled by circumstances and formed by events, the conduct of the one +public functionary, as of the other, will appear to the future historian +in a very different light from that in which it has been presented by +either the radical or democratic journals of the day. He will speak of +the one as a military chieftain under the influence of worthy motives, +cutting a Gordian knot which the higher and controlling diplomatic and +executive superior wished should be cautiously untied. The one has acted +with a view to promptly settling a great trouble within his own +sphere--the other wisely comprehending that the action was premature, +has decisively countered it. By attempting to free the slaves, General +Hunter has shown himself a friend of freedom and a man of bold measures; +by annulling his acts Mr. Lincoln has availed himself of an excellent +opportunity of proving to the South and to the world that he is not, as +was said, a sectional or an Abolition President, and that with the +strongest sympathies for freedom, he is determined to respect the rights +even of enemies, and leave behind him a clear record, as one who did +nothing wrongly, and who with keen and wide comprehending glance took in +the times as they were, and acted accordingly. + +Meanwhile to the most prejudiced vision it is apparent that the great +cause of Emancipation has gained vastly by this little struggle between +the shepherd and that unruly member of the flock who _would_ dash a +little too impetuously ahead of his fellows. The proclamation of +President Lincoln contains but cold comfort for the pro-slavery +democracy, although they affect to rejoice over it. In vain may they +declare, as they did of the celebrated 'remunerating message,' that it +is very palatable, and vow that it 'creates fresh hope and gives a new +and needed assurance to the conservative men of the nation.' The sour +faces of their pro-slavery, Southern-adoring, English-ruled, traitorous +friends is an effectual answer to their hypocrisy. We have not forgotten +how warmly the Democratic press indorsed the message of January 6th, or +how the Democratic multitude kicked against it in public meetings. + +Let the Democratic tories of the day who find this message so +consolatory, duly weigh the following extract from it: + + 'I further make known that whether it be competent for me as + Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy to declare the slaves of + any State or States free, and whether at any time or in any case it + shall have become a necessity indispensable to the maintenance of + the Government to exercise such supposed power, are questions which + under my responsibility I reserve to myself, and which I can not + feel justified in leaving to the decisions of commanders in the + field. These are totally different questions from those of police + regulations in armies and camps. On the sixth day of March last, by + a special message, I recommended to Congress the adoption of a + joint resolution to be substantially as follows: + + "_Resolved_, That the United States ought to co-operate with, any + State which may adopt a gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to + such State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State in its + discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences, public and + private, produced by such change of system.' + + 'The resolution, in the language above quoted, was adopted by large + majorities in both branches of Congress, and now stands an + authentic, definite, and solemn proposal of the Nation to the + States and people moat immediately interested in the + subject-matter. To the people of those States, I now earnestly + appeal. I do not argue, I beseech you to make the arguments for + yourselves. _You can not, if you would, be blind to the signs of + the times._ I beg of you a calm and enlarged consideration of them, + ranging, if it may be, far above personal and partisan politics. + _This proposal makes common cause for a common object, casting no + reproaches upon any._ It acts not the Pharisee. The change it + contemplates would come gently as the dews of heaven, not rending + or wrecking any thing. Will you not embrace it? So much good has + not been done by one effort in all past time as in the providence + of God it is your high privilege to do. May the vast future not + have to lament that you have neglected it.' + +If any one can see in this aught save the clearest sympathy with the +gradual advance of Emancipation, he must be indeed gifted with a strange +faculty of perversion. If, however, the Democrats indorse the +President's recommendation and approve the Executive policy of gradual +emancipation for the sake of the white man, why do they continue to +abuse so fiercely presses which agree exactly with the Administration, +and ask for nothing more than a recognition of the great principle and +its realization according to circumstance? + +A more contemptible and pitiable political spectacle was never yet +presented than that which may now be witnessed in the actions and words +of the 'Conservative' Democracy. Driven day by day nearer into their +true light of sympathizers at heart with the enemy--upholding the +institution for which it fights--obliged to bear the odium of its +ancient opposition to protection, disgraced by its enmity to American +manufacturing interests--apologizing in a thousand shuffling, petty ways +for English arrogance--this wretched fragment of a faction, after +assuring the South that the North would not fight, and persuading the +North that the South was quite in the right in every thing, now appears +as constant meddler and mischief-maker in the great struggle going on, +giving to it those elements of darkness, disgrace, and treason which, +unfortunately, are always to be found in the greatest struggles for +freedom and right, and which, when history is written, give such grounds +to the carper, the sophist, and skeptic to ridicule the noblest efforts +of humanity. Such are the self-called Conservatives in this great +battle--men hindering and impeding the great cause, eagerly grasping at +every little premature advance--as in the case of General Hunter's +action, to scream out that all will be lost, and exult over its +correction by the leading power as though they had gained a victory! + +Meanwhile it is a matter of no small import to observe that there has +been a vast increase in the mass of indorsement of General Hunter's +conduct compared to what there would have been a few months ago. However +it interfered with the general policy of the Executive, no one doubts +that as a military and local measure it was eminently wise. Sooner or +later it will be adopted--meanwhile what has been done has been +productive of results which can not be undone. The great cause is the +cause of God--and every struggle only aids it onward. + + * * * * * + +The London Times of May 10th contained a long editorial leader on +American affairs, beginning in the following manner: + + 'It will have been noticed as a singular feature of the American + quarrel, that no intervention is thought probable or practicable, + except in favor of the South. Mediation, in whatever form or under + whatever name it is to be offered, is universally taken to imply + some movement in behalf of the Confederates. So completely, indeed, + are the belligerents themselves impressed with this idea, that the + South casts it in our teeth as a scandal and a blunder that no + European arbitration has been yet interposed; while the President + of the Northern States actually proclaims a day of thanksgiving for + the deliverance of the country from 'foreign intervention,' which + he identifies with nothing less than 'invasion.' The instincts of + the combatants have undoubtedly led them to correct decisions on + this point, but the fact is not a little curious. We need not + dissemble the truth about certain prepossessions current in + Europe. It is beyond denial that, in spite of the slavery question, + the Southerners have been rather the favorites, partly as the + weaker side, partly as conquerors against odds, and partly because + their demand for independence was thought too natural to be + resisted at the sword's point by a Government founded on the right + of insurrection only. To these merely sentimental and not very + cogent considerations was added the more potent and weighty + reflection that what the Southerners had done no Power, whether + American or European, could succeed in undoing.' + +The rest of the article, as the reader may recall, was devoted to +sneering at the North and in commending intervention; the whole being +characterized by an underhand, venomous, and latent treacherous tone, +much more becoming a vindictive and vulgar Oriental than a civilized and +Christian European. + +A little while before the _Times_ leader appeared, the London _Morning +Herald_ had informed the world that + + France and England suffer more than neutrals ever suffered from any + contest, and both begin to regard the war as interminable and + atrocious.' + +It is singular that the great majority of the British press and people +should dare to talk so glibly of intervention in this our civil war, +when we consider what their intermeddling may cost them. Cotton they may +or may not get, but no intervention can compel us to buy their goods, +and, as we have already pointed out in our columns, the entire loss of +the free States market involves a disaster which will be permanent and +terrible. Apart from the danger attendant upon insolently threatening a +nation amply capable of mustering an army of a million on its own +soil--two thirds of them practiced in war--there remains to be +considered the utter loss of all American custom. We buy much more than +any other nation whatever. Worse than this, for Europe, there would +follow Such a development of our home-manufactures as would seriously +threaten to drive England and France from a hundred markets. Let them +think twice ere they intervene. But the people, it is said, are +starving; and it may be, for this is one of the occasional and +unavoidable results of England's endeavoring to become the workshop of +the world. By _over-manufacturing_, she has brought it to such a pitch +that one fourth of her population live on _imported food_--such as do +not starve outright--for be it remembered that in Great Britain one +person in eight is buried at the public expense, while one in every +twelve or fourteen is a constant pauper. They are starving at present +more than usual, simply because the North is buying less; but to turn +away any popular opposition to government, and suppress riots, they and +the world are told that the trouble all comes from the closing of +Southern ports and _the want of cotton_! This, too, when published facts +show that the stock of goods and cotton on hand far exceeds the demand, +and is likely to exceed it for a long time to come. It is not cotton +that England or France want, but _customers_. How are they to obtain +these? By exasperating their best buyers beyond all reconciliation? The +day that witnesses British or French meddling in our war, sees the +inauguration of such hostility to their manufactures as they little +dream of. There will be leagues formed to enforce this to the letter. It +will be treason to wear an inch of English cloth or of French silk, and +what lie will they say to their starving operatives then? + +Already within the past year, great advances have been made in +manufacturing, especially in silks. A little closing of us up would be +the worst experiment for England that she ever yet tried. She may +possibly get cotton from the South, but not a customer from the North. +You may lead a horse to water, but it is another affair to make him +drink. And no one who can recall the prompt resolve not to use English +goods, and the beginning of leagues to that effect, of which we lately +heard so much, can doubt that in case we hear much more of this +impertinence of intervention, the American market would immediately be +lost to the insolent meddlers. It is only of late that the free States +have shaken off their Democratic, pro-slavery, anti-tariff tyrants, and +learned to be free. England has groaned and howled at our freedom; now +she goes so far as to threaten; but unless she soon stop _that_, we +shall promptly show her where the strength lies. While we were under a +half-Southern, half-British tyranny, we could do nothing. And be it +remembered that from the days of the New-York _Plebeian_, when British +gold was spent literally by the million in this country, to strengthen +the Democratic party and build up free trade, slavery and English +interests always went hand in hand to oppress the interests of American +free labor. But we shall soon change all that. It is in our power to +chastise British impudence most effectually, and we shall probably soon +be called upon to do it, by buying nothing from abroad. + +The inhuman, inconsistent, and cynically selfish conduct of England +toward the North in this war, whenever we have been threatened by +reverses, should not be forgotten. It has been literally devilish in its +grossness and meanness. Whatever wickedness the South has been guilty of +was at least barefaced and bold. The South had not for years labored to +build up an Abolition party in the North, as England did. For well nigh +half a century has England howled, wailed, whined, and canted over +slavery; but at the first pinch of the pocket, away goes the previous +philanthropy, and John Bull stands revealed, the brutal, cruel, +treacherous, lying savage that he is at heart, under all his +aristocratic feudal trash and gilding. Well, we know him at last, and +will _remember_ him. His conduct toward us has put hay on his +horns--_foenum habet in cornu_--and we shall avoid him. Let the +manufacturers of America watch this intolerably insolent intervention +closely, and lose no opportunity to turn it to their own advantage, that +is to say, to the advantage of the whole nation. Let them, by means of +journal and pamphlet, profusely scattered, explain to the people the +enormous wrong which England is seeking to do us, and the deliberate, we +may truthfully say, the official falsehood on which it is based. They +have it in their power to make our country literally _free_--will they +hesitate to use that power? + +The reliance of England is, by returning to her sweet, stale flatteries, +after the establishment of the Confederacy, to be friends as of old with +the North. It is, she thinks, easily done. Our servants abroad and their +friends are to be a little more favored with levee tickets and access to +noble society; a few dozen more of the rank and file will be marched +along or 'presented' before her Majesty, and thereby sworn in to endless +admiration of all that is Anglican; venerable gentlemen in white +waistcoats will make sweet speeches, after public dinners, of the beauty +of Union, just as they made them here a year ago, in reference to the +South, when the tiger was on the spring. The old see-saw of 'nations +united in language and customs--brothers at heart,' will be set to +vibrating, and all, as they believe, must jog along merrily as of old. +For it is with a very little regularly organized stuff of this kind, +turned on or off as from a hydrant, and always in dribbling drops at +that, that England has, when necessary, pacified and delighted a great +number of Americans, semi-insane to be received on terms of equality by +the 'higher classes,' whom they worshiped at heart, while they affected +all manner of bold Americanisms to hide the truth. It is time to end all +this. We have come to serious and terrible days, and must be free from +all such flunkeyism. In our hour of trouble, the English press boldly +proclaimed that its sympathy was with the South. Let it be remembered! + + * * * * * + +In our June number we gave the Kansas John Brown song, for the benefit +of those who collect the more curious ballads of the war. We are +indebted to Clark's _School-Visitor_ for the following song of the +Contrabands, which originated among the latter, and was first sung by +them in the hearing of white people at Fortress Monroe, where it was +noted down by their chaplain, Rev. L.C. Lockwood. It is to a plaintive +and peculiar air, and we may add has been published with it in +'sheet-music style,' with piano-forte accompaniment, by Horace Waters, +New-York: + + OH! LET MY PEOPLE GO. + + THE SONG OF THE CONTRABANDS. + + The Lord, by Moses, to Pharaoh said: Oh! let my people go; + If not, I'll smite your first-born dead--Oh! let my people go. + Oh! go down, Moses, + Away down to Egypt's land, + And tell King Pharaoh + To let my people go. + + No more shall they in bondage toil--Oh! let my people go; + Let them come out with Egypt's spoil--Oh! let my people go. + + Haste, Moses, till the sea you've crossed--Oh! let my people go; + Pharaoh shall in the deep be lost--Oh! let my people go. + + The sea before you shall divide--Oh! let my people go; + You'll cross dry-shod to the other aide--Oh! let my people go. + + Fear not King Pharaoh or his host--Oh! let my people go; + For they shall in the sea be lost--Oh! let my people go. + + They'll sink like lead, to rise no more--Oh! let my people go; + An' you'll hear a shout on the other shore--Oh! let my people go. + + The fiery cloud shall lead the way--Oh! let my people go; + A light by night and a shade by day--Oh! let my people go. + + Jordan shall stand up like a wall--Oh! let my people go; + And the wails of Jericho shall fall--Oh! let my people go. + + Your foes shall not before you stand--Oh! let my people go; + And you'll possess fair Canaan's land--Oh! let my people go. + + Oh! let us all from bondage flee--Oh! let my people go; + And let us all in Christ be free--Oh! let my people go. + + This world's a wilderness of woe--Oh! let my people go; + Oh! let us all to glory go--Oh! let my people go. + Oh! go down, Moses, + Away down to Egypt's land, + And tell King Pharaoh + To let my people go. + + + * * * * * + + +Speaking of the interview some weeks since between M. le Comte Henri de +Mercier with the extremely 'honorable' J.P. Benjamin, the secession +Secretary of State, the Petersburg (Virginia) _Express_ uses the +following elegantly accurate language: + + 'It is said that these two distinguished functionaries spoke the + French dialect altogether, the gallant Frenchman not having yet + been enabled to master the good old Anglo-Saxon idiom.' + +What, to begin with, is _the_ French dialect? The Provencal, the Gascon, +the Norman, are tolerably prominent French dialects, but which of them +is preeminently _the_ dialect we will not decide--nor why the diplomatic +gentlemen selected a dialect instead of French itself as a medium of +conversation. It is, however, possible that Comte de Mercier having +heard of little Benjamin's antecedents, talked to him in _argot_ or +thieves' slang. It may be that in the school of Floyd and Benjamin argot +is _the_ dialect. + +Again, we learn that the gallant Frenchman spoke 'the French dialect' +because he has not as yet mastered 'the good old Anglo-Saxon idiom.' +This is even more puzzling than the dialect-question. Why the +Anglo-Saxon idiom? Suppose Count Mercier wished to say that he was sorry +that his tobacco had been captured by the foe, why should he couch it in +such language as, 'Tha mee ongan hreowan thaet min _tobacco_ on feonda +geweald feran sceolde'--which is the good _old_ Anglo-Saxon idiom.' We +_can_ imagine that thieves' slang would have the place of honor in +Secessia, but why the old Anglo-Saxon idiom should be so esteemed, +puzzled us for a longtime. At last we hit it. The Southrons have long +been told--or told themselves--that they are Normans, while we of the +North are Saxon--and hoping to acquire a little Anglo-Saxon +intelligence, prudently begin by studying the language which they +believe is in common use among our literati. + +Seriously, it is not merely to stoop to such small game as the grammar +of a secession newspaper that we notice these amusing mistakes. There +are many persons-we are sorry to say many clergymen among others--here, +even in the free States, who, in attempting to write elegantly, use +words very ridiculously. They say 'dialect' and 'idiom' when they mean +'language;' they use 'donate' for 'give;' 'transpired' for 'happened;' +'paper' for 'newspaper,' and describe various events as taking place in +'our midst'--all because they think that these vulgarisms are really +more correct than the words or terms in common use. + +We wish, however, that Anglo-Saxon--joking apart--were more generally +studied. When we remember that the very great majority of good _words_ +in English are of Saxon origin, and with them all that is characteristic +either in our grammar or modes of expression, it becomes evident that +the most certain and shortest method of arriving at a thorough and +correct comprehension of English is by the study of its most important +element--one which, as a writer has well said, bears the same relation +to our mother-tongue as oxygen does to water. It is not fair to speak as +some do of the Latin and Saxon wings of the English bird--the bird +itself is Saxon--head and tail included. English has been but little +benefited by its Latin and Greek additions--the old tongue had excellent +synonyms or creative capacity like German--to fully equal every new need +of thought. + +The reader who has time for study, would do well to obtain the +Anglo-Saxon Grammar of Louis Klipstein, published by G.P. Putnam, +New-York, which is by far the most practical and easiest work of the +kind with which we are acquainted. A few days' study in it will be time +well invested by any one desirous of really _understanding_ English. +When we reflect that many boys study Latin for years 'because it enables +them to understand the structure and derivation of their own language,' +while the extremely easy Anglo-Saxon is almost entirely neglected, we +smile at the ignorance of the first principles of education which +prevails. But we advise the reader who may have a few shillings and a +few hours to spare to invest them in a 'KLIPSTEIN,' and _know_--what +very few writers do--something of the roots of English. Our word for it, +he will not regret following the advice. + + * * * * * + +We are indebted to a Dawfuskie Island correspondent for the following +details relative to + +THE FALL OF PULASKI. + + 'Come and dine with me next Sunday in Pulaski?' said the commandant + of a detachment of the Volunteer Engineer corps located on Tybee + Island, one bright morning in the early part of April. As the + invitation was given in all sincerity, and the officer who thus + spoke was assisting in the erection of the batteries commanding + that fort, the question which had so long occupied my mind, as to + when the bombardment would begin, was now, I fondly hoped, near its + solution. Time and again had rumor fixed the period of that event; + but as often were we disappointed. Nor was _the_ day now fixed; at + least, if so, it was not communicated to me; but as the coming + Friday of that week would be the anniversary of the attack on Fort + Sumter, the natural inference was, that on the morning of that day, + we should witness the opening of the long and anxiously-looked for + engagement. + + Sad rumors had come to our camp, that eighteen soldiers who had + gone out skirmishing within the rebel lines, on Wilmington Island, + had been captured, and were prisoners within the walls of Pulaski. + How far this event may have hastened the attack, we know not; but + on Thursday, the tenth, instead of Friday, the eleventh, the + bombardment began, and the thunder of our mortars shook the earth + and rent the heavens with their roar. Pulaski returned the fire + with a promptness and energy that seemed to bid defiance to our + batteries. Throughout the whole day, the storm beat unceasingly + upon the doomed fort, raining shot and shell like hail against its + walls and upon its ramparts. Solid steel-pointed shot, from + columbiads and Parrotts, aimed with a precision that indicated not + only great skill but a knowledge of the point of danger in the + fort, perforated the walls and buried themselves in the thick and + heavy masonry. Once, twice, thrice, four times was the rebel flag + shot away; but as often was it replaced. At seven o'clock in the + evening, the firing ceased, and there was a lull in the storm, + only, however, to be renewed again at midnight, and kept up at + regular intervals until sunrise, when the engagement increased in + greater vigor than throughout the preceding day. + + The morning was clear and beautiful, but not calm. A stiff breeze + came from the East, as if to bear the terrific reports of the + cannonading to Savannah, whose distant spires and towers gleamed in + the sun. Our blockading fleet, with accompanying transports, lay at + anchor in Tybee harbor. Here and there a gunboat, firing occasional + shots, could be seen moving about in Wilmington sound, while the + Unadilla, Hale, and Western World occupied their positions in + Wright and Mud rivers. Tatnall's fleet was no where to be seen, and + all things in the direction of Savannah seemed as quiet as though + that city was peacefully and securely reposing, as in other days, + under the broad folds of the American Union. + + It was a sad and woful day to the cities of the South, when her + rebel princes renounced their allegiance to the government, and + raised the traitor arm of rebellion against its authority. Imagined + evils, in connection with the Union, were then converted into real + ones, and these have been augmented a thousand-fold in the + severance from that Union. When the South shall 'come to + herself'--if she ever does--like the prodigal son, she will find + her condition quite as pitiable, and in rags and wretchedness, she + will seek her father's house, willing, no doubt, to occupy a + servant's place in the national household. Nor until true and + genuine repentance shall come to her, can she hope for a father's + forgiveness and a prodigal's reception and restoration. + + Boom! boom!! boom!!! as if the last great day of vengeance had + come, and you could hear the screeching of a thousand fiends in the + air hastening to their destiny, come upon the ear, as Tybee utters + her thunders, and pours out her vials of wrath. See that cloud of + dust which shoots up like a volcano, and looks as though the whole + east side of the fort had fallen in! Bolts of iron, like winged + battering-rams, are ploughing fearfully through her belabored side. + Before this cloud has passed away, you see, just above it, another, + not dark and angry, but in appearance white and spherical as the + moon. A shell has exploded, and rained its iron fragments into the + fort. + + It is now past meridian of the second day. Pulaski still fires her + heaviest guns; but at greater intervals. The batteries from Tybee + have obtained so exact a range that nearly every shot does + execution. At length a breach is made in the vicinity of the + magazine. The fate of the fort and all its inmates is now suspended + upon a single, well-directed shot. There is but a step between the + besieged and death, and as all hope of raising the siege is + abandoned, the rebel flag is hauled down, and a white flag of + submission waves in its stead. Pulaski falls, and the day is ours. + The hope of Georgia is gone. In vain did the citizens of Savannah + offer a prize of one hundred thousand dollars for the relief of the + fort. Had that sum been increased to a million, it would have been + quite as unavailing. The same inevitable doom awaits all the other + forts and intrenchments of the rebel confederacy. With some of + these, the event may be delayed; but the day of doom will come, and + the broad flag of the Union will float over every inch of territory + from the hills of the Aroostook to the waters of the Rio Grande. + + Just as the fort struck her flag, an incident occurred which was + somewhat remarkable. A sloop, which had been at anchor in Tybee + harbor, was broken from her moorings by the violence of the wind, + and driven by wind and tide, she floated up the Savannah river. + With her Union down, she passed immediately in front of Pulaski, + and turned into Wright river, where she was run ashore. Twenty + minutes earlier, and she would have been blown to atoms by the guns + of the fort. + + An almost incredible amount of work has been done by our investing + army, in accomplishing this glorious result. Rivers and creeks had + to be sounded, obstructions removed, roads made through swamps on + marshy islands, where our officers and men had to work day and + night, often up to their waists in mud and water; heavy Parrotts + and columbiads had to be carried by hand across these swamps, and + erected on platforms inundated by rising tides; dykes and ditches + had to be made, while all the time our men were exposed to the fire + of the rebel fleet. When all this was accomplished, and + communication was cut off from Pulaski, then the nearest points on + Tybee were reached by our forces located on that island, and four + or five batteries were planted, which, in turn, have done their + work, and the result shows how wise were the plans and how + successful was the execution. The stars and stripes now float over + Pulaski, and may they never again be polluted by the touch of + traitor hands. + + * * * * * + +Those persons who 'collect' street literature (there be such) may be +pleased with the following: + + +PORTENTOUS PLACARDS. + +_New-York, May, 1862._ + +Since the publication of the 'Bill-Poster's Dream,' and of the extracts +from Richmond papers containing the prophecies of the handwriting on the +wall relative to the accomplice States of America, few things have so +generally attracted pedestrian attention in our down-town streets as two +enormous placards. The first bore the following legend: + +THERE'S +A TEMPEST +BREWING. + +Persons given to cryptical studies were inclined to consider this an +esoteric form of advertisement, intended to convey to the initiated the +information that A. STORM had gone into the beer business. But +conjecture was set at naught by its fellow which appeared at its side on +the day after its posting, in this shape: + +VIDELICIT + +The Prophessor. + + Puncanhed, who was the first to call my attention to the placard, + did so with the following statement: + + ''Tan't spelt right--and why couldn't the feller just as well use + the 'good old English' word _viz._, as _'videlicit?'_' + + The query was unanswerable. But having some doubt as to the first + word in the Greek line, by using which instead of the article 'O, + the writer has shown not merely unconsciousness of the Greek + particle, but ignorance of a particle of Greek, I put the first + Hibernian who passed to the test of reading the sentence, which I + am forced to say the indignant Milesian scornfully declined. I + submit the whole question to the researches of your readers. + HEMIPLEGIUS. + +Nay--we know not. 'The Professor' at the Breakfast-Table we do indeed +know, and it is no unwonted thing for us to meet him in Tremont street, +merry and wise as ever. But we have never seen him or any other +Professor 'driven to the wall' in any way whatever; and albeit we +suspect him of a knowledge of whist, we have beheld him pla-carded. We +pass. + + * * * * * + +Do we say too much when we call the following poem truly beautiful? + +WITH FLOWERS. + +MAY MORNING, 1862. + + + Reject them not! they come to plead for me; + When you are cold, 'tis _winter_ in my heart; + Till you are kind, 'sweet May' 'twill never be, + And if you smile, summer will ne'er depart! + + 'My heart is weary,--waiting for the May,' + _So_ sad and weary; will _you_ give it rest? + Not _love_, but _rest_: it is not _much_ to say: + 'Poor, tired child! once more be thou my guest.' + + Forgive my wild and wayward words, forgive! + "We are dying of our thirst--'my heart and I!' + Without love's sunshine, who can care to live? + And when love shines, oh I who can bear to die? + +'Ah! this love!' 'There is not much of it in life,' says Heine; but that +little alone makes life tolerable. Rest, perturbed spirit, rest! In +another land, there is love enough for all. + + +CHIVALRY + +By R. Wolcott; Tenth Regiment + +Not long ago I happened to be one of a number of fair ladies and brave +men assembled at what is called a 'surprise-party.' It was my fortune to +be the attendant cavalier, for the time, of a damsel of romantic +disposition, and, I fear, of somewhat impaired digestive powers. And she +was lamenting, not boisterously, but in a subdued, conversational +manner, that the good old days were gone, 'the days of Chivalry,' when +my lady had her nice little _boo-dwah_ (for the life of me, I didn't +know whether that was something nice to eat or to wear; but I have since +learned that it is something French, and spelt, _b-o-u-d-o-i-r_,) and +was waited upon by handsome pages, and took her airing on a dappled-gray +palfrey, attended by trusty and obsequious grooms; when Sir Knight, +followed by his sturdy henchmen, rode forth in gay and gaudy attire, +with glittering helmet and cuirass, and entered the lists, and bravely +fought for his fair lady's fame. She spoke with fervid eloquence, and +with a glibness that betrayed a very recent perusal of the +tournament-scene in _Ivanhoe_. I was about to reply, and say something +in behalf of modern chivalry; but just then a gentleman claimed her hand +for a quadrille that was forming, and my remarks were cut short. + +If my readers will bear with me, I will attempt to tell them what I was +going to say to my romantic young friend. The days of chivalry are _not_ +gone. Let me remark that this assertion does not apply to the blatant, +nigger-driving article that whilom flourished in Dixie, for that is +about 'played out,' though they still rant and prate about the 'flower +of chivalry.' At Fort Lafayette, there is an herbarium of choice +specimens (rather faded and seedy) of that curious 'yarb;' and at the +old Alton Penitentiary, and at Camp Douglas, Chicago, there are +collections, not so choice and a great deal more seedy. Though +Simon--not he of other notoriety, but another man--Simon Bolivar +Buckner, a sweet-scented pink of Southern chivalry; though he must have +his little fling at us, and call General Grant 'ungenerous and +unchivalrous,' it does not strike me with stunning force that he, +ingrate that he is, and traitor to the government that educated him, is +exactly the one to teach us what chivalry is, or how it ought to treat +vanquished rebels. No, the days of chivalry are _not_ gone. While the +base counterfeit that has so often been thrust upon us by Southern +braggadocios, and indorsed by Northern sneaks and doughfaces, has been +detected, and, thank God! is being thrown out as fast as shot and shell +can knock it out, there never was a greater abundance of the genuine +metal than there is now and here in this land of ours. + +Not alone in war and warlike deeds does modern chivalry show itself. +There is a chivalry in religion, that, in spite of the howlings of +creed-worshipers, dares to throw off the shackles of antiquated and +intolerant dogmas, and believe and teach the religion of humanity, of +'peace on earth and good-will to men.' It is the chivalry in religion +that has smitten and is daily smiting with its gleaming lance the host +of old prejudices, letting in upon us the glorious golden sunshine, +allowing us to revel in it and to see this world as it is, joyous and +beautiful. True, some of the old superstitions that burned the witches +linger in the path, like grim dragons, to frighten us. But they are weak +and toothless, and are fast losing their terrors; and the spirit of +chivalry in religion is marching on, and smiting them one by one, and +one by one they fall. But while men are emancipating themselves from the +ancient errors, it is sad to see that the same bugbears that infested +the path of our great grandparents in the pinafore period of their +existence, are brought to bear upon our children. Especially in +Sabbath-school literature is this manifest. Impossible patterns of piety +and propriety are set before a stout, healthy boy, and he, in the flush +of his lusty life, is taught to believe that the only road to paradise +lies through some pulmonary affection. For the sake of all these dear +little ones, and for the sake of the Master who loved them so well, do +let them have some more natural and healthy mental and moral food! + +And this leads me to speak of literature in general. And have we not a +chivalry here that is working a revolution? And who is the bravest +knight in the field? Who but our own genial Meister Karl-Mace Sloper? +Isn't it glorious though, the way he rides into the lists, and with his +diamond-pointed lance pricks the tender skins of the lackadaisical +poetasters and lachrymose prosy-scribblers of our day! Again, O gallant +leader! smite them again. And fall in, ye who wield the pen! Let the +bugles sound the charge, and let our literature be cleared of Laura +Matildas and Martin Firecracker Splutters forever! + +We approach now a topic that was once nauseating in the extreme, but +which is now robbed of many of its disagreeable features--medicine. Let +it be understood in the beginning, disciple of Hahnemann, I am not +upholding you and your pellets of sugar; by no means. But there have +been some knights of the pill-box who, without rushing into folly, have +leaped the barriers of ignorance and ancient custom that kept them in an +atmosphere odorous of villainous drugs and combinations of drugs, and, +untrammeled by old traditions, have sought and are seeking milder means +of mitigating our bodily ills. All honor to them. They have driven away +the old doctor of our childhood, whose most pleasant smile resembled the +amiable leer that a cannibal might be supposed to bestow upon a plump +missionary. The old curmudgeon, with his huge bottles of mixtures and +his immense boulders--I beg pardon, I should say, _boluses_ of +nastiness--has vanished like a surly ghost at the approach of daylight, +and in his stead we have a gentleman, placid and self-poised, with a +velvet touch and a face beaming with cheerful smiles. And if they have +not made the measles a luxury, they have given us a syrup that children +are said to cry for. + +In the industrial arts, too, there is a spirit of chivalry that is +marching bravely on, overthrowing old notions. What knight of the olden +time ever did as much for his ladye fayre as he did for all womanity who +wrought out the problem of the sewing-machine? How many aching hands and +eyes and hearts has that little instrument, with its musical +_click-click, click-click_, relieved! No more songs of the shirt, no +more wearying of hands and curving of spines over the inner vestments of +mankind. We have changed all that. And every stroke of the pioneer's ax, +as he fells the mighty forest-trees, is a blow struck by the honest and +earnest chivalry of labor, battling with wild nature, carving a way for +civilization's triumphal march. And the cheery whistle of the plowboy, +as he drives his team a-field; the ring of the hammer on the anvil; the +clatter of the busy loom; the scream of the locomotive, as it sweeps +over the land, plunging through the mountains and dashing out across the +prairies--all these are the clarion-notes of modern chivalry's bugles, +ringing through the world in joyous and triumphant tones. + +And this war--who shall tell; what historic pen can record its grand and +glorious chivalry? Is not every one, from the pale young student, fresh +from the breast of _Alma Mater_, to the large-handed and larger-hearted +rustic, with the hay-seed yet in his hair, and the rugged bod-carrier, +redolent of sweat and brick-dust--are not all these, who have come forth +from the field and the workshop, the office and the lecture-room, to +defend the dear old flag, true and gallant knights? There is a boy out +there in the woods, on picket, slowly pacing his lonely beat, with the +tender-eyed stars for company. And as the silent hours pass by, slowly +he turns the leaves of memory's record, lingering over its cherished +pictures, the home-scenes, the fond father and mother, the dear sister, +and the dearer some-one-else's sister. The snapping of a twig startles +him, and hastily brushing away a tear--fond memory's tribute--he +instantly closes the book, and stands, with every sense on the alert, +unflinching, though he knows that each moment may be his last, only +remembering that it is his duty to be faithful, watch well, and fire +low. And though this boy, fair-haired and beardless, may not have passed +the stern ordeal of the battle's fierce shock, though his heart softens +at the thought of his far-off home in the North, yet his young soul is +that of a hero, brave and chivalrous, and in due time his spurs will be +nobly won. Yes, this war is bringing out the grand, heroic traits of our +American character, traits that years of rapid, busy, money-getting life +have thrown into the background, till it really did seem that we were +altogether sordid and selfish. + +In the year that I have been in the service, I have seen and heard of +more individual chivalrous deeds than my romantic and dyspeptic young +friend will find in all the books, from _Amadis de Gaul_ down. Every day +witnesses them. Private letters speak of them as ordinary incidents; a +few get before the public, enjoy a brief newspaper notoriety, and are +forgotten--no, not forgotten entirely; for every brave action lives +somewhere, though it may not be in an official report. A mother's or a +sister's memory cherishes it, and it is handed down to other +generations, an example and an incentive to other brave deeds. + +Then let us have no more sentimental lamentation over the decadence of +chivalry. There is a broad field open to us, for deeds of chivalrous +daring, now, upon the battle-field, amid the fierce clashing of arms. + + 'And many a darkness into the light shall leap, + And shine with the sudden making of splendid names.' + +Afterward, when holy peace shall smile again, there are the pulpit and +the rostrum, the workshop and the forest; and whether we wield the pen, +or the hammer, or the ax, according as we strive to make ourselves and +the world better, so shall we bear the palm of chivalry. + + * * * * * + +The Democratic press made itself convulsively merry over Governor +Andrew, of Massachusetts, for having called out the militia promptly in +the flurry of May 26th. After fairly exhausting its jeering and sneering +on this subject, that portion of the Northern Fourth Estate which would +be termed Satanic and traitorous were it not too utterly white-livered +and cowardly to be complimented with such forcible indices of even bad +character, had a cruel extinguisher clapped upon it on May 29th, by a +letter to the Boston _Journal_ from Lieutenant-Colonel Harrison Kitchie, +A.D.C., in which Governor Andrew is most effectually vindicated by the +simple publication of four telegrams received from Secretary +Stanton--the first two of which were as follows: + + [TELEGRAM I.-COPY] + + 'Washington, May 25th, 1862. + + 'To--GOVERNOR ANDREW: Send all the troops forward that you can + immediately. Banks is completely routed. The enemy are in large + force advancing upon Harper's Ferry. + + EDWIN M. STANTON, 'Secretary of War.' + + * * * * * + + [TELEGRAM II.--COPY] + + 'Washington, May 25th, 1862. + + 'TO THE GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS: Intelligence from various + quarters leaves no doubt that the enemy in great force are + advancing on Washington. You will please organise and forward + immediately all the volunteer and militia force in your State. + + 'EDWIN M. STANTON, 'Secretary of War.' + +How Governor Andrew could have been true to his duty and have acted +otherwise than he did after receiving such commands, must be settled by +those 'gossips of the mob' who, incapable of appreciating the nobility +of a prompt fulfillment of duty, measure every thing military by the +amount of melo-dramatic _denouement_ to which it leads. We trust that +after this effectual 'counter' we may hear a little less carping at +Governor Andrew, who has shown from the beginning an energy and +perseverance, a promptness in emergency, and a patriotism which, when +the history of this war comes to be written, will reflect the highest +honor upon his name. + + * * * * * + +He who sends us the following, is worthy to bear a crow-sier as one of +the Faithful: + +BOTH BARRELS INTO 'EM: + +If old Squire Price had any one bump of phrenology developed more than +another, it was CORVICIDE, or, KILL-CROWATIVENESS. From corn-planting to +husking-time, from dewy morn until evening more than due, he might be +seen dodging behind fences, crawling around barns, stalking along in the +high grass, with a long single-barreled old gun, trying to get a shot at +the black thieves of crows that were forever at work on his old, sandy +farm. + +'What cause have you, my aged friend,' Brother Hornblower once said to +him, '_What_ cause have _you_ to molest these birds, as 'toil not, +neither do they spin'?' + +'I tell yer what,' answered the Squire, shaking his head with savage +jerks, 'come down to my house ary moruin' airly, you'll hear _caws_!' + +Brother Hornblower smiled grimly and walked gently away, after that, to +get the evening paper at the grocery-post-office. He set his face +against jokes--unless they were serious ones. + +Whether it was Brother Hornblower's words, or more crows than usual, the +neighbors around Squire Price's farm were regaled for two days after the +above talk, with such constant explosions of gunpowder that it was +surmised the Squire must have bought 'a hull kag o' powder, and got some +feller to help him shoot.' The consequence of this energy was, that the +persecuted devil's-canaries flew away to other farms where powder was +scarce-first and foremost descending in flocks on Brother Hornblower's +lands, and digging up his young corn--it was in the month of May--until +even _he_ found cause to go at these birds as don't spin; for he found +out that they toiled most laboriously. Being a man of peaceful +disposition, and opposed to the use of fire-arms, he thought over a plan +by which fire-logs might be used with great advantage to his own +benefit, by destroying a large number of crows at one fell blow. How he +succeeded in this _fell_-blow, was told a few evenings afterward in the +grocery-post-office, by young Tyler, a promising youth who had not, as +they say of other sad dogs, 'quite got his set yet,' that is, attained +completion in figure and carriage. Seated on the edge of a barrel +half-filled with corn, and cutting a piece of pine-wood to one sharp +point only to be followed by another sharp point, he was talking to +another youth in a desultory manner, about his intentions 'to go by +water,' in old Bizzle's schooner, next trip she took, when Squire Price +came in to get his daily newspaper, _The Beantown Democrat_. + +'You bin givin' them crows partikler hail, hain't you, Squire?' asked +Tyler the youthful. + +'Wal, about as much as they kin kerry,' answered the Squire. 'They +hain't bin squawkin' round my prem'ses none to speak of lately.' + +'They bin roond Brother Horublower's, thick as pison, though,' said +Tyler. 'He counted on killin' 'bout a milyon on 'em yesserday--on-ly he +didn't quite come it.' + +'Thought he wouldn't never fire no guns at 'em!' + +'Put a couple o' barrils into 'em yesserday.' + +'Why, how you talk! You don't mean it?' + +'Honor bright! He got a big travers on 'em--leastwise, thought he had. +His brindle kaow, she got pizened night afore last, down there in the +woods; couldn't do nuthin with her, and she died same night. So he goes +and skins her, and throws her out into that gully down there, back o' +Bizzle's wood, and says he to me--for I was over there workin' for +him--says he, 'There'll be a power o'crows onto her t'morrer, and I +calc'late I'll fix a few on 'em--I will!' So next mornin'-that was +yesserdoy-we went out bright and airly, and rigged up a kind o' blind at +the side of the gully, right over the old carcass, Then we got our +amminishun all ready--both barrils all loadid.' + +'By jing!' said the Squire, rubbing his hands, 'I wish I'd bin there.' + +'Got all ready. Purty soon up comes one crow, sails round and round, +then two or three more, then a few more; they begun to smell meat. Then +they flew lower and lower; bime by one settles onto an old dead cedar +and begins cawin' for dear life. Then down he comes, then more and more +of 'em. Round they come, cawin' and flappin' their wings, clouds of 'em. +Guess there was 'bout two hundred settled onto that old kaow.' + +'Wish I'd bin there with my gun!' spoke the Squire, intensely excited. +'A feller could have made the most biggest kind of a shot.' + +'Wal, we waited, and waited, till the old kaow was black as pitch with +'em. Then Hornblower he nudges me. We got both barrils all ready--big +loads in 'em. 'Fire!' says he. I braced my leg up agin my barril; he +braced his leg up agin his barril--' + +'W-w-what?' said the Squire. + +'We give the most all-firedest shove--and over we went, barrels, stones, +dirt, and gravil, head-fo'most, spang into them crows and dead kaow! I +tell you, for about five minutes I calc'late I never seed sitch fuss, +feathers, dirt, and gravil, and kaow-beef flyin' as I did then. Things +was mixed up most promiscussedly, you can bet yer life on it! Bime by I +sort o' come to, and when I raised up I found I was sittin' onto four +dead, crushed crows, Brother Hornblower, and kaow-meat gin'rally. So I +dug out and lifted up the game--Brother Hornblower first off. When he +cum round a little, says he: + +"T-T-Tyler, I con-ceive somethin's give way 'bout these parts!' + +"You air about right in your suppostishuns,' says I; 'the gravil bank's +busted, and it's a marcy we an't in kingdom kum!' + +"Don't talk that way,' says he; 'let's go up and fire a cupple barrels +more into the blastid rebbils, fur vengenz.' + +"No yer don't, this mornin', as I knows on,' said I; 'I've got enough +shootin craws your fashun. Next time I go shootin' crows 'long any +boddy, I'm goin' to do it Christian-fashun, with gun-barrils, and not +blastid old flour-barrils filled with gravil. That kind o' shootin' +don't suit my style o' bones--'speehally head-fo'most inter a dead +kaow!" + +'On-ly four crows killt!' said the Squire, with a groan. 'To think what +a feller might have done, if he had only have spread his-self +judishuslously as he came tumblin' onto 'em spang! Wal!' (looking +cheeringly to young Tyler,) 'you couldn't do more'n fire both barrils +into 'em, ef they was flour-barrils, could you?' + + * * * * * + + THE LEGEND OF JESUS AND THE MOSS. + + + In the desert of Engedi + Lies a valley deep and lone; + Softly there the mild air slumbered, + Lovely there the sunlight shone. + In the bosom of this valley, + By the path that leads across, + Lay a modest velvet carpet + Of the finest, softest moss. + + But the careless traveler, passing, + Heedless of it went his way; + Thus this miracle of beauty + Lone in hidden glory lay. + Bloom and sunshine, sweeter, brighter, + Him from distant mountains greet; + On to that the stranger hurries, + Past the moss-bed at his feet. + + Then the moss-bed sighed, complaining + To the evening dew that fell; + And its tufted bosom heaving, + Thus its 'plains began to tell: + 'Ah! men love you, bloom and sunshine, + Long its rosy glow to see, + Feed their eyes on luring flowers + Whilst their feet tread rude on me!' + + Now, when mellow rays of sunset + Lingered golden on the trees, + Came a weary pilgrim slowly + From the bordering forest leas. + This was JESUS, just returning + From his fast of forty days; + Worn by Satan's fierce temptations, + He for rest and comfort prays. + + Sore his sacred feet are blistered, + Wandering o'er the desert-sands; + Torn and bleeding from the briers, + Sufferings which the curse demands. + When he came upon the moss-bed, + Soon he felt how cool and sweet + Lay the soft and velvet carpet + 'Neath his wounded, bleeding feet. + + 'Then he paused and spake this blessing: + 'Gift of my kind Father's love! + Fret not, little plant, thy record + Shineth in the book above. + By the careless eye unheeded, + Bear thy lowly, humble lot; + Thou hast eased my weary walking, + Thou art ne'er in heaven forgot.' + + Scarcely had he breathed this blessing + On the moss that soothed his woes, + When upon its bosom gathered, + Budded, bloomed, a lovely rose! + And its petals glowed with crimson + Like the clouds at close of day; + And a glory on the mosses + Like the smile of cherubs lay. + + Then said JESUS to the flower: + 'Moss-rose--this thy name shall be-- + Spread thou o'er all lands, the sweetest + Emblem of humility. + Out of lowly mosses budding, + Which have soothed a pilgrim's pain, + Thou shalt tell the world what honor + All the lowly, lovely gain.' + + Hear his words, ye lonely children, + By the world unseen, unknown; + Wait ye for the suffering pilgrim, + Coming weary, faint, and lone. + Keep your hearts still soft and tender, + Like the velvet bed of moss; + God will bless the love you render, + To some bearer of the cross. + + * * * * * + +In our May number we spoke old Englishly of the Boston demoiselle. In +the present number we have: + +YE PHILADELPHIA YOUNGE LADYE. + + +Ye Philadelphia young ladye 1s not evir of ruddie milke and blonde hew, +like unto hir cosyn of Boston, natheless is shee not browne as a +chinkapinn or persymon like unto ye damosylles of Baltimore. Even and +clere is hir complexioun, seldom paling, and not often bloshing, whyeh +is a good thynge for those who bee fonde of kissing, sith that if ther +mothers come in sodanely ther checkes wyll not be sinful tell-tayles of +swete and secrete deeds. Of whych matter of blushing itt is gretely to +the credyt of the Philadelphienne that shee blosheth not muche, sith +that Aldrovandus, and as methynketh also, Mizaldus in his _Mirabile +Centuries_, doe affirme thatt not to bloshe is a sign of noble bloods +and gentyl lineage--for itt may bee planely seene that every base-borne +churle's daughter blosheth, if thatt yee give hir a poke under ye chinn, +whereas ye countesse of highe degre only smileth sweetlie and sayth +merily, '_Aha! messire--tu voys que mon joly couer est endormy_!' for +shee well knoweth that a gentyllman, like ye kynge, can doe noe wronge. + +The Philadelphienne dressyth not in garments like unto Joseph, his cote +of manie colors, nethir dothe shee put on clothes whych look from afar +off like geographie-mapps, where the hues are as well assortyd as iff a +paint-mill had bursten and scattered the piggments all pele-mele into +everlastynge miscellayneous scatteratioun. For shee doth greately go inn +for subdued ratt-color, milde mouse-tints, temperate tea-caddy tones, +moderate mode--dyes, gentyll gray--shades, tranquill drabb--tinges, +temperate tawny, calm graye, sober ashie, pacifyed slate, mitigated dun, +lenientlie dingie, and blandlie cinereous chromattics, since shee hadd a +Quakir grandmother on the one syde, ande is too superblie proude on the +other, 'to make a pecocke of hirselfe,' as shee wyll telle you whann +thatt yee be spattered with the water whych is jetted from hose over ye +pavementes. Hee thatt woulde see manye of these swete beeings, shoulde +walke in Chestnutt strete whyles thatt shee goeth to shopp, or promenade +in Walnutt strete, on Sundaye. And if he can telle mee of a citie on +earthe where one can see more prettye, tiny feete, in neater shoos or +gaytered bootes, thann hee may then beholde, I wolde fayne knowe where +itt is, thatt I maye go there too. + +Muche loveth shee little tea-parties where onlie girles bee; and to have +ye gentylmen come, aske: 'Damsylle, wherefore walke ye nott in gayer +garmentes?' Soe thatt itt often comes to passe thatt whenn walkyng in ye +Broade Waye of New-Yorke, yee can tell a Philadelphienne by hir sober +yet rich garbe, so that ye Cosmopolite sayth: '_Per ma fe!_ thatt is a +ladye, I know shee is, by the waye shee lookes.' And trulie, as Dan +Chaucer sayeth, shee is one: + + 'Well seemed by her apparaile, + She is not wont to great travaile, + And whan she kempt is fetously, + And well arraied and richely. + Then hath shee done all her journee, + Gentyll and faire indede is shee!' + +Ye Philadelphia younge ladye loveth to ryde of pleasaunte afternoones +out untoe Pointe Breeze, adown ye Necke, in ye Parke, or along ye +wynding Wissahickon. Peradventure shee goeth whyles with a beau who +speaketh unto hir of love, to whych shee listeneth wyth tendir grace, +and replyeth with art, untill thatt they have builded upp betwene them a +flirtacioun. From tyme to tyme hee makyth a punn, and shee cryeth, +'Shame!' but itt shames him never a whitt or jott--nay, hee goeth on and +maketh yett anothir--ofttimes untill ye horse takyth frighte and runneth +awaie. Yett for all this she liketh hym still, so grete is ye love of +woman and so enduring hir constancye. + +Att other tymes shee ridoth farr and wyde in ye hors-carrs, since in her +natyve towne shee can go manye miles for five cents, and two pence whenn +shee takes ye other carr. Specially doth shee do this on Saturday +forenoons, else weare her neat clothes all in ye evenyng. Then they +speke of the newes of ye daye, and praise General! Mac Lellan, and +gossipp of ye laste greate partie, where Dorsey dyd serve so well ye +terrapines and steamed oysters, and howe thatt itt is verament and trewe +thatt Miss Porridge is to live, after hir marriage, in a howse in Locust +strete, or peradventure in Spruce, or in Pyne, for in this towne all the +stretes are of woode, albeit ye houses are all of bricke. + +Ye Philadelphienne spekythe more slowlie in hir speeche than dothe ye +New-Yorkere, and ever callyth a calf a caeff, and a laugh a laeff, which +soundeth far more sweetlie, even like the _lingua Toscana in bocca +Romana._ Shee loveth ye opera even as shee loveth ye ice-creme, whych +shee buyeth at Mrs. Burns's, or old Auntie Jackson's, where shee often +goeth of warm sumer-nightes. Shee is graceful in hir miene, and gracious +in hir manner--trulie, in all ye worlde I know of none sweeter in this +laste itemm. And thatt shee may ever keepe up hir pleasante fame for +beinge ladyly, gentyll, and fayre, is the herte's prayere of + +CLERKE NICHOLAS. + + * * * * * + +GALLI VAN T is again active in setting forth the rural trials and +troubles of artists--which it seems are many. Listen! + +DEAR CONTINENTAL: 'Twas in the merry summer-tide, some seven years +since, when I went with a friend catching trout and sketching scenery in +the valley of the Connecticut. + +We thought we knew the value of a lovely view. + +We didn't. + +True, we could appreciate it to a dollar, when transferred to canvas. +Otherwise we had much to learn. + +C. Pia, Esq., and myself were hard at it one morning--making such +beautiful sketches, and doing it all with nothing but just a +lead-pencil and some paper--as a young admirer of our works was wont to +assure her friends. Suddenly appeared a man of great muscle, with pie +dish shirt-collar, and a canister-shot-eyed bull-terrier, gifted with +seven-tiger power of biting. + +'Stop that are!' was his courteous salutation. + +'Stop what?' + +'Stop making them are d--d picters. I don't have no such doings reound +here!' + +I looked at C. Pia--he was venomous and unterrified, and I felt +encouraged. So I firmly asked the intruder what he meant. + +'I mean what I say. There's property there that I'm a goin' to buy. I +know what you're arter. You're makin picters of the place for that are +in-fernal Kernal Smith who owns the land, so's he can show 'em round and +pint out the buildin' lots. And I'll jest lick you like ---- if you dror +another line!' + +'See here, young man,' quoth I, 'I've something to say to you. In the +first place you're a scamp who would keep a gentleman from getting a +fair price for his own property. Secondly, you're an ignorant fellow and +don't know what you're talking about. I never heard of your Colonel +Smith--I'm not drawing up real estate lots or plots of any kind. +Thirdly, I solemnly swear by Minos, Alianthus, Rhododendron, +Nebuchadnezzar, and all the infernal gods, that if you touch a hair of +our heads I'll see Colonel Smith--I'll map the whole property and +advertise it in every newspaper in New-York and Boston till it brings +ten thousand dollars an acre. Now sail in--dog or no dog--we'll settle +_you_, any how.' + +The glare of fury in our visitor's eyes died away as he listened to this +oration. + +'_Thunder!_' he exclaimed; 'what a lot you city fellers with l'arnin' +into you _do_ know! Ten thousand dollars an acre! Ad-ver-ti-sin'! What +an idee! I guess I'll buy the land on a morgidge right away. _Hee, hee, +hee_--it's a first-rate notion--and I _a-dopt_ it. Mister, if you want a +drink o' cider, you can get it at that are red house you see down +yander. Good-mornin'!' + +And off he went. + +'You've made that fellow's fortune--when you ought to have caved his +head in,' remarked C. Pia as the two brutes disappeared. + +'It is the mission of the artist to benefit every body except himself,' +I rejoined. And refilling my pipe I went on with my 'picter.' + +Yours truly, GALLI VAN T. + +Truly 'Art is--well--a--it's a great thing, and hath its many lights and +shadows,' as Phoenix or some body once ascertained. And we trust that +Galli Van T. will continue to depict the same in his peculiarly +affecting style. + + * * * * * + +Among the curiosities of literature which the war has brought forth, one +of the most piquant is a little pamphlet entitled, _Southern Hatred of +the American Government, the People of the North, and Free +Institutions_, recently published by R.F. Wallcut, of Number 221 +Washington street, Boston. It consists entirely of selections from the +columns of Southern newspapers--all of them rabid, and we may very truly +add, ridiculous; especially since the fortunes of war have made so much +of their Bobadil bluster appear like the veriest folly. Many of them are +old acquaintances--who, for instance, can have forgotten the following, +from the Richmond _Whig_? + + 'This war will test the physical virtues of mere numbers. Southern + soldiers ask no better odds than one to three Western and one to + six of the Eastern Yankees. Some go so far as to say that, with + equal weapons, and on equal grounds, they would not hesitate to + encounter twenty times their number of the last.' + +As regards those who go so far, it may be remarked that by this time +they have illustrated Father O'Leary's remark of the people who, not +'belaving in Purgathory, wint further and fared worse.' But there is +more of this 'chivalric' spirit in the same article. For instance, it +doubts 'whether any society since that of Sodom and Gomorrah' [Paris is +entirely too mild an example] 'has been _more thoroughly_ steeped in +_every_ species of vice than that of the Yankees.' Infanticide is hinted +at as prevailing as extensively as in China. The Yankees 'pursue with +envy and malignity every excellence that shows itself among them +unconnected with money; and a gentleman there stands no more chance of +existence than a dog does in the Grotto del Cano!' + +The elegance and refinement of the same editorial from the _Whig_, +appears from the following. A portion, which we omit, is too foully +indecent for republication: + + ' ... The Yankee women, scraggy, scrawny, and hard as whip-cord, + breed like Norway rats, and they fill all the brothels of the + continent.... But they multiply--the only scriptural precept they + obey--and boast their millions. So do the Chinese; so do the + Apisdae, and all other pests of the animal kingdom. Pull the bark + from a decayed log, and you will see a mass of maggots full of + vitality, in constant motion and eternal gyration, one crawling + over one, and another creeping under another, all precisely alike, + all intently engaged in preying upon one another, and you have an + apt illustration of Yankee numbers, Yankee equality, and Yankee + greatness. + + 'We must bring these unfranchised slaves--the Yankees--back to + their true condition. They have long, very probably, looked upon + themselves as our social inferiors--as our serfs; their mean, + niggardly lives--their low, vulgar, and sordid occupations, have + ground this conviction into them. But of a sudden, they have come + to imagine that their numerical strength gives them power--_and + they have burst the bonds of servitude_, and are running riot with + more than the brutal passions of a liberated wild beast. Their + uprising has all the characteristics of a _ferocious, fertile + insurrection_.... They have suggested to us the invasion of their + territory, and the robbery of their banks and jewelry-stores. We + may profit by the suggestion, so far as the invasion goes--_for + that will enable us to restore them to their normal condition of + vassalage, and teach them that cap in hand is the proper attitude + of a servant before his master_.' + +These extracts are from the Richmond _Whig_--a paper beyond all +comparison the most respectable and moderate in the whole South, and by +no means of so little weight or character that its remarks can be passed +by as mere Southern vaunt and idle bluster signifying nothing. It speaks +the deep-seated belief and heartfelt conviction of even the most +intelligent secessionists--for the editor of the _Whig_ is not only one +of these, but one of the most honest and upright men to be found in +Dixie. + +'But,' the reader may ask, 'if the man really _believes_ that Yankees +are serfs, slaves, vassals of the South, where are his eyes, ears, and +common-sense?' Gently, dear reader. When we reflect on the toadying to +the South by Northern doughface Democrats in by-gone years--when we +recall the abominable and incredible servility with which every thing +Southern has been hymned, homaged and exalted--when we remember how +vulgar, arrogant, ignorant Southrons have been adored in doughface +society where gentlemen whom they were not worthy of waiting on were of +but secondary account--when we think of the shallow, pitiful meanness +which induces Northern men to rant in favor of that 'institution' which +they, at least, _know_ is a curse to the whole country--when we see even +now, how, with a baseness and vileness beyond belief, 'democratic' +editors continue to lick the hands which smite them, we do _not_ wonder +that the Southerner, taking the doughface for a type of the whole North, +characterizes all Yankees as serf-like, servile cap-in-hand crawlers and +beggars for patronage. For if we were all of the pro-slavery Democracy, +and especially of those who even now continue to yelp for Southern +rights and grinningly assure patriots that 'under the Constitution they +can do nothing to the South,' we should richly deserve all the scorn +heaped on us by the 'chivalry.' + + * * * * * + +We doubt not that, during this bitter war, many incidents have occurred, +or will occur, quite like that described in the following simple but +life-true ballad: + + FRANK WILSON. + + 'Twas night at the farm-house. The fallen sun + Shot his last red arrow up in the west; + Shadows came wolfishly stealing forth, + And chased the flush from the mountain's crest. + + Night at the farm-house. The hickory fire + Laughed and leaped in the chimney's hold, + And baffled, with its warm mirth, the frost, + As he pried at the panes with his fingers cold. + + The chores were finished; and farmer West, + As he slowly sipped from his foaming mug, + Toasted his feet in calm content, + And rejoiced that the barns were warm and snug. + + Washing the tea-things, with bared white arms, + And softly humming a love refrain; + With smooth brown braids, and cheeks of rose, + Washed and warbled his daughter Jane. + + She was the gift that his dear wife left, + When she died, some nineteen Mays before; + The light and the warmth of the old farm-home, + And cherished by him to his great heart's core. + + A sweet, fair girl; yet 'twas not so much + The fashion of feature that made her so; + 'Twas love's own tenderness in her eyes, + And on her cheeks love's sunrise glow. + + Done were the tea-things; the rounded arms + Again were covered, the wide hearth brushed; + Then from the mantle she took some work, + 'Twas a soldier's sock, and her song was hushed. + + Her song was hushed; for tenderer thoughts + Than ever were bodied in word or sound, + Trembled like stars in her downcast eyes, + As she knit in the dark yarn round and round. + + A neighbor's rap at the outer door + Was answered at once by a bluff 'Come in!' + And he came, with stamping of heavy boots, + Frost-wreathed brow and muffled chin. + + Come up to the fire! Pretty cold to-night. + What news do you get from the village to-day? + Did you call for our papers? Ah! yes, much obliged. + What news do you get from our Company K?' + + 'Bad news!--bad news!' He slowly unwinds + His muffler, and wipes his frost-fringed eyes. + 'Frank Wilson was out on the picket last night, + And was killed by some cursed rebel spies.' + + O God! give strength to that writhing heart! + Fling the life back to that whitening cheek! + Let not the pent breath forever stay + From the lips, too white and dumb to speak! + + 'Frank Wilson killed? ah! too bad--too bad, + The finest young man, by far, in this town; + Such are the offerings we give to war, + Jane, draw a fresh mug for our neighbor Brown.' + + Neither did notice her faltering step; + Neither gave heed to her quivering hand, + That awkwardly fumbled the cellar-door, + And spilled the cider upon the stand. + + But the father dreamed, as he slept that night, + That his darling had met some fearful woe; + And he dreamed of hearing her stifled moans, + And her slow steps pacing to and fro. + + II. + + 'Twas an April day, in the balmy spring, + The farmhouse fires had gone to sleep, + The windows were open to sun and breeze, + The hills were dotted with snowy sheep. + + The great elms rustled their new-lifed leaves + Softly over the old brown roof, + And the sunshine, red with savory smoke, + Fell graciously through their emerald woof. + + Sounds--spring sounds--which the country yields: + Voices of laborers, lowing of herds, + The caw of the crow, the swollen brook's roar, + The sportsman's gun, and the twitter of birds, + + Melted like dim dreams into the air; + 'Twas the azure shadow of summer, + Which fell so sweetly on plain and wood, + And brought new gladness to eye and ear. + + But a face looks out to the purple hills, + A wasted face that is full of woe, + Wan yet calm, like a summer moon + That has lost the round of its fullest glow. + + The smooth brown braids still wreathe her head; + Her simple garments are full of grace, + As if, with color and taste, she fain + Would ward off eyes from her paling face. + + 'Tis a morning hour, but the work is done; + The house so peacefully bright within, + And the wild-wood leaves on the mantel-shelf + Tell how busy her feet have been. + + She sits by the window and watches a cloud + Fading away in the hazy sky; + And 'Like that cloud,' she says in heart, + 'When summer is over, I too shall die.' + + The door-yard gate swings to with a clang, + She must not sadden her father so; + She springs to her feet with a merrier air, + And pinches her face to make it glow. + + But ah! no need; for a ruddier red + Than pinches can bring floods brow and cheek; + She stands transfixed by a mighty joy; + For millions of worlds she can not speak. + + Frank Wilson gathers her close to his heart, + With brightening glance, he reads that glow, + And draws from the wells of her joy-lit eyes + The secret he long has yearned to know. + + 'Frank Wilson! living and strong and well; + Were you not killed by the rebels? say!' + 'Thank God! I was not. 'Twas another man-- + There were two Frank Wilsons in Company K.' + + The one church-bell in the distant town + Chimes softly forth for twelve o'clock; + Another clang of the door-yard gate, + A sudden hush in the tender talk. + + She flies to meet him--the transformed child!-- + Her heart keeps time to her ringing tread; + 'O father! he's come!' and she needs no more + To pinch her cheeks to make them red. + + MARIE MIGNIONETTE. + + * * * * * + +A friend who doth such things has kindly jotted down for us the +following 'authentics': + + Sometimes I have thought that the reply our Irish girl gave the + other day, was of the nature of her usual blunders, and again that + it meant a good deal. On her return from a funeral, where a man, + who had previously lost his wife, had buried his only child, an + infant a few weeks old, I asked her how the father appeared? + + 'Oh! he was a dale sorry; but I guess _he's glad to get rid of + it_!' + + _It was only a_ WAY _he had._--Whiggles, on being told that a boy + down-town, only sixteen years old, weighed six hundred and fifty + pounds, was further enlightened by the information that he weighed + that amount of coal on a platform Fairbanks. + + +The Southern press has proposed that, even in case of defeat, the +wealthy class shall retire to their plantations, 'live comfortably' on +what they can raise, let cotton go for two years, and thereby starve +Europe and the North into a conviction that Cotton is King. + +But how will the poor whites of the South like this? What is to become +of _them_? Or what, indeed, is to become of us, if no cotton be +forthcoming? The truth is, and every day makes it more apparent, _the +raising of cotton must pass into other hands_. The _army_ has its +rights--the right to land-grants--and the _only_ effectual means of +putting an end to our dependence on the South will be found in settling +soldiers in the cotton country. Texas would be, perhaps, best suited for +the purpose, and other regions may be selected as opportunity may +suggest. With this course fully determined on, it would hardly be +necessary to further agitate Emancipation, it would come of itself, and +slave-labor would yield to the energy of the free Northern farmer. + +Very little has been said as yet on this subject of properly rewarding +our troops. But it is destined to rise into becoming the great question +of the day; and if the Democratic pro-slavery party sets itself in +opposition to it, it will be ground to powder. Events are tending to +this issue with irresistible and tremendous power, and the days of +planterdom are numbered. + + * * * * * + + + + FOOTNOTES + +[Footnote A: This anecdote has frequently gone the rounds in an +abbreviated form. It may interest the reader to see it in authentic +detail.] + +[Footnote B: Richmond _Examiner._] + +[Footnote C: To which we add, 'An Account of the Proceedings preliminary +to the Organization of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with a +List of the Members thus far associated, and an Appendix, containing +Petitions and Resolutions in aid of the objects of the Committee of +Associated Institutions of Science and Art. Boston, 1861.' Also the +Objects and Courses of Instruction in the Lawrence Scientific School. In +the 'Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Harvard University, for +the Academical Year 1860-1861.' The Editor will hold himself greatly +indebted to any one who will kindly forward him catalogues or +prospectuses relative to any scientific schools or institutes whatever, +either in this country or Europe.] + +[Footnote D: EDUCATIONAL CONDITION--CENSUS 1850. + +Maine, 1 in 3-1/3 +New-Hampshire, " 3-1/2 +Vermont, " 3-1/3 +Michigan, " 3-1/3 +Ohio, " 3-3/4 +New-York, native-born, " 3-3/4 + Aggregate, " 4-1/2 +Massachusetts, native-born, " 3-1/2 + Aggregate, " 4-1/2 +Pennsylvania, native-born, " 4 + Aggregate, " 4-1/2 +Rhode-Island, " 4-1/2 +Connecticut, " 4-1/2 +Indiana, " 4-1/2 +Illinois, " 4-1/2 +Iowa, 1 in 5-1/2 +Florida, " 10 +Louisiana, " 8 +Texas, " 8 +Virginia, " 8 +Alabama, " 7 +Arkansas, " 7 +Georgia, " 7 +Maryland, " 7 +South-Carolina, " 7 +Mississippi, " 6-1/2 +Kentucky, " 6 +Missouri, " 6 +New-Jersey, " 5-1/2 +North-Carolina " 5-1/2 +Wisconsin, " 5-1/2 +Tennessee, " 5 +Delaware, " 5 + +EUROPEAN STATES. + +Denmark, 1 in 4-1/2 +Sweden, " 5-1/2 +Saxony, " 6 +Prussia, " 6-1/4 +Norway, " 7 +Great Britain, " 8-1/2 + Actually receiving instruction, " 7 +Ireland, 1 in 14 +Belgium, " 8-1/2 +France, " 10-1/2 +Austria " 13-3/4 +Holland, " 14-3/4 +Greece, " 18 +Russia, " 50 +Portugal, " 81 +Spain, Not known. + +FREE COLORED POPULATION--UNITED STATES. + +Maine, 1 in 5 +Rhode-Island, " 6-1/2 +Massachusetts, " 6-1/4 +New-Hampshire, " 7 +Vermont, 1 in 8 +Connecticut, " 6 +Pennsylvania, " 8 +New-York, " 9 + +It may be seen, by the foregoing table, that a thorough system of +education for the masses requires that one third of the aggregate +population should be kept at school for a goodly portion of the year. +This is essential, under Democratic Government, in order to bring each +generation up to the appreciative point.] + +[Footnote E: The free colored population of Charleston in 1860, did not +vary materially from four thousand. The associated value of their +property would give to each $390. Each family or six persons would +possess, according to this estimate, $2840. This would be a full average +of wealth to the free population of the United States--the amount +varying in the different States from $2200 to $2500 to each family of +six persons.] + + + + +DESTINED TO BE THE BOOK OF THE SEASON + + * * * * * + +As published in the pages of THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY, it has been +pronounced by the Press to be + +"SUPERIOR TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN." + +"FULL OF ABSORBING INTEREST." + +"Whether invented or not, True, because true to Life."--HORACE GREELEY. + + * * * * * + +WILL SHORTLY BE PUBLISHED, + +==In a handsome 12mo vol. of 330 pages, cloth, $1,== + +==AMONG THE PINES,== + +BY EDMUND KIRKE. + +(Symbol: Pointing Finger) Read the following Notices from the Press; + +"It contains the most vivid and lifelike representation of a specimen +family of poor South-Carolina whites we have ever read."--E.P. WHIPPLE, +in the _Boston Transcript._ + +"It is full of absorbing interest."--_Whig_, Quincy, III. + +"It gives some curious ideas of Southern Social Life."--_Post_, Boston. + +"The most lifelike delineations of Southern Life ever written."--_Spy_, +Columbia, Pa. + +"One of the most attractive series of papers ever published, and +embodying only facts"--C.C. HAZEWELL, in the _Traveller_, Boston. + +"A very graphic picture of life among the clay-eaters and +turpentine-makers."--_Lorain News_, Oberlle, Ohio. + +"The author wields a ready and graphic pen."--_Times_, Armenia, N.Y. + +"There are passages in it of the most thrilling dramatic +power."--_Journal_, Roxbury, Mass. + +It is the best and most truthful sketch of Southern Life and Character +we have ever read."--R. SURLTON MACKENZIE, in the _Press_, Philadelphia. + +"Has a peculiar interest just now, and deserves a wide +reading."--_Dispatch,_ Amsterdam, N.Y. + +"An intensely vivid description of things as they occur on a Southern +Plantation."--_Union_, Lancaster, Pa. + +"The author is one of the finest descriptive writers in the +country."--_Journal_, Boston, Mass. + +"It presents a vivid picture of Plantation Life, with something of the +action of a character that is more than likely to pass from t story into +history before the cause of the Rebellion is rooted out."--_Gazette._ +Taunton, Mass. + +"A most powerful production, which can not be read without exciting +great and continued interest"--_Palladium_, New Haven. + +PUBLISHED BY + +J.R. GILMORE, + +532 BROADWAY, NEW-YORK, + +And 110 TREMONT STREET, BOSTON + +C.T. EVANS, General Agent + +(Three star image) Orders from the Trade will be filled in the order in +which they are received. + +==Single Copies sent, postpaid, by mail, on receipt of $1.== + + + +THE + +CONTINENTAL MONTHLY. + + * * * * * + +PUBLISHER'S NOTICE. + + * * * * * + +THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY has passed its experimental ordeal, and stands +firmly established in popular regard. It was started at a period when +any new literary enterprise was deemed almost foolhardy, but the +publisher believed that the time had arrived for just such a Magazine. +Fearlessly advocating the doctrine of ultimate and gradual Emancipation, +for the sake of the UNION and the WHITE MAN, it has found favor in +quarters where censure was expected, and patronage where opposition only +was looked for. While holding firmly to _its own opinions_, it has +opened its pages to POLITICAL WRITERS of _widely different views_, and +has made a feature of employing the literary labors of the _younger_ +race of American writers. How much has been gained by thus giving, +practically, the fullest freedom to the expression of opinion, and by +the infusion of fresh blood into literature, has been felt from month to +month in its constantly increasing circulation. + +The most eminent of our Statesmen have furnished THE CONTINENTAL many of +its political articles, and the result is, it has not given labored +essays fit only for a place in ponderous encyclopedias, but fresh, +vigorous, and practical contributions on men and things as they exist. + +It will be our effort to go on in the path we have entered, and as a +guarantee of the future, we may point to the array of live and brilliant +talent which has brought so many encomiums on our Magazine. The able +political articles which have given it so much reputation will be +continued in each issue, and in this number is commenced a new Serial by +Richard R. Kimball, the eminent author of the 'Under-Currents of Wall +Street,' 'St. Leger,' etc., entitled, + + +WAS HE SUCCESSFUL? + +An account of the Life and Conduct of Hiram Meeker, one of the leading +men in the mercantile community, and 'a bright and shining light' in the +Church, recounting what he did, and how he made his money. This work +which will excel the previous brilliant productions of this author. + + The UNION--The Union of ALL THE STATES--that indicates our + politics. To be content with no ground lower than the highest--that + is the standard of our literary character. + +We hope all who are friendly to the spread of our political views, and +all who are favorable to the diffusion of a live, fresh, and energetic +literature, will lend us their aid to increase our circulation. There is +not one of our readers who may not influence one or two more, and there +is in every town in the loyal States some native person whose time might +be profitably employed in procuring subscribers to our work. To +encourage such to act for us we offer the following very liberal + +TERMS TO CLUBS. + +Two copies for one year,....................................Five dollars. +Three copies for one year,..................................Six dollars. +Six copies for one year,....................................Eleven dollars. +Eleven copies for one year,.................................Twenty dollars. +Twenty copies for one year,.................................Thirty-six dollars. + +PAID IN ADVANCE + +_Postage, Thirty-six Cents a year_, TO BE PAID BY THE SUBSCRIBER. + +SINGLE COPIES. + +Three Dollars a year, IN ADVANCE.--_Postage paid by the Publisher._ + +J.R. GILMORE, 532 Broadway, New-York, +and 110 Tremont Street, Boston. + +CHARLES T. EVANS, 532 Broadway, New-York, +GENERAL AGENT. + +Number 8. 25 Cents + +The + +Continental + +Monthly + +Devoted to Literature and National Policy. + + * * * * * + +AUGUST, 1862. + + * * * * * + +NEW-YORK AND BOSTON: + +J.R. GILMORE, 532 BROADWAY, NEW-YORK, + +AND 110 TREMONT STREET, BOSTON. + +NEW-YORK: HENRY DEXTER AND SINCLAIR TOUSEY. + +PHILADELPHIA: T.B. CALLENDER AND A. WINCH. + +CONTENTS.--No. VIII. + + * * * * * + +Among the Pines. (Concluded,) 127 + +Southern Rights, 143 + +Maccaroni and Canvas, 144 + +Glances from the Senate-Gallery, 154 + +The Last Ditch, 159 + +Rewarding the Army, 161 + +John McDonogh, the Millionaire, 165 + +Helter-Skelter Papers, 175 + +Sketches of the Orient, 179 + +Witches, Elves, and Goblins, 184 + +A True Romance, 190 + +Huguenots of New-York City, 193 + +The Bane of our Country, 198 + +The Molly O'Molly Papers, 200 + +Wounded, 206 + +Astor and the Capitalists of New-York, 207 + +Thunder all Round, 217 + +Was he Successful? 218 + +A Merchant's Story, 232 + +Corn is King, 237 + +Literary Notices, 238 + +Editor's Table, 241 + + * * * * * + +A MERCHANT'S STORY, + +By the author of 'Among the Pines,' which is begun in this number, will +be continued in each issue of THE CONTINENTAL until it is completed. It +will depict Southern White Society, and be a truthful history of some +eminent Northern Merchants, who are largely in 'the cotton trade and +sugar line.' + + * * * * * + +ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by JAMES H. +GILMORE, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United +States for the Southern District of New-York. + + * * * * * + +JOHN A. GRAY, PRINTER. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Continental Monthly, Vol. II. July, +1862. No. 1., by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONTINENTAL MONTHLY *** + +***** This file should be named 16272.txt or 16272.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/2/7/16272/ + +Produced by Cornell University, Joshua Hutchinson, Janet +Blenkinship and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/16272.zip b/16272.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d948e78 --- /dev/null +++ b/16272.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f0e85df --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #16272 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16272) |
