THE CONSCRIPT LAW AND HOW THE WRITER BEAT IT.
Three years and more of war had now passed, and we had succeeded in
flanking all movements to get us into the army. The conscript law
had been in force a year or two, sweeping all ages from eighteen
to forty-five, and all classes except ministers of religion in
regular discharge of ministerial duties, State and county officers,
and slaveholders owning a certain number of slaves, fifteen being
the minimum. Of course, it being the slaveholder's war, and the
slaveholder never having been obliged to work for his rights in human
chattels and things, but others made to produce and maintain them for
him, his aristocratic leisure must be consulted and favored still,
in the conduct of the war. _It was the slaveholder's war, but the
poor man's fight._ And nothing pleased them better than to force a
Northern man, described in their parlance--"a d--d Yankee, and a d--d
abolitionist"--into the army, and get him killed off.
The writer has been asked a hundred and one times: "How did you
escape the army?" The question is easily answered. After the first
volunteering wild-fire had swept over the land and died out, he saw
what would be the next step in the war programme, conscription. "The
wise man seeth the evil and fleeth," says the prince of wise men. And
though he did not flee in the literal sense, yet he did in the legal
sense of the coming conscript law, by changing his "base" from that of
a simple private citizen to that of a minister of religion; and had his
regular congregation, to whom he ministered over two years. By this
_dernier_ resort, he bridged over a bad place in the road--for "Jordan
was a hard road to travel"--and he was on the hardest part of the road
in those days.
But as late as February, 1865, a new exemption law was reported to the
Confederate Congress, and on the eve of being passed, containing this
clause: "All ministers of religion, who have, at any time during the
war, bought and sold for profit, shall go into the army." This law was
reported to Congress by Mr. Miles, of South Carolina, Chairman of the
Military Committee. But we were credibly informed the Hon. Williamson
S. Oldham, representative from our Congressional District, drafted
it, and inserted the clause relating to ministers of religion, with
particular reference to the writer's case. The Hon. gentleman had spent
two hours or more in our store, the day before leaving the last time
for Richmond, Virginia, to dance attendance upon the last and forlorn
session of the Confederate Congress. And having posted himself in our
case, he concluded that business clergymen were the forlorn hope of
the Confederacy. The animus of the law was that ministerial drones
only, who would not work, but preferred starvation, or living off their
broken-down congregations, were entitled to exemption from military
duty. But the more enterprising class of ministers, who were willing to
divide financial burdens with their congregations, by seeking business
pursuits, for supporting themselves and families, and yet giving them
the same amount of pulpit service, with the drones, were damaged by the
virtue of business enterprise, and held to the performance of military
duty.
This looked like the impassable gulf which we could neither cross
nor flank. But Solomon's forlorn hope of "fleeing" was left us, and
we made a hasty and masterly retreat out of Texas into Mexico.
The retreat, however, like all hasty retreats, was expensive and
financially disastrous. We had no time to strike tent, gather up
family and material interests, and take with us. It was the occasion
of finally losing thousands of dollars. But when safe on the sunset
side of the Rio Grande, in Matamoras, the Confederate asthma left us,
and we breathed freer. But not long after, we found that though we had
escaped the Confederate "frying pan," we had jumped into the Mexican
"fire," for the demon of war was after us there. The city was under
the personal command of General Mejia, the favorite General of the
Emperor Maximilian, and who, the reader will remember, perished with
his imperial master at the tragic close of the quasi Empire. And at
the time we speak of, the city was beleagured by Generals Canales and
Cortinas, of the Liberal party, on the outside. The report was put in
circulation that the foreign residents must help defend the city. This
was the most dangerous ground yet, for in case of the capture of the
city, the foreigners in arms, just at sunrise some fine Sunday morning,
would have been filed out on "Boro Plaza," and shot to death without
"benefit of clergy." The public shooting of one or more on this plaza
was generally the opening entertainment of each Sunday. From shooting
all went to High Mass, then to carrying the host through the streets;
thence to the cockfights, beer-garden dances, theaters and other
amusements the balance of the day.
The writer found that long familiarity with such scenes resulted in
a demoralization of noble sentiment and refined feelings; so that
at last one came to regard human life not much above the level of
brutes, and to feel that there is no virtue except in name, and that
the distinction of right and wrong is only relative and conventional,
having no absolute and universal foundation in truth and equity. Indeed
the Romish Church of Mexico--and no other is there--seemed to act and
move on this broad assumption, as she does everywhere, when permitted
to act out her nature freely, that truth and right are not absolute
things as they relate to mankind, but are to be held subject to her
_dictum_ and disposal. Hence the same thing may be right or wrong at
the same time, depending only on the circumstance of being allowed or
disallowed by the Church. Here comes in the plausible, yet mischievous
doctrine and dispensation of indulgences. There is but a step betwixt
truth and error, betwixt the sublime and the ridiculous.
The Rev. Dr. L----n, from Nashville, Tennessee, a Cumberland
Presbyterian divine, and the writer, joined in a petition to his
Imperial Majesty, Maximilian, for a free permit to hold religious
services as Protestants in the city of Matamoras. The petition was
granted, and soon after it was followed by a proclamation from the
Emperor, decreeing religious freedom to all throughout the Empire,
including foreigners. This was doubtless a species of _religio
coup d'etat_, intended for effect; but more abroad than at home,
particularly in the United States. However we took advantage of it for
a few weeks in the city; and held services in the "Varieties' Theater,"
each Sunday morning, for the benefit of the Anglo-American population.
But after the fourth Sunday we began to feel the bitterness of the
native population toward us. And this, in connection with the danger
that the city might fall into the hands of the Liberals, who were less
liberal in religion than the Imperials, caused us to discontinue the
religious services. And though so soon defeated, yet we felt a little
wholesome pride in the fact that we were the first Protestant heretics
that ever bearded the Romish Lion in his Mexican den. The city remained
in Imperial hands till we left.