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PRICE, TWENTY-FIVE CENTS.
No. 1. SERIAL. August, 1861.
Fuller’s Modern Age.
DEVOTED TO
Sermons, Orations, Lectures, Popular Correspondence, &c.
THE
CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA;
BY
WM. H. RUSSELL, LL.D.,
Special Correspondent of the London Times.
BOSTON:
GARDNER A. FULLER, 112 WASHINGTON STREET.
LONDON: Trubner & Co., 60 Paternoster Row.
STEREOTYPE EDITION.
No. TWO WILL CONTAIN A SECOND SERIES OF MR. RUSSELL’S
LETTERS. A LIBERAL DISCOUNT TO THE TRADE.☜
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.:
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THE
CIVIL WAR
IN
AMERICA:
BY
WM. H. RUSSELL, LL.D.,
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE
LONDON TIMES.
BOSTON:
GARDNER A. FULLER,
No. 112 Washington Street.
THE MODERN AGE.
In presenting the first number of the _Modern Age_ to the public, I have
selected the letters of Mr. Russell, deeming them the most appropriate
topic for the times, and worthy of an extensive circulation.
That these letters are written by the most interesting correspondent of
the largest, ablest, and most influential paper in the world, is
sufficient proof of their merits, and that they come to us “well
recommended and properly vouched for.”
The universal “desire for more light” in regard to affairs in the South,
will find abundant satisfaction in this brilliant and talented
correspondence of a writer, whose chirographical experience in the
Crimean war, has so eminently fitted him “to render a fair and impartial
account” of the Civil War in America.
Number two of the _Modern Age_ will contain another serial of Mr.
Russell’s letters, at the close of which I shall introduce popular
Orations and occasional Sermons from our most eminent Divines. The
principal design of this work is to preserve in the most convenient form
the best thoughts, fresh from the lips of our most gifted men: its
peculiar character will prevent a regular monthly publication; yet I
hope to be able from the many reports, to elect twelve in the course of
a year. No pains will be spared in my endeavors to make it the best and
most attractive work of its kind in the country, and I trust it will
meet with much favor at the hands of a generous public.
G. A. FULLER.
THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
LETTER I.
WASHINGTON, March 29, 1861.
IF the intelligent foreigner, who is supposed to make so many
interesting and novel observations on the aspect of the countries he
visits, and on the manners of the people among whom he travels, were to
visit the United States at this juncture, he would fail to detect any
marked indication of the extraordinary crisis which agitates the members
of the Great Republic, either at the principal emporium of its commerce,
or at the city which claims to be the sole seat of its Government.
Accustomed to the manifestation of violent animosity and great
excitement among the nations of Europe during political convulsions, he
would be struck with astonishment, if not moved to doubt, when, casting
his eyes on the columns of the multitudinous journals which swarm from
every printing-press in the land, he read that the United States were in
such throes of mortal agony, that those who knew the constitution of the
patient best, were scarce able to prophesy any result except final
dissolution. It would require such special acquaintance as only those
well versed in the various signs and forms of the dangerous influences
which are at work can possess, to appreciate from anything to be seen at
New York or Washington, the fact that the vast body politic which sprang
forth with the thews and sinews of a giant from the womb of rebellion
and revolution; which claimed half the New World as its heritage, and
reserved the other as the certain reward of future victory; which
extended its commerce over every sea, and affronted the antiquity of
international law by bold innovations and defiant enumerations of new
principles; which seemed to revel in success of doctrines that the
experience of the Old World had proved to be untenable, or had rejected
as unsuited to the government of mankind; which had developed all the
resources of the physical agencies in manufactures, machinery,
electricity, and steam, that could give strength, and wealth, and vigor
to its frame;--that this mighty Confederation should suddenly be smitten
with a desire to tear its limbs asunder, and was only restrained by the
palsy that had smitten some of its members. Certainly no notion of the
kind could be formed from actual observation of the words and deeds of
men in the cities I have visited, or from any source of information,
except the casual conversations of fellow travellers, or the startling
headings in the newspapers, which have, however, reduced “sensation”
paragraphs and lines to such every-day routine, that the American is no
more affected by them than the workman in the proof-house is moved by
the constant explosion of cannon. We are accustomed to think the
Americans a very excitable people; their personal conflicts, their rapid
transitions of feeling, the accounts of their public demonstrations,
their energetic expressions, their love of popular assemblies, and the
cultivation of the arts, which excite their passions, are favorable to
that notion. But New York seems full of divine calm and human phlegm. A
panic in Wall Street would, doubtless, create greater external
disturbance than seemed to me to exist in its streets and pleasant
mansions. No doubt there is, and must be, very great agitation of
feeling, and much apprehension; but to the stranger they are not very
patent or visible. An elegant refinement, which almost assumes the airs
of pococuranteism, reigns in society, only broken by the vehement voices
of female patriotism, or the denunciations addressed against the
provisions of a tariff, which New York seems unanimous in regarding with
hostility and dismay. If Rome be burning, there are hundreds of noble
Romans fiddling away in the Fifth Avenue, and in its dependencies, quite
satisfied that they cannot join any of the fire companies, and that they
are not responsible for the deeds of the “Nero” or “anti-Nero” who
applied the torch. They marry, and are given in marriage; they attend
their favorite theatres, dramatic or devotional, as the case may be, in
the very best coats or bonnets; they eat the largest oysters, drink the
best wines, and enjoy the many goods the gods provide them, unmoved by
the daily announcement that Fort Sumter is evacuated, that the South is
arming, and the Morrill tariff is ruining the trade of the country. And,
as they say, “What can we do?” “We are,” they insinuate, “powerless to
avert the march of events. We think everybody is wrong. Things were
going on very pleasantly when these Abolitionists disturbed the course
of trade, and commerce, and speculation with their furious fantasies;
and now the South, availing themselves of the opportunity which the
blindness of their enemies has afforded them to do what they have wished
in their hearts for many a year, start in business for themselves, and
will not be readily brought back by the lure of any concession till they
find they are unable to get money to pay their way, and resort to
measures which may be ruinous to capital, or lead to reconstruction of
the Confederation on both sides.”
If, pursuing the researches which such remarks suggest, an investigation
is made in the same stratum of thought by careful exploration, it will
not be long before the miner comes upon matters which he never could
have expected to find in that particular gallery. What are the most
cherished institutions of the Great Republic? If the intelligent
foreigner were asked what were the fundamental principles which,
guaranteed by, and guaranteeing, their Constitution, the people of the
United States admired the most, he would probably reply, “Universal
suffrage (with its incidental exercise of vote by ballot), free
citizenship, a free press.” Probably he would answer correctly in the
main, for he would know more of the matter than I do; but if he visited
New York for a few days, what would be his amazement to see his best
friends shake their heads at the very mention of these grand
Shibboleths! How would his faith be disturbed when he learnt from some
merchant prince that universal suffrage, in its practical working in
that city, had handed over the municipal government to the most
ignorant, if not the most unprincipled men; that it flooded and
submerged the landmarks of respectability and station by a tide of
barbarous immigrant foreigners; that the press had substituted
licentiousness for liberty; and that the evils done in New York by these
agencies afflicted the whole State! Ingenious theorists might attempt to
convince him that the effect of these mischievous elements had been felt
at the very centre of the social system, and had led to the separation
which, be it temporary or permanent, all Northern Americans deplore.
Few, however, would admit that the failure of Republican institutions
is by any means involved in the disasters which have fallen on the
Commonwealth, even when they freely confess that they desire to modify
the Constitution, while they lament the impossibility of doing so in
consequence of the very condition of things it has created. It is my
firm conviction, forced on my mind by the words of many men of note with
whom I have spoken, that they would gladly, if they could, place some
limits to their own liberties as far as their fellow-men are concerned,
and that they begin to doubt whether a Constitution founded on abstract
principles of the equality of mankind can be worked out in huge
cities--veritable _cloacæ gentium_--however successful it was in the
earlier days of the Republic, and as it is in the sparsely inhabited
rural districts where every inhabitant represents property. These men
may be a small minority, but they certainly represent great wealth, much
ability, and high intelligence in the State of which I speak. They
assert there is no recuperative power in the Constitution. The sick
physician cannot heal himself, for he has caused his own illness, and a
Convention, the great nostrum of the fathers of the Republic, is only an
appeal from Philip drunk to Philip mad. “_Volumus leges Americæ
mutari_,” is their despairing aspiration, and they justify the wish by
contrasts between the state of things which existed when the
Constitution was prepared for the thirteen Confederated States and that
which prevails at the present time, when thirty-four States, some two or
three of which are equal to the original Republic, and many of which
declare they are absolute sovereignties; which have absorbed all the
nomads of the Old World, with a fair proportion of Genghis Khans,
Attilas, and Timours in embryo, present a spectacle which the most
sagacious of the framers of the original compact never could have
imagined. They are impatient of the ills they have, and are somewhat
indifferent to the wondrous and magnificent results in material
prosperity and intellectual development which the old system either
promoted or caused. New York, however, would do anything rather than
fight; her delight is to eat her bread and honey, and count her dollars,
in peace. The vigorous, determined hostility of the South to her
commercial eminence, is met by a sort of maudlin sympathy without any
action, or intention to act. The only matter in which the great
commercial aristocracy take any interest is the Morrill tariff, which
threatens to inflict on them the most serious losses and calamity.
There is a general expectation that an extra Session of Congress will be
called to amend the obnoxious measure; and it is asserted that the
necessity for such a Session is imperious; but, so far as I can judge,
all such hopes will be disappointed. There is no desire at Washington to
complicate matters by stormy debates, and the statesmen so recently
elevated to power are sufficiently well read in general and in national
history to know that extraordinary Parliaments are generally the
executioners of those who call them. The representatives of the great
protected interests at the capital deny that the tariff will have the
injurious effects attributed to it, or that it augments to any very
grievous extent the burdens of the New Yorkers or of the foreign
manufacturers. Even if it does, they declare that protection is
necessary. The ingenious proposals to evade the operation of the tariff
by a jugglery of cargoes between the Southern and Northern ports will,
they say, be frustrated by the more rigid application of the Revenue and
Customs’ system, out of which most serious complications must inevitably
arise at no distant period. While at New York all is calm doubtfulness
or indolent anticipation, at Washington there is excitement and
activity. The aristocracy of New York has yielded itself unresistingly
to a tyranny it hates; it cannot wield at will the fierce democracy, and
it abandons all efforts to control it, forgetting the abundant proofs in
every history of the power of genius, wealth, and superior intelligence
to control the heavier masses, however wild and difficult of approach.
At Washington there is at this moment such a ferment as no other part of
the world could exhibit--a spectacle which makes one wonder that any man
can be induced to seek for office, or that any Government can be
conducted under such a system. The storm which rolled over the capital
has, I am told, subsided; but the stranger, unaccustomed to such
tempestuous zones, thinks the gale is quite strong enough even in its
diminished intensity. All the hotels are full of keen gray-eyed men, who
fondly believe their destiny is to fill for four years some pet
appointment under Government. The streets are crowded with them; the
steamers and the railway carriages, the public departments, the steps of
the senators’ dwellings, the lobbies of houses, the President’s mansion,
are crowded with them. From all parts of the vast Union, not even
excepting the South, they have come fast as steam or wind and waves
could bear them to concentrate in one focus on the devoted head of the
President all the myriad influences which, by letter, testimonial,
personal application, unceasing canvass, and sleepless solicitation,
they can collect together.
Willard’s Hotel, a huge caravanserai, is a curious study of character
and institutions. Every form of speech and every accent under which the
English tongue can be recognized, rings through the long corridors in
tones of expostulation, anger, or gratification. Crowds of long-limbed,
nervous, eager-looking men, in loose black garments, undulating shirt
collars, vast conceptions in hatting and booting, angular with documents
and pregnant with demand, throng every avenue, in spite of the printed
notices directing them “to move on from front of the cigar-stand.” They
are “senator hunters,” and every senator has a _clientelle_ more
numerous than the most popular young Roman noble who ever sauntered down
the Via Sacra. If one of them ventures out of cover, the cry is raised,
and he is immediately run to earth. The printing-presses are busy with
endless copies of testimonials, which are hurled at everybody with
reckless profusion.
The writing-room of the hotel is full of people preparing statements or
writing for “more testimonials,” demanding more places, or submitting
“extra certificates.” The bar-room is full of people inspiring
themselves with fresh confidence, or engaged in plots to surprise some
place or find one out; and the ladies who are connected with members of
the party in power find themselves the centres of irresistible
attraction. “Sir,” said a gentleman to whom I had letters of
introduction, “I know you must be a stranger, because you did not stop
me to present these letters in the street.”
At the head of the list of persecuted men is the President himself.
Every one has a right to walk into the White House, which is the
President’s private as well as his official residence. Mr. Lincoln is
actuated by the highest motives in the distribution of office. All the
vast patronage of tens of thousands of places, from the highest to the
lowest, is his; and, instead of submitting the various claims to the
heads of departments, the President seeks to investigate them, and to
see all the candidates. Even his iron frame and robust constitution are
affected by the process, which lasts all day, and is not over in the
night or in the morning. The particular _formula_ which he has adopted
to show the impossibility of satisfying everybody is by no means
accepted by anybody who is disappointed. What is the use of telling a
man he can’t have a place because a hundred others are asking for it, if
that man thinks he is the only one who has a right to get it?
At the very moment when the President and his Cabinet should be left
undisturbed to deal with the tremendous questions which have arisen for
their action, the roar of office seekers dins every sense, and almost
annihilates them. The Senate, which is now sitting merely to confirm
appointments, relieving the monotony of executive reviews with odd
skirmishes between old political antagonists now and then, will, it is
said, rise this week. Around their chamber is the ever-recurring
question heard, “Who has got what?” and the answer is never satisfactory
to all. This hunting after office, which destroys self-respect when it
is the moving motive of any considerable section of a great party, is an
innovation which was introduced by General Jackson; but it is likely to
be as permanent as the Republic, inasmuch as no candidate dares declare
his intention of reverting to the old system. These “spoils,” as they
are called, are now being distributed by two Governments--the _de jure_
and _de facto_ Government of Washington, and the Government erected by
the Southern States at Montgomery.
It is difficult for one who has arrived so recently in this country, and
who has been subjected to such a variety of statements to come to any
very definite conclusion in reference to the great questions which
agitate it. But as far as I can I shall form my opinions from what I
see, and not from what I hear; and as I shall proceed South in a few
days, there is a probability of my being able to ascertain what is the
real state of affairs in that direction. As far as I can judge--my
conclusion, let it be understood, being drawn from the prevailing
opinions of others--“the South will never go back into the Union.” On
the same day I heard a gentleman of position among the Southern party
say, “No concession, no compromise, nothing that can be done or
suggested, shall induce us to join any Confederation of which the New
England States are members;” and by another gentleman, well known as one
of the ablest of the Abolitionists, I was told, “If I could bring back
the Southern States by holding up my little finger, I should consider it
criminal to do so.” The friends of the Union sometimes endeavor to
disguise their sorrow and their humiliation at the prospect presented
by the Great Republic under the garb of pride in the peculiar excellence
of institutions which have permitted such a revolution as Secession
without the loss of one drop of blood. But concession averts bloodshed.
If I give up my purse to the footpad who presents a pistol at my head I
satisfy all his demands, and he must be a sanguinary miscreant if he
pulls trigger afterwards. The policeman has, surely, no business to
boast of the peculiar excellence, in such a transaction, of the state of
things which allows the transfer to take place without bloodshed. A
government may be so elastic as, like an overstretched india-rubber
band, to have no compressive force whatever; and that very quality is
claimed for the Federal Government as excellence by some eminent men
whom I have met, and who maintained the thesis, that the United States
Government has no right whatever to assert its authority by force over
the people of any State whatever; that, based on the consent of all, it
ceases to exist whenever there is dissent,--a doctrine which no one need
analyze who understands what are the real uses and ends of Government.
The friends of the existing administration, on the whole, regard the
Secession as a temporary aberration, which a “masterly inactivity,” the
effects of time, inherent weakness, and a strong reaction, of which,
they flatter themselves, they see many proofs in the Southern States,
will correct. “Let us,” they say, “deal with this matter in our own way.
Do not interfere. A recognition of the Secession would be an
interference amounting to hostility. In good time the violent men down
South will come to their senses, and the treason will die out.” They
ignore the difficulties which European States may feel in refusing to
recognize the principles on which the United States were founded when
they find them embodied in a new Confederation, which, so far as we
know, may be to all intents and purposes constituted in an entire
independence, and present itself to the world with claims to recognition
to which England, at least, having regard to precedents of _de facto_
Governments, could only present an illogical refusal. The hopes of other
sections of the Northerners are founded on the want of capital in the
Slave States; on the pressure which will come upon them when they have
to guard their own frontiers against the wild tribes who have been
hitherto repelled at the expense of the whole Union by the Federal
troops; on the exigencies of trade, which will compel them to deal with
the North, and thereby to enter into friendly relations and ultimate
re-alliance. But most impartial people, at least in New York, are of
opinion that the South has shaken the dust off her feet, and will never
enter the portals of the Union again. She is confident in her own
destiny. She feels strong enough to stand alone. She believes her
mission is one of extension and conquest--her leaders are men of
singular political ability and undaunted resolution. She has but to
stretch forth her hand, as she believes, and the Gulf becomes an
American lake closed by Cuba. The reality of these visions the South is
ready to test, and she would not now forego the trial, which may,
indeed, be the work of years, but which she will certainly make. All the
considerations which can be urged against her resolves are as nothing in
the way of her passionate will, and the world may soon see under its
eyes the conflict of two republics founded on the same principles, but
subjected to influences that produce repulsion as great as exists in two
bodies charged with the same electricity. If ever the explosion come it
will be tremendous in its results, and distant Europe must feel the
shock.
The authorities seem resolved to make a stand at Fort Pickens,
notwithstanding the advice of Mr. Douglass to give it up. They regard it
as an important Federal fortress, as indisputably essential for national
purposes as Tortugas or Key West. Although United States property has
been “occupied,” the store vessels of the State seized, and the
sovereignty of the seceding States successfully asserted by the
appropriation of arsenals, and money, and war materials, on the part of
the local authorities, the Government of Washington are content by
non-recognition to reserve their own rights in face of the exercise of
_force majeure_.
The Chevalier Bertinnati, who has been Chargé d’Affaires for the
Government of King Victor Emmanuel, has been raised to the rank of
Minister, and in that capacity delivered his letters of credence to the
President on Wednesday. The letter addressed to the President by the
King of Piedmont was couched in terms of much friendliness and sympathy,
and Mr. Lincoln’s reply was equally warm. There is no display of
military preparation to meet the eye either at Washington or along the
road to it. General Scott, who was to have dined at the President’s
Cabinet dinner last night, and who was actually in the White House for
that purpose, was compelled to leave by indisposition. Any attempt to
relieve Fort Sumter would unquestionably be attended with great loss of
life; but most Americans readily admit that if they had a foreign force
to deal with, no consideration of that kind would stay the hands of the
Government. The fort stands on a sand-bank in shallow water, and
batteries have been cast up on both shores effectually commanding the
whole of the channels for several miles. The military activity and
enterprise--I hear the skill as well--of the South have been displayed
in the readiness and completeness of their preparations. In Galveston,
Texas, Governor Houston, who has resigned, or been deposed, protests, it
is said, against the acts of the new Government, and is likely to give
them trouble. The telegraph will, however, anticipate any news of this
sort which I can send you, though its intelligence should be received
with many grains of salt. Some people assert that “the telegraph has
caused the Secession,” and there is a strong feeling that some
restrictions should be placed upon the misuse of it in disseminating
false reports.
LETTER II.
WASHINGTON, April 1, 1861.
FROM all I have seen and heard, my belief is that the Southern States
have gone from the Union, if not forever, at least for such time as will
secure for their Government an absolute independence till it be
terminated by war, or, if their opponents be right, by the certain
processes of internal decay arising from inherent vices in their system,
faulty organization, and want of population, vigor, and wealth. That the
causes which have led to their secession now agitate the Border States
most powerfully with a tendency to follow them is not to be denied by
those who watch the course of events, and as these powerful neutrals
oscillate to and fro, under the pressure of contending parties and
passions, the Government at Washington and the authorities of the
revolting States regard every motion with anxiety; the former fearful
lest by word or deed they may repel them forever, the latter more
disposed by active demonstrations to determine the ultimate decision in
their own favor, and to attach them permanently to the Slave States by
resolute declarations of principle. Whatever the results of the Morrill
tariff may be, it is probable they must be endured on both sides of the
Atlantic, for there is no power in the Government or in the President,
as I understand, to modify its provisions, and there is a strong feeling
in Mr. Lincoln’s Cabinet against the extra session, so loudly demanded
in New York, and so confidently expected in some parts of the Union.
Nothing but some overwhelming State necessity will overcome that
opposition, and, as the magnitude of such an occasion will have to be
estimated by those who are vehemently opposed to an extra Congress, it
is not likely that anything can occur which will be considered of
sufficient gravity by the Government at Washington to induce them to
encounter the difficulties and dangers they anticipate in consequence of
the convocation of an extraordinary assemblage of both Houses. Until
next December, then, in all probability, the President and his Cabinet
will have such control of affairs as is possible in the system of this
Government, or in the circumstances, together with the far more than
coördinate responsibility attached to their position as a Federal
Government. It is scarcely possible for an Englishman, far less for the
native of any State possessing a powerful Executive, to comprehend the
limits which are assigned to the powers of the State in this country, or
to the extent to which resistance to its authority can be carried by the
action of the States supposed to be consenting parties to its
Constitution and supporters of its jurisdiction. Take, for instance,
what is occurring within a few miles of the seat of the Central
Government, across the Potomac. At a certain iron-foundery guns have
been cast for the United States Government, which are about to be
removed to Fort Monroe, in the State of Virginia, one of the fortresses
for the defence of the United States. The Legislature of Virginia sat
all night last Saturday, and authorized the Governor of that State to
call out the public guard in order to prevent by force, if necessary,
the removal of those guns, at the same time offering to the contractor
the price which he was to have received for them from the Federal
Government. Again, at Mobile, where a writ of _habeas corpus_ is sued
out on behalf of the master of a vessel, who was seized because he had a
cargo of small stores which he intended to sell to the United States
men-of-war on observation off Pensacola, the counsel for the State of
Florida resists the application on the ground that the prisoner was
carrying supplies to an enemy, and that a state of war exists in
consequence of the acts of the Federal Government; and the Court,
without deciding on the point, discharge the prisoner, in order that it
may be freed from responsibility. On the other hand, the Federal
Government remits the penalties of forfeiture and fines on the vessel
seized by the Custom House at New York for want of proper clearances
from Southern ports. The stereotype plates with the words “Evacuation of
Fort Sumter” have apparently been worn out, but it is believed on all
sides that it will be abandoned by Major Anderson this week, although I
heard a member of the Cabinet declare last week that no orders had been
issued to that officer to evacuate it. If the opinions of some of the
Northern people prevailed, the fort would be retained until it was taken
by assault. The Southern Confederation, secure of Fort Sumter, are now
preparing for active operations against Fort Pickens, which protects the
entrance to the quondam United States Navy Yard at Pensacola, now in the
possession of the troops of Florida; and certain organs of the extreme
party in the South have already demanded that the forts at Tortugas and
Key West, which are situated far out at sea from the coast, should be
surrendered.
The Cabinet of Mr. Lincoln is understood to contain the representatives
of three different courses of policy--that trinity of action which
generally produces torpid and uncertain motion or complete rest. First,
there are those who would, at any risk, vindicate the rights they claim
for the Federal Government, and use force, even though it could only, in
its most successful application, overrun the States of the South, and
compel a temporary submission, without leading to the reestablishment of
Federal authority, or the reincorporation of the States with the Union.
Secondly, there are those, men of intellect and capacity, who,
dissenting altogether from the doctrines propounded by the leaders of
the revolution, and convinced that the separation will not be permanent,
see the surest and safest mode of action in the total abstinence from
all aggressive assertion of rights, and in a policy of _laissez aller_
of indeterminate longitude and latitude. These statesmen believe that,
like most revolutions, the secession is the work of the minority, and
that a strong party of reaction exists, which will come to the front by
and by, “expel the traitors,” and return triumphantly with their
repentant States into the bosom of the Union. The gentlemen who hold
these views have either a more accurate knowledge than the public, are
better read in the signs of the times, or have more faith in the
efficacy of inaction on the love of Americans for the Union, than is
possessed by most of the outer world. The third party is formed of those
who are inclined to take the South at their word; to cut the cord at
once, believing that the loss would be a gain, and that the Southern
Confederation would inflict on itself a most signal retribution for what
they consider as the crime of breaking up the Union. Practically, so far
as I have gone, I have failed to meet many people who really exhibited
any passionate attachment to the Union for its own sake, or who
pretended to be animated by any strong feelings of regard or admiration
for the Government of the United States in itself. The word
“Constitution” is forever ringing in one’s ears, its “principles” and
its authority are continually appealed to, but the end is no nearer. The
other day I bought the whole Constitution of the United States, neatly
printed, for three halfpence. But the only conclusion I could draw was,
that it was better for States not to have Constitutions which could be
bought at such very moderate prices. It is rather an inopportune moment
for the Professor of the Harvard Law School to send forth his lecture on
the Constitution of the United States, and on the differences between it
and that of Great Britain. Just as the learned gentleman is glorying in
the supremacy of the Judicial body of the United States over Congress,
Presidents, and Legislatures, the course of events exhibits that Supreme
Court as a mere nullity in the body politic, unable to take cognizance,
or unwilling to act in regard to matters which are tearing the
Constitution into atoms. No one thinks of appealing to it, or invoking
its decision. And, after all, if the Court were to decide, what would be
the use of its judgment, if one or other of the two great parties
resisted it? The _ultima ratio_ would be the only means by which the
decision could be enforced. In the very midst of the hymns which are
offered up around the shrines of the Constitution, whether old or
mended, all celebrating the powers of the great priestess of the
mysteries, there are heretic voices to be heard, which, in addition to
other matters, deny that the Supreme Court was ever intended by the
Constitution to exercise the sole and signal right of interpreting the
Constitution, that it is competent to do so, or that it would be safe
to give it the power. Its powers are judicial, not political, and Mr.
Calhoun on that very point said:
“Let it never be forgotten, that if we should absurdly attribute to
the Supreme Court the exclusive right of construing the
Constitution, there would be, in fact, between the sovereign and
subject under such a Government no Constitution, or at least
nothing deserving the name, or serving the legitimate object of so
sacred an instrument.”
The argument revolves in a circle; it ends nowhere, and there seems no
solution except such as concession or a sword cut may give.
There are at present in Washington two of the three unrecognized
Ministers Plenipotentiary of the Southern Government, Mr. Roman and Mr.
Crawford. Judging from the tone of these gentlemen, all idea of
returning to the Union, under any circumstances whatever, has been
utterly abandoned. Mr. Forsyth, the third of the Commissioners, who is
at present engaged in adjusting certain business of a very important
character at New York, is expected back in a few days, and it will then
be seen whether the Commissioners consent to walk up and down in the
_salles des pas perdus_ any longer. They are armed with full powers on
all questions which can come up for settlement. The Government has
refused to receive them, or to take any official notice of them
whatever; but there is reason to believe that certain propositions and
negotiations have been laid before Mr. Seward in a private and
unofficial manner, to which no reply of a definite character has been
given. Before this letter reaches you, Mr. Yancey, Mr. Mann, and Mr.
Rort will have arrived in Europe to try the temper of the Governments of
England and France in reference to the recognition of the Southern
States. Both parties have been somewhat startled by the intelligence of
an active movement of Spain to gain political ascendancy in St. Domingo;
and the news that France and England are sending a combined fleet to
these shores, though coming in a very questionable shape, has excited
uneasy feeling and some recrimination.
If the Congress is reassembled, there is much reason to fear an open
rupture; if not, another solution may be arrived at. It is unfortunate
for the Government that General Scott is suffering at this moment from
the infirmities of age, and the effect of the great demands made upon
his strength. Mr. Lincoln gave a dinner to his Cabinet on Thursday last,
the first of the season, in honor principally of General Scott; but the
veteran General, who had entered the White House, was obliged to leave
before dinner was served. There has been a great emigration of
candidates and office-hunters from this since I last wrote, some
contented, many more grumbling. It is asserted that there never has been
such a clean sweep of office-holders since the practice was introduced
by General Jackson. If I am rightly informed, the President has the
patronage of one hundred and forty thousand places, great and
small--some very small.
NIGHT.--The influence of England and of France on the destinies of the
Republic is greater than any American patriot would like to admit. It
must not be expected, therefore, that there will be any proof of
excessive anxiety afforded by the leaders of either party in reference
to the course which may be taken by the European Governments in the
present crisis; but it is not the less to be apprehended, that an
immediate recognition of the confederated independence of the South, or
of the doctrine of absolute individual sovereignty on the part of those
States, may precipitate the hostile action which, in the event of
absolute final separation, seems to be inevitable. To the North it would
be a heavy blow and great discouragement, the consequences of which
could only be averted by some very violent remedies. Separation without
war is scarcely to be expected. The establishment of an independent
Republic in the South may, indeed, be effected peaceably; but it is not,
humanly speaking, within the limits of any probability that the diverse
questions which will arise out of conflicting interests in regard to
revenue and State and Federal rights can be settled without an appeal to
arms. At the present minute there is nothing to induce a stranger to
believe that an effectual resistance could be offered to a vigorous
aggressive movement from the South, supposing the means to make it
existed either in the adhesion or permission of the Border States. The
North, however, is strong in its population, in its wealth, and in its
calm. In the hands of the Border States are all the arbitraments of
revolution or union, of war or peace. By an unmeaning euphemism the
revolution of the South has been called Secession; but the confusion and
mischief caused by the euphemistic timidity of statesmen disappear, when
the acts of the South are tested by the standard applicable to
revolutionary crises; and by that standard alone are those acts
intelligible and coherent. Measured in that way, the seizure of
property, the deeds and the language of the leaders of the movement,
and the acts of the masses, can be properly estimated. Mr. Douglass,
whose mental capacity is a splendid justification of his enormous
political activity, and of a high political rank--unattached--is
understood to be engaged on a vast system for establishing duties all
over the North American continent in the nature of a Zollverein. It is
his opinion that the North, in case of separation, must fight the South
on the arena of free trade; that the tariff must be completely altered;
and that the duties must be lowered from point to point, in proportion
as the South bids against the North for the commerce of Europe, till the
reduction reaches such a point that the South, forced to raise revenue
for the actual expenses of Government, and unable to struggle against
the superior wealth of the North in such a contest, is obliged to come
to an understanding with its powerful competitor, and to submit to a
treaty of commerce which shall include all the States of the North
American continent, from the Isthmus of Panama to the ice of the Arctic
Seas. The Canadas are, of course, included in such a project; indeed, it
is difficult to say where the means of escaping from their present
embarrassment will not be sought by the leading statesmen of America.
But on one point all are agreed. Whatever may happen, the North will
insist on a Free Mississippi. It is the very current of life for the
trade of myriads of people hundreds of miles from New Orleans. If
Louisiana, either as sovereign State or representative agent of the
Southern Confederation, attempts to control the navigation of that
river, we shall see a most terrible and ruinous war. Let England look to
the contingencies.
APRIL, 5.--One month and one day have elapsed since Mr. Lincoln and his
Cabinet were installed at Washington. Long previous to their accession
to power or rather to office, the revolution of the South had assumed
the aspect of an independent Government. When the new Administration
tried to direct the horses’ heads, they found the reins were cut, and
all they could do was to sit on the State coach, and take their chance
of falling in a soft place, or of the fiery steeds coming to a
standstill from exhaustion. A month ago and the State Treasury was
nearly exhausted; only some £370,000 was forthcoming to meet demands and
requirements four times as large. The navy was scattered all over the
world at stations by no means readily accessible, the army posted along
frontier lines, between which and the Northern States was interposed the
expanse of the Southern Confederation; the officers disaffected to the
Government, or at all events so well affected to their individual
sovereign States as to feel indisposed to serve the United States; the
whole machinery of Government in the hands of the revolutionary leaders,
every trace of Federal existence erased in the South, wiped away by acts
which, unless justified by successful revolt, would be called
treasonable, or by force or stratagem, and only two forts held on the
seaboard, weekly garrisoned, and unhappily situated with reference to
operations of relief. In addition to these sources of weakness, came the
confusion and apprehension caused by divided counsels, want of cohesion,
the disorders of a violent national contest, mistrust of adequate
support, and above all the imperious necessities of the place-seekers,
whose importunate requisitions distracted the attention of the
Government from the more important business which presented itself for
adjustment. It was, of course, necessary to fill the posts which were
occupied by enemies with men devoted to the interests of a Government
which could little brook any indifference or treacherous tendencies on
the part of its subordinates. But had the Administration been as strong
in all respects as any United States Government ever could or can hope
to be, in reference to such emergencies as the present, it really could
have done little except precipitate a civil war, in which the Border
States would have arranged themselves by the side of the Cotton States.
A considerable portion of the North would have been hostile to coercion,
and the theories which have been propounded with much apparent
approbation respecting the actual uses of Government, its powers and
jurisdiction, show that European doctrines on such points are not at all
accepted by statesmen, politicians and jurists in North America. Without
the means of enforcing an authority which many of its own adherents, and
most of the neutral parties denied to it, Mr. Lincoln’s Administration
finds itself called upon to propound a policy and to proceed to vigorous
action. The demand is scarcely reasonable. The policy of such men
suddenly lifted to the head of affairs, which they cannot attempt to
guide, must be to wait and watch, and their action must be simply
tentative as they have no power to put forth with moderate hope of
success any aggressive force.
Be satisfied of this--the United States Government will give up no
power or possession which it has at present got. By its voluntary act it
will surrender nothing whatever. No matter what reports may appear in
the papers or in letters, distrust them if they would lead you to
believe that Mr. Lincoln is preparing either to abandon what he has now,
or to recover that which he has not.
The United States Government is in an attitude of protest; it cannot
strike an offensive blow. But, if any attack is made upon it, the
Government hopes that it will be strengthened by the indignation of the
North and West, to such an extent that it cannot only repel the
aggression, but possibly give a stimulus to a great reaction in its
favor.
On these principles Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens are held. They are
claimed as Federal fortresses. The Stars and Stripes still float over
them. Whatever may be said to the contrary, they will remain there till
they are removed by the action of the Confederate States. The
Commissioners of Mr. Jefferson Davis’s Government “have reason to say
that if any attempt be made to throw reënforcements into Fort Pickens,
unless they receive previous notice of it as promised, it will be a
breach of good faith.” From all I can learn, no intention of
strengthening the fort is at present entertained; but it may be doubted
if the attempt would not be made should any favorable opportunity of
doing so present itself. All “the movements of troops,” of which you
will see accounts, are preparations against--not for--aggression. At
most they amount to the march of a few companies and guns to various
forts, now all but undefended. Fort Washington, of which I shall have a
few words to say hereafter, was till lately held by a very inadequate
force. As a member of the Cabinet said to me, “I could have taken it
last week with a little whisky,” that potent artillery being applied to
the weak defences of the aged Irish artilleryman who constituted “the
garrison.” The “formidable military force concentrated in Washington,”
of which you may read in the American journals, consists of about 700
men of all arms, as far as I can see, and four brass field guns. There
is a good deal of drumming, fifing, marching, and music going on daily.
I look on and see a small band in gay uniforms, a small body of men in
sombre uniforms, varying from fifteen to thirty rank and file, armed,
however, with excellent rifles, and a very large standard, pass by; and
next day I read that such and such a company had a parade, and
“attracted much admiration by their efficient and soldierly appearance,
and the manner in which,” &c. But these military companies have no
intention of fighting for the Government. Their sympathies are quite
undetermined. Formidable as they would be in skirmishing in the open
country, they would be of comparatively little use against regular
troops at the outset of the contest, as they have never learnt to act
together, and do not aspire to form even battalions. But their existence
indicates the strong military tendencies of the people, and the danger
of doing anything which might turn them against the Government. Mr.
Lincoln has no power to make war against the South: the Congress alone
could give it to him; and that is not likely to be given, because
Congress will not be assembled before the usual time, unless under the
pressure of and imperious necessity.