exaggerated by the fervor of Gallic origin, and the violence of popular
opinion and the tyranny of the mass are as potent as in any place in the
South. The great house of Brown Brothers, of Liverpool and New York, has
closed its business here in consequence of the intimidation of the mob,
or, as the phrase is, of the “citizens,” who were “excited” by seeing
that the firm had subscribed to the New York fund, on its sudden
resurrection after Fort Sumter had fallen. Some other houses are about
to pursue the same course; all large business transactions are over for
the season, and the migratory population which comes here to trade has
taken wing much earlier than usual. But the streets are full of “Turcos”
and “Zouaves” and “Chasseurs;” the tailors are busy night and day on
uniforms; the walls are covered with placards for recruits, the
seamstresses are sewing flags, the ladies are carding lint and stitching
cartridge bags. The newspapers are crowded with advertisements relating
to the formation of new companies of Volunteers and the election of
officers. There are Pickwick Rifles, Lafayette, Beauregard, Irish,
German, Scotch, Italian, Spanish, Crescent, McMahon--innumerable--Rifle
Volunteers of all names and nationalities, and the Meagher Rifles,
indignant with “that valiant son of Mars” because he has drawn his sword
for the North, have re-baptized themselves, and are going to seek glory
under a more auspicious nomenclature. About New Orleans I shall have
more to say when I see more of it. At present it looks very like an
outlying suburb of Chalons when the Grand Camp is at its highest
military development, although the thermometer is rising gradually, and
obliges one to know occasionally that it can be 95° in the shade
already. In the course of my journeying southward I have failed to find
much evidence that there is any apprehension on the part of the planters
of a servile insurrection, or that the slaves are taking much interest
in the coming contest, or know what it is about. But I have my
suspicions that all is not right; paragraphs meet the eye, and odd
sentences strike the ear, and little facts here and there come to the
knowledge which arouse curiosity and doubt. There is one stereotyped
sentence which I am tired of: “Our negroes, Sir, are the happiest, the
most contented, and the best off of any people in the world.”
The violence and reiterancy of this formula cause one to inquire whether
anything which demands such insistance is really in the condition
predicated, and, for myself, I always say, “It may be so, but as yet I
do not see the proof of it. The negroes do not look to be what you say
they are.” For the present that is enough as to one’s own opinions.
Externally the paragraphs which attract attention, and the acts of the
authorities, are inconsistent with the notion that the negroes are all
very good, very happy, or at all contented, not to speak of their being
in the superlative condition of enjoyment; and, as I only see them, as
yet, in the most superficial way, and under the most favorable
circumstances, it may be that when the cotton-picking season is at its
height, and it lasts for several months, when the labor is continuous
from sunrise to sunset, there is less reason to accept the assertions as
so largely and generally true of the vast majority of the slaves. “There
is an excellent gentleman over there,” said a friend to me, “who gives
his overseers a premium of $10 on the birth of every child on his
plantation.” “Why so?” “Oh, in order that the overseers may not work
the women in the family-way overmuch.” There is little use in this part
of the world in making use of inferences. But where overseers do not get
the premium, it may be supposed they do work the pregnant women too
much. Here are two paragraphs which do not look very well as they stand:
“Those negroes who were taken with a sudden leaving on Sunday night
last will save the country the expenses of their burial if they
keep dark from these parts. They and other of the ‘breden’ will not
be permitted to express themselves quite so freely in regard to
their braggadocio designs upon virtue in the absence of
volunteers.”--[Wilmington (Clintock County, Ohio,) _Watchman_
(Republican).
“SERVED HIM RIGHT.--One day last week some colored individual,
living near South Plymouth, made a threat that, in case a civil war
should occur, ‘he would be one to ravish the wife of every
Democrat, and to help murder their offspring and wash his hands in
their blood.’ For this diabolical assertion he was hauled up before
a committee of white citizens, who adjudged him forty stripes on
his naked back. He was accordingly stripped, and the lashes were
laid on with such good will, that the blood flowed at the end of
the castigation.--[Washington (Fayette County, Ohio,) _Register_
(Neutral).
It is reported that the patrols are strengthened, and I could not help
hearing a charming young lady say to another, the other evening, that
“she would not be afraid to go back to the plantation, though Mrs. Brown
Jones said she was afraid her negroes were after mischief.”
There is a great scarcity of powder, which is one of the reasons,
perhaps, why it has not yet been expended as largely as might be
expected from the tone and temper on both sides. There is no sulphur in
the States--nitre and charcoal abound. The sea is open to the North.
There is no great overplus of money on either side. In Missouri, the
interest on the State debt due in July will be used to procure arms for
the State volunteers to carry on the war. The South is preparing for the
struggle by sowing a most unusual quantity of grain, and in many fields
corn and maize have been planted instead of cotton. “Stay laws,” by
which all inconveniences arising from the usual, dull, old-fashioned
relations between debtor and creditor are avoided (at least by the
debtor), have been adopted in most of the Seceding States. How is it
that the State Legislatures seem to be in the hands of the debtors, and
not of the creditors?
There are some who cling to the idea that there will be no war, after
all; but no one believes that the South will ever go back of its own
free will, and the only reason that can be given for those who hope
rather than think in that way, is to be found in the faith that the
North will accept some mediation, and will let the South go in peace.
But could there, can there be peace? The frontier question, the
adjustment of various claims, the demands for indemnity, or for
privileges or exemptions, in the present state of feeling, can have but
one result. The task of mediation is sure to be as thankless as
abortive. Assuredly the proffered service of England would, on one side
at least, be received with something like insult. Nothing but adversity
can teach these people its own most useful lessons. Material prosperity
has puffed up the citizens to an unwholesome state. The toils and
sacrifices of the Old World have been taken by them as their birthright,
and they have accepted the fruits of all that the science, genius,
suffering, and trials of mankind in time past have wrought out,
perfected, and won as their own peculiar inheritance, while they have
ignorantly rejected the advice and scorned the lessons with which these
were accompanied.
* * * * *
MAY 23.--The Congress at Montgomery, having sat with closed doors almost
since it met, has now adjourned till July the 20th, when it will
reassemble at Richmond, in Virginia, which is thus designated, for the
time, capital of the Confederate States of America. Richmond, the
principal city of the old Dominion, is about one hundred miles in a
straight line south by west of Washington. The rival capitals will thus
be in very close proximity by rail and by steam, by land and by water.
The movement is significant. It will tend to hasten a collision between
the forces which are collected on the opposite sides of the Potomac.
Hitherto, Mr. Jefferson Davis has not evinced all the sagacity and
energy, in a military sense, which he is said to possess. It was bad
strategy to menace Washington before he could act. His Secretary of War,
Mr. Walker, many weeks ago, in a public speech, announced the intention
of marching upon the capital. If it was meant to do so, the blow should
have been struck silently. If it was not intended to seize upon
Washington, the threat had a very disastrous effect on the South, as it
excited the North to immediate action, and caused General Scott to
concentrate his troops on points which present many advantages in the
face of any operations which may be considered necessary along the
lines either of defence or attack. The movement against the Norfolk Navy
Yard strengthened Fortress Monroe, and the Potomac and Chesapeake were
secured to the United States. The fortified ports held by the Virginians
and the Confederate States troops, are not of much value as long as the
streams are commanded by the enemy’s steamers; and General Scott has
shown that he has not outlived either his reputation or his vigor by the
steps, at once wise and rapid, he has taken to curb the malcontents in
Maryland, and to open his communications through the City of Baltimore.
Although immense levies of men may be got together on both sides for
purposes of local defence or for State operations, it seems to me that
it will be very difficult to move these masses in regular armies. The
men are not disposed for regular, lengthened service, and there is an
utter want of field trains, equipment, and commissariat, which cannot be
made good in a day, a week, or a month.
The bill passed by the Montgomery Congress, entitled “An act to raise an
additional military force to serve during the war,” is, in fact, a
measure to put into the hands of the Government the control of irregular
bodies of men, and to bind them to regular military service. With all
their zeal, the people of the South will not enlist. They detest the
recruiting sergeant, and Mr. Davis knows enough of war to feel
hesitation in trusting himself in the field to volunteers. The bill
authorizes Mr. Davis to accept volunteers, who may offer their services,
without regard to the place of enlistment, “to serve during the war,
unless sooner discharged.” They may be accepted in companies, but Mr.
Davis is to organize them into squadrons, battalions, or regiments, and
the appointment of field and staff officers is reserved especially to
him. The company officers are to be elected by the men of the company,
but here again Mr. Davis reserves to himself the right of veto, and will
only commission those officers whose election he approves.
The absence of cavalry and the deficiency of artillery may prevent
either side obtaining any decisive results in one engagement, but no
doubt there will be great loss whenever these large masses of men are
fairly opposed to each other in the field. Of the character of the
Northern regiments I can say nothing more from actual observation, nor
have I yet seen in any place such a considerable number of the troops of
the Confederate States moving together, as would justify me in
expressing any opinion with regard to their capacity for organized
movements such as regular troops in Europe are expected to perform. An
intelligent and trustworthy observer, taking one of the New York State
Militia regiments as a fair specimen of the battalions which will fight
for the United States, gives an account of them which leads me to the
conclusion that such regiments are much superior when furnished by the
country districts to those raised in the towns and cities. It appears in
this case, at least, that the members of the regular militia companies
in general send substitutes to the ranks. Ten of these companies form
the regiment, and in nearly every instance they have been doubled in
strength by volunteers. Their drill is exceedingly incomplete, and in
forming the companies there is a tendency for the different
nationalities to keep themselves together. In the regiment in question,
the rank and file often consists of quarrymen, mechanics, and canal
boatmen, mountaineers from the Catskill, bark peelers and timber
cutters--ungainly, square-built, powerful fellows, with a Dutch tenacity
of purpose crossed with an English indifference to danger. There is no
drunkenness and no desertion among them. The officers are almost as
ignorant of military training as their men. The Colonel, for instance,
is the son of a rich man in his district, well educated, and a man of
travel. Another officer is a shipmaster. A third is an artist; others
are merchants and lawyers, and they are all busy studying “Hardee’s
Tactics,” the best book for infantry drill in the United States. The men
have come out to fight for what they consider the cause of theo cuntry,
and are said to have no particular hatred of the South or of its
inhabitants, though they think they are “a darned deal too high and
mighty, and require to be wiped down considerably.” They have no notion
as to the length of time for which their services will be required, and
I am assured that not one of them has asked what his pay is to be.
Reverting to Montgomery, one may say without offence, that its claims to
be the capital of a Republic which asserts that it is the richest, and
believes that it will be the strongest in the world, are not by any
means evident to a stranger. Its central position, which has reference
rather to a map than to the hard face of matter, procured for it a
distinction to which it had no other claim. The accommodations which
suited the modest wants of a State Legislature vanished or were
transmuted into barbarous inconveniences by the pressure of a central
government, with its offices, its departments, and the vast crowd of
applicants which flocked thither to pick up such crumbs of comfort as
could be spared from the Executive table. Never shall I forget the
dismay of myself, and of the friends who were travelling with me, on our
arrival at the Exchange Hotel, under circumstances with some of which
you are already acquainted. With us were men of high position, Members
of Congress, Senators, ex-Governors, and General Beauregard himself. But
to no one was greater accommodation extended than could be furnished by
a room held, under a sort of ryot-warree tenure, in common with a
community of strangers. My room was shown to me. It contained four large
fourpost beds, a ricketty table, and some chairs of infirm purpose and
fundamental unsoundness. The floor was carpetless, covered with litter
of paper and ends of cigars, and stained with tobacco juice. The broken
glass of the window afforded no ungrateful means of ventilation. One
gentleman sat in his shirt sleeves at the table reading the account of
the marshalling of the Highlanders at Edinburgh in the Abbotsford
edition of Sir Walter Scott; another, who had been wearied, apparently,
by writing numerous applications to the Government for some military
post, of which rough copies lay scattered around, came in, after
refreshing himself at the bar, and occupied one of the beds, which,
by-the-bye, were ominously provided with two pillows apiece. Supper
there was none for us in the house, but a search in an outlying street,
enabled us to discover a restaurant, where roasted squirrels and baked
opossums figured as luxuries in the bill of fare. On our return we found
that due preparation had been made in the apartment by the addition of
three mattresses on the floor. The beds were occupied by unknown
statesmen and warriors, and we all slumbered and snored in friendly
concert till morning. Gentlemen in the South complain that strangers
judge of them by their hotels, but it is a very natural standard for
strangers to adopt, and in respect to Montgomery it is almost the only
one that a gentleman can conveniently use; for, if the inhabitants of
this city and its vicinity are not maligned, there is an absence of the
hospitable spirit which the South lays claim to as one of its animating
principles, and a little bird whispered to me that from Mr. Jefferson
Davis down to the least distinguished member of his Government, there
was reason to observe that the usual attentions and civilities offered
by residents to illustrious stragglers had been “conspicuous for their
absence.” The fact is, that the small planters, who constitute the
majority of the land-owners, are not in a position to act the
Amphytrion, and that the inhabitants of the district can scarcely aspire
to be considered what we would call gentry in England, but are a frugal,
simple, hog and hominy-living people, fond of hard work and,
occasionally, of hard drinking.
* * * * *
NEW ORLEANS, May 24, 1861.
It is impossible to resist the conviction that the Southern Confederacy
can only be conquered by means as irresistible as those by which Poland
was subjugated. The South will fall, if at all, as a nation prostrate at
the feet of a victorious enemy. There is no doubt of the unanimity of
the people. If words mean anything, they are animated by only one
sentiment, and they will resist the North as long as they can command a
man or a dollar. There is nothing of a sectional character in this
disposition of the South. In every State there is only one voice
audible. Hereafter, indeed, State jealousies may work their own way.
Whatever may be the result, unless the men are the merest braggarts--and
they do not look like it--they will fight to the last before they give
in, and their confidence in their resources is only equalled by their
determination to test them to the utmost. There is a noisy vociferation
about their declarations of implicit trust and, reliance on their
slaves, which makes one think they do “protest too much,” and it remains
to be seen whether the slaves really will remain faithful to their
masters should the Abolition army ever come among them as an armed
propaganda. One thing is obvious here. A large number of men who might
be usefully employed in the ranks are idling about the streets. The
military enthusiasm is in proportion to the property interest of the
various classes of the people; and the very boast that so many rich men
are serving in the ranks is a significant proof either of the want of
substratum, or of the absence of great devotion to the cause of any such
layer of white people as may underlie the great slaveholding,
mercantile, and planting oligarchy. The whole State of Louisiana
contains about 50,000 men liable to serve when called on. Of that number
only 15,000 are enrolled and under arms in any shape whatever; and if
one is to judge of the state of affairs by the advertisements which
appear from the Adjutant-General’s office, there was some difficulty in
procuring the 3,000 men--merely 3,000 volunteers--“to serve during the
war,” who are required by the Confederate Government. There is plenty of
“prave lords,” and if fierce writing and talking could do work, the
armies on both sides would have been killed and eaten long ago. It is
found out that “the lives of the citizens” at Pensacola are too valuable
to be destroyed in attacking Pickens. A storm that shall drive away the
ships, a plague, yellow fever, mosquitoes, rattlesnakes, small-pox--any
of these agencies is looked to with confidence to do the work of shot,
shell, and bayonet. Our American “brethren in arms” have yet to learn
that great law in American cookery, that “if they want to make omelets
they must break eggs.” The “moral suasion” of the lasso, of
head-shaving, ducking, kicking, and such processes, are, I suspect, used
not unfrequently to stimulate volunteers; and the extent to which the
acts of the recruiting officer are somewhat aided by the arm of the law,
and the force of the policeman and the magistrate, may be seen from
paragraphs in the morning papers now and then, to the effect that
certain gentlemen of Milesian extraction, who might have been engaged in
pugilistic pursuits, were discharged from custody, unpunished, on
condition that they enlisted for the war. With the peculiar views
entertained of freedom of opinion and action by large classes of people
on this continent, such a mode of obtaining volunteers is very natural,
but resort to it evinces a want of zeal on the part of some of the
50,000 who are on the rolls; and, from all I can hear--and I have asked
numerous persons likely to be acquainted with the subject--there are not
more than those 15,000 men of whom I have spoken in all the State under
arms, or in training, of whom a considerable proportion will be needed
for garrison and coast defence duties. It may be that the Northern
States and Northern sentiments are as violent as the South, but I see
some evidences to the contrary. For instance, in New York ladies and
gentlemen from the South are permitted to live at their favorite hotels
without molestation; and one hotel-keeper at Saratoga Springs advertises
openly for the custom of his Southern patrons. In no city of the South
which I have visited would a party of Northern people be permitted to
remain for an hour if the “citizens” were aware of their presence. It is
laughable to hear men speaking of the “unanimity” of the South. Just
look at the peculiar means by which unanimity is enforced and secured.
This is an extract from a New Orleans paper:
"CHARGES OF ABOLITIONISM.--Mayor Monroe has disposed of some of the
cases brought before him on charges of this kind by sending the
accused to the workhouse.
“A Mexican, named Bernard Cruz, born in Tampico, and living here
with an Irish wife, was brought before the Mayor this morning,
charged with uttering Abolition sentiments. After a full
investigation, it was found that from the utterance of his
incendiary language, that Cruz’s education was not yet perfect in
Southern classics, and his Honor therefore directed that he be sent
for six months to the Humane Institution for the Amelioration of
the Condition of Northern Barbarians and Abolition Fanatics,
presided over by Professor Henry Mitchell, keeper of the workhouse,
and who will put him through a course of study on Southern ethics
and institutions.
“The testimony before him on Saturday, however, in the case of a
man named David O’Keefe, was such as to induce him to commit the
accused for trial before the Criminal Court. One of the witnesses
testified positively that she heard him make his children shout for
Lincoln; another, that the accused said, ‘I am an Abolitionist,’
&c. The witnesses, neighbors of the accused, gave their evidence
reluctantly, saying they had warned him of the folly and danger of
his conduct. O’Keefe says he has been a United States soldier, and
came here from St. Louis and Kansas.
“John White was arraigned before Recorder Emerson on Saturday for
uttering incendiary language while travelling in the baggage car of
a train of the New Orleans, Ohio and Great Western Railroad,
intimating that the decapitator of Jefferson Davis would get
$10,000 for his trouble, and the last man of us would be whipped
like dogs by the Lincolnites. He was held under bonds of $500 to
answer the charge on the 8th of June.
“Nicholas Gento, charged with declaring himself an Abolitionist,
and acting very much like he was one by harboring a runaway slave,
was sent to prison, in default of bail, to await an examination
before the Recorder.”
Such is “freedom of speech” in Louisiana! But in Texas the machinery for
the production of “unanimity” is less complicated, and there are no
insulting legal formalities connected with the working of the simple
appliances which a primitive agricultural people have devised for their
own purposes. Hear the Texan correspondent of one of the journals of
this city on the subject. “It is to us astonishing,” he says,
“That such unmitigated lies as those Northern papers disseminate as
anarchy and disorder here in Texas, dissension among ourselves, and
especially from our German, &c., population, with dangers and
anxieties from the fear of insurrection among the negroes, &c.,
should be deemed anywhere South worthy of a moment’s thought. It is
surely notorious enough that in no part of the South are
Abolitionists or other disturbers of the public peace so very
unsafe as in Texas. The _lasso_ is so _very_ convenient!"