CONGRESSIA.
Of two lines to Philadelphia I selected the longest, wishing to see the
harbor, down which a steamer takes passengers as far as Amboy; but the
Powers of the Air were unpropitious again: it never ceased blowing, from
the moment we went on board a very unpleasant substitute for the regular
passage-boat, till we landed on the railway pier. My first experience of
American travel was not attractive. The crazy old craft puffed and
snorted furiously, but failed to persuade any one that she was doing
eight miles an hour; the grime of many years lay thick on her dusky
timbers--dust under cover, and mud where the wet swept in, and her
close, dark cabins were stifling enough to make you, after five minutes
of vapor-bathing, plunge eagerly into the bitter weather outside.
Indeed, there was not much to see, for the track lies on the inner and
uglier side of Staten Island. The last few miles lead through marshes,
with nothing taller growing than reeds and osiers.
For an hour or so after leaving Amboy, you look out on a country thickly
populated, well cultivated, and trimly fenced, bearing a strong
resemblance to parts of our own eastern counties. We passed through one
wood, in height of trees, sweep of ground, color of soil, and build of
boundary-fence, so exactly like a certain cover in Norfolk similarly
bisected by the rail, that I could have picked out the precise spot
where, many a time and oft, I have waited for the "rocketers." But the
character of the landscape soon changed; loose, sprawling "zigzags"
usurped the place of neat squared posts and rails; the stunted woodland
stretched farther afield, with rarer breaks of clearing; and the low
hill-ranges, behind which the watery sun soon absconded, looked drearily
bare in the distance.
It was pleasant, from the ferry boat, which was our last change, to meet
the lights of Philadelphia, gleaming out on the broad dark Susquehanna.
I can say little of that staid, opulent, intensely respectable city--not
even if the imputation of dullness, cast upon her by the more mercurial
South, be a slander; for the few hours of my stay there were spent
almost entirely with my Asiatic friend, whose invitations and
inducements to a longer sojourn were very hard to resist. But I was
impatient to get on (as men will be who cannot see their arm's-length
into the future), and at midnight I started again for Washington.
My recollections of that journey are the reverse of roseate. The
atmosphere of the cars--windows hermetic, and stoves red-hot--made one
look back regretfully on the milder _inferno_ of the passage-boat; the
acrid apple-odor was more pungently nauseating; and the abomination of
expectoration less carefully dissembled. Besides this, I was afflicted
by another nuisance, purely private and personal.
Whether there be any such thing as love at first sight or no, is a
question--grave or gay, as you choose to discuss it--but, that
instinctive antipathies exist, is most certain. I was the victim of one
of such that night. Waiting for change in the ticket-office, my eye
lighted on a dark man, of African appearance, standing unpleasantly
near, and for a second or two I could not get rid of a horrible
fascination, compelling me to stare. I say "dark man" advisedly, for it
would have been hard to guess at his original color, unless his cast of
feature had not given a line. Now, I have seen Irish squatters in their
cabins, London outcasts in their penny lodgings, and beggars of Southern
Europe in their nameless dens; but the conviction flashed upon me (and
it has never since passed away), that I was then gazing on a dirtier
specimen of healthy humanity than I had ever yet foregathered with. I
believe that all the rains of heaven beating on his brow would not have
altered its dinginess by a shade, nor penetrated one of the earthy
layers that had thickened there; a thunder-shower must have glanced off,
as water will do from tough, hardened clay. Rough patches of hair,
scanty and straggling, like the vegetation of waste, barren lands, grew
all over his cheeks and chin (a negro with an ample, honest beard is an
anomaly), and a huge bush of wool--unkempt, I dare swear, from earliest
infancy--seemed to repel the ruins of a nondescript hat. Whether he was
really uglier than his fellows I cannot remember--I was so absorbed in
contemplating and realizing his surpassing squalor--but the expression
of the uncouth face (if it had any whatsoever) was, I think, neither
ferocious nor sullen. There is generally a "colored car" attached to
every train; for you will find the tender-hearted Abolitionist, in
despite of his African sympathies, when it is a question of personal
contact or association, quite as earnest in keeping those "innocent
blacknesses" aloof, as the haughtiest Southerner. On the present
occasion there was no such distinction of races. I do not think the
contraband was conscious of the effect produced by his lordly presence;
it was probably simple accident which brought him so often in my
neighborhood; but, wherever I moved through the crowded cars, seeking
for a seat, the loose shambling limbs and dull vacant eyes seemed
impelled to follow. At last I lost my _bete noire_, and found a place
close to the door with nothing but a low pile of logs in my front. I was
tired, and soon began to doze; but I woke up with a start and a shudder,
as a haunted man might do, becoming aware, in sleep, of the approach of
some horrible thing. There he sat, on the logs close to my feet, in a
heavy stertorous slumber, his huge head rocking to and fro, and his
features hideously contorted, as he growled and gibbered to himself in
an unknown tongue, like some dreaming Caliban. I arose and fled away
swiftly from the face of my "brother," and, finding no other available
resting-place, did battle on the outside platform with the keen night
wind.
I am indebted, however, to that honest contraband for a curious sight,
which I should have otherwise missed--the crossing of the Gunpowder
River. There, the train rushes, on a single track, over three-quarters
of a mile of tremulous trestle-work, without an apology for a side-rail,
so that you look straight down into the dark water, over which you seem
wafted with no visible support beneath. The effect is sufficiently
startling, especially seen as I saw it, under a bright, capricious moon.
From Baltimore, the cars were less crowded, and I encountered my dusky
tormentor no more.
If there is much in first impressions, I was not likely to be enchanted
with Washington.
The snow, just then beginning to melt, lay inches deep on the
half-frozen soil; everything looked unnaturally and unutterably dreary
in the bleak leaden dawn-light; and, as I drove down Pennsylvania avenue
(after rejection at the lodgings to which I had been recommended), the
first object that caught my eye was a huge placard:
EMBALMING OF THE DEAD.
These ghastly advertisements are not unfrequent in that part of the
city, and I was informed that the advertisers occasionally do a very
brisk business.
After waiting for two hours in the hall of the Metropolitan, like a
client in some patrician antechamber, they _did_ accord me a tolerable
room on the sublimest story.
I called that same afternoon on Lord Lyons, to whom I brought an
introductory letter. I have to thank the British Legation for much
courteous kindness, and for two very pleasant evenings, on the first of
which I was the guest of the chief, on the second, of his secretaries.
Here will (if I ever leave it behind me) begin and end my agreeable
reminiscences of Washington. I disliked it cordially at first sight; I
was thoroughly bored before I had got through my stay of seventy hours;
I utterly abominate and execrate the city
From turret to foundation-stone,
at this moment, as I catch a narrow glimpse of its outskirts through the
rusty window-bars of the Old Capitol. Should the Southern Mazeppas,
whose banners have already floated in sight of Arlington Heights, ever
work their will here, I could name one Briton whose composure will not
be ruffled by compassion at hearing the news. If there is anything in
presentiments, surely one of these whispered warnings thus early in my
pilgrimage, though I was deafer than the adder just then.
There was in Washington, of course, the usual crowd--official,
political, and mercantile--with a vast supplement of hangers-on and
aspirants, that always follows the meeting of Congress; and, besides,
the influx never ceased of all officers who could get leave--of many who
could not--from the Army of the Potomac. Speaking impartially--for I
scarcely interchanged four words with an American during my stay--I
thought the military element the most repulsive.
It would be unfair to cavil at the absence of a martial bearing in men,
who, having followed other professions all their lives, so lately and
suddenly took up that of arms. In this singular war, whole regiments
have been sent into action (as at Antietam) without even an hour's
practice in file-firing, and have stood their ground, too, manfully,
though helplessly, the merest food for cannon. So it is not strange if
the lawyers, merchants, clerks, stock-brokers, bar-keepers, and
newspaper editors, who officer the volunteer corps, should laugh at
"setting-up" preliminaries to scorn, and consider a few days of rough
battalion-drill a satisfactory qualification for efficient service in
the field.
In spite of these disadvantages, it is indisputable that the Yankee will
fight right stubbornly, after his own fashion, though rarely with the
dash and fire of the Southerner. Considering the raw and heterogeneous
materials out of which the huge armies of the North have been formed,
the individual instances of personal cowardice are creditably rare. Even
in the cases of disorderly retreats, I believe discipline rather than
pluck to have been wanting. Martinets and formalists would certainly be
out of place here, and some of the technicalities of the art of war may
well be dispensed with; nevertheless, all these palliations do not alter
my unfavorable impression of the Federal officer on furlough.
Once out of the camp, and among familiar scenes again, the recent
centurion falls back, swiftly and easily, into the slovenly habits and
careless demeanor that were natural to him before he was called to
command; his uniform begins to look like a masquerade dress hired for
the occasion; of the hard and, perhaps, gallant service of months past,
there is soon no other evidence, than an unnecessary loudness of speech,
and a readiness to seize on any occasion to bluster or blaspheme. A
friend of mine once remarked (by way of excuse for being detected in the
most eccentric _deshabille_) that "the British dragoon, under _any_
circumstances, was a respectable and elevating sight." I do not think
the most amiable stranger would be inclined to concede as much to an
officer of Federal volunteers, encountering that warrior in his native
bar or oyster saloon. On the whole, I prefer the real Zouave _en
tapageur_, to his Transatlantic imitator: the former at least swaggers
_professionally_.
It would hardly be honest to take the "loafers" of Washington as fair
representatives of their order: there are, no doubt, better--if not
braver--soldiers in the front; and perhaps even the queer specimens then
before me might look decent, if not dignified, under the earnest light
of battle.
But wherever I was brought in contact with portions of the Federal army
(I never saw a whole regiment in review order), I was forcibly struck
with the entire absence of the "smartness" which distinguishes our own
and much of the Continental soldiery. While I was at Washington, there
were three squadrons of regular cavalry encamped in the centre of the
city. These troops were especially on home-service--guard-mounting,
orderly duty, &c.--with no field or picket work whatever. There was no
more excuse for slovenliness than might have been allowed to a regiment
in huts at Aldershott or Shorncliffe. I wish that the critical eye of
the present Cavalry Inspector-General could inspect that encampment; if
he preserved his wonted courteous calmness, it would be a very Victory
of Suffering: the effect upon his predecessor would be instantly fatal.
The arms looked tolerably clean and serviceable; but bridle-bits,
bosses, spurs, and accoutrements were crusted with rust and grime;
boots, buttons, and clothing were innocent of the brush as the horses'
coats of the curry-comb. The most careful grooming could not have made
the generality of these animals look anything but ragged and
weedy--rather dear at the Government price of 115-120 dollars,--and
their housings were not calculated to set them off to advantage. The
saddle--a modification of the Mexican principle of raw-hide stretched
over a wooden frame--carries little metal-work; it is lighter, I think,
than ours, and more abruptly peaked, but not uncomfortable; being thrown
well off the spine and withers, there is little danger of sore backs
with ordinary care in settling the cloth or blanket. The heavy clog of
wood and leather, closed in front, and only admitting the fore-part of
the foot, which serves as a stirrup, is unsightly in the extreme; its
advantages are said to be, protection from the weather, and the
impossibility of the rider's entanglement: but the sole has no grip
whatever, and rising to give full effect to a sabre-cut would be out of
the question. Besides a halter, a single rein, attached to rather a
clumsy bit, is the usual trooper's equipment: to this is attached the
inevitable ring-martingale, without which few Federal cavaliers, civil
or military, would consider themselves safe.
I cannot conceive such an anomaly as a thorough Yankee _horseman_.
Given--one, or a span of trotters, to be yoked after the neatest
fashion, and to be driven gradually and scientifically up to
top-speed--the Northerner is quite at home, and can give you a wrinkle
or two worth keeping. But this habit of hauling at horses, who often go
as much on the bit as on the traces, is destructive to "hands." If the
late lamented Assheton Smith were compelled to witness the equitation
here, he would suffer almost as much as Macaulay in the purgatory which
Canon Sidney imagined for the historian. I have discussed that
Martingale-question with several good judges and breeders of American
blood-stock, but I never could get them _quite_ to agree in the
absurdity of tying down a colt's head for the rest of his natural life,
without regard to his peculiar propensities--star-gazing, boring, or
neutral. The custom, of course, never could prevail where men were in
the habit of crossing a country; but an American horse is scarcely ever
put at anything beyond the ruins of a rail fence, and there are few,
north of the Potomac, that I should like to ride at four feet of stiff
timber. It is very different in the South, where many men from infancy
pass their out-door life in the saddle: from what I have heard,
Carolina, Louisiana, and Georgia--to say nothing of the wild Texan
rangers--could show riders who, when the first strangeness had worn off,
would hold their own tolerable in England, over a fair hunting country,
in any ordinary run.
On the outbreak of the war, volunteers enlisted in the Federal cavalry,
who--far from being able to manage a horse--could not bridle one without
assistance; and a conscript, who could keep his saddle through an entire
day, without "taking a voluntary," was considered by his fellows as a
credit to the regiment, and almost an accomplished dragoon. Such a thing
as a military riding-school has, I believe, never been thought of, away
from West Point; the drill is simply that of mounted infantry. Things
are better now than they were; a Federal cavalryman can at least sit
saddle-fast, to receive and return a sabre-cut; there have been some
sharp skirmishes of late, and, allowing for exaggeration, Averill's
encounter with Fitzhugh Lee brought out real work on both sides.
Looking at that squalid encampment, it was easy to realize all one had
heard of the mortality among the horses in the Army of the Potomac,
where no natural causes could justify it. Unless some sympathy exists
between the two--unless the trooper takes some pride or interest in the
animal he rides beyond that of being conveyed safely from point to
point--it is vain to expect that the comforts of the latter will be
greatly cared for. General orders are powerless here, and the personal
supervision of the officers--even if "stables" were as carefully
attended as in our own service--would only touch the surface of the
evil. That utter absence of _esprit du corps_ and soldierly
self-respect, has cost the Federal treasury many millions; nor will the
drain ever cease till "re-mounts" shall be no more needed.
The foregoing remarks apply exclusively to the _tenue_ of the privates
and non-commissioned officers; those of superior rank that I met were
tolerably correct, both in dress and equipment; several, indeed, were
mounted on really powerful chargers, and rode them not amiss, though
with a seat as unprofessional as can be conceived.
The military loungers certainly monopolize all the leisure of
Washington--by day at least; for, if all tales are true, the
legislators, in the evening and small hours, are wont to unbend somewhat
freely from their labors; and the Senate acts wisely, in not risking
through a night session the little dignity it has left to lose. But,
with few exceptions, every civic face meets you with the same anxious,
worried look of unsatisfied craving; there is hunger in all the
restless, eager eyes, and the thin, impatient lips work nervously, as if
scarcely able to repress the cry which the children of the horse-leech
have uttered since the beginning of time. It is easy to understand this,
when you remember that, at such a season, there gathers here, besides
the legion of politicians and partisans, and the mighty army of
contractors, a vaster host of persons interested in the private bills
submitted to Congress, and of candidates for the numerous places of
preferment which are being vacated and created daily. Before the
smallest of these has lain open for an hour, there will be scores of
shrill claimants wrangling over it, summoned from the four winds of
heaven by the unerring instinct of the Rapacidæ.
Every one of any official or political standing can either influence or
dispose of a certain amount of patronage; to such, life must sometimes
be made a heavy burden. Human nature shrinks from the contemplation of
what each successive President must be doomed to undergo. His nerves
ought to be of iron, and his conscience of brass, or a Gold Coast
Governorship might prove a less dangerous dignity. The character best
fitted for the post would be such an one as Gallio, the tranquil cynic
of Antioch.
Marking, and hearing these things, I thoroughly appreciated an anecdote
told me on board the Asia. At Mobile, in 1849, the Philadelphian met
President Polk, then on his way home from Washington, his term having
just expired. He took up office--a cheery, sanguine man, quite as
healthy as the generality of his compatriots at forty-five; he laid it
down--a helpless invalid, shattered in body and mind, past hope of
revival. My informant, who knew him well, was much shocked at the
change, but tried to console the ex-President, by speaking of the
important measures that made his administration one of the most eventful
since that of Washington; hinting that such grave responsibility and
continual excitement might well account for exhaustion and reaction. The
sick man shook his head drearily, and put the implied compliment aside:
he was past such vanities then.
"You're wrong," he said. "It isn't Oregon, or Mexico, or Texas, but the
office-hunters that have brought me--where I am."
In that answer there was the simple solemnity, that attaches to the
lightest words of the dying. Sixty days later the speaker was "sleeping
down in Tennessee," never more to be vexed by the clamor of the
cormorants, or waked by the clients keeping watch at his door. Nor was
he a solitary victim. General Taylor did not live to see half his duty
done, and the atmosphere of the White House, in one month, proved fatal
to Harrison.
To a disinterested spectator--especially if he chance to be of indolent
temperament--there is something very irritating in the ceaseless crowd,
and hurry, and din. From early morning till long past midnight, you
might search in vain, through any one of the principal hotels, for a
quiet nook to write or read in, unless it were found in your own
chamber, where the appliances of comfort are more than limited. All
private sitting-rooms are instantly engaged at fabulous prices, and, in
the public parlors the feminine element reigns with no divided sway. It
is difficult to appreciate even newspaper "leader," with a prattle and
titter around, wherein mingle tunes, not _quite_ so low and sweet as the
voice of Cordelia. Those energetic civilians never seem at rest or at
ease; they snatch their frequent drinks, upstanding and covered, as if
they were just a minute behindhand for some appointment, and bolt their
food, as if dinner were a necessary medicinal evil.
Soothe to say, the edibles do not deserve much better treatment: the
whole commissariat arrangements in the hotels is supremely
uncomfortable. The guests feed separately, but no dinner can be served
in the public rooms after five, P. M.. You can choose to any
extent, from a sufficiently ample, though very simple, _carte_; but your
repast arrives _en masse_, no matter into how many courses it ought
naturally to be divided, and is set down before you in uncovered dishes.
Of course, when you arrive at the last, it retains scarcely a memory of
the fire. I saw some of the _indigènes_ obviate the inconvenience, by
taking fish, flesh, and fowl on their plate at one and the same time,
consuming the impromptu "olla" with a rapid impartial voracity; but so
bold an innovation on old-world customs would hardly suit a stranger.
All liquors are rather high in price and lower in quality than one would
expect, considering the place and season; but the sum charged for
unstinted board and a tolerable bed (from two to two and a half dollars
per diem), is reasonable enough, especially during the present
depreciation of the currency.
Out-door scenes were not much more attractive. The three-months' reign
of Jupiter Pluvius, which has made this spring evilly notorious, had
just begun in earnest. In the main avenues, on either side of the
rail-track of the cars, the mud was a trifle deeper than that of a
cross-lane, in winter, in the Warwickshire clays. To traverse the
by-streets comfortably, you require rather a clever animal over a
country, and especially good in "dirt;" they are intersected by frequent
brooks, much wider and deeper than that celebrated one which tested the
prowess of "_le bonhomme Briggs_." There are rough stepping-stones at
some of the crossings, and the passage of these, after nightfall,
resembles greatly that of a "shaking" bog, where the traveler has to
leap from tussock to moss-hag with agile audacity; the consequences of a
false step being, in both cases, about the same. I began to think,
regretfully of certain rugged continental _pavés_ execrated in days gone
by; they, at least, had a firm bottom, more or less remote.
The public buildings of Washington do not attempt architectural display:
with scarcely an exception, they are severely simple and square. But
there is a certain grandeur in the masses of white marble, which is
everywhere lavishly employed, and the Capitol stands right well--alone,
on the crest of a low, abrupt slope, with nothing to intercept the view
from its terraces, seaward, and up the valley of the Potomac. The effect
will probably be better when wind and weather shall have slightly toned
down the sheen of the fresh-hewn stones, so dazzling now as almost to
tire the eye.
I lingered some time in the stranger galleries of Congress, but--"a
plague on both their Houses"--there was no question of stirring interest
before either. I had hoped to see at least one Representative committed
to the custody of the Sergeant-at-Arms; but, on that day, the
hardly-worked official had rest from his labors. Only a few hours later,
an irascible Senator (from Delaware, I think) created a temporary
excitement by defying first his political opponent, and then generally
all powers that be, eventually displaying the revolver, which is the
_ratio ultima_, of so many Transatlantic debates. I heard some "tall
talking," enforced by much energy of gesture and resonance of tone; but
not a period veiling on eloquence. The speakers generally seemed to have
studied in the simple school of the "stump" or the tavern, and, when at
a loss for an argument, would introduce a diatribe against the South, or
a declaration of fidelity to the Union, very much as they might have
proposed a toast or sentiment, supremely disregardful of such trifles as
relevancy or connection. The retort--more or less courteous--seemed much
favored by these honest rhetoricians, and appreciated by the galleries,
who at such times applauded sympathetically, in despite of menace or
intercession of Vice-President or Speaker. Nobody, indeed, took much
notice of either of these two dignitaries; and they appeared perfectly
reconciled to their position. You would not often find orators and
audience understand one another more thoroughly; the easy freedom of the
whole concern was quite festive in its informality.
Having secured a portion of my English letters (one or more were
retained for the recreation, and, I hope, improvement of the
post-official mind), nothing detained me in Washington beyond the fourth
morning. I turned northwards the more cheerfully, because it involved
escape from a certain chamber-maiden, to whose authority I was subjected
at the Metropolitan--the most austere tyrant that ever oppressed a
traveler. That grim White Woman might have paired with the Ancient
Mariner--she was so deep-voiced, and gaunt, and wan. On the few
occasions when I ventured to summon her, she would "hold me with her
glittering eye" till I quailed visibly beneath it, utterly scorning and
rejecting some mild attempts at conciliation. I am certain she suspected
me of meditating some black private or public treachery; and I know
there was joy in that granite heart when circumstances brought me, at
last, in my innocence, before the bar of her offended country. On that
fourth morning, however, the mood of Sycorax seemed to change; there was
a ghastly gayety in her manner, and on her rigid lips an Homeric smile,
more terrible than a frown. Then I pondered within myself--"If her hate
be heavy to bear, what--what--would her love be?" The unutterable horror
of the idea gave me courage that I might otherwise have lacked, to
confess my intentions of absconding. But I avow that the liberality of
the parting largesse is to be attributed to the meanest motives--of
personal fear.
On the railway platform, shaking the mud of Washington from my drenched
boots, I purposed never to return thither. But I reckoned without my
future hosts, MM. Seward and Stanton, who, though I have trespassed on
their hospitality, now for some weeks, seem still loth to let me go.