democratic government? It has heretofore been said by the revilers of
the masses in America, that 'for two hundred years the scum, the crime,
and poverty of Europe have been cast upon the shores of the Atlantic.'
It is immaterial to the question of humanity, whether such has been the
seed from which a new nation has been raised up in the wilderness. A few
months since, 'Democracy on its trial,' was the favorite theme of
democracy-haters in Europe. The indictment against our free institutions
was freighted with fearful charges. The government of the Union was a
'delusive Utopia.' 'The people of the North had degenerated into a mob.'
'Society was drifting into the maelstrom of anarchy, and law and order
becoming extinct.' A little time, and an apparently unwarlike people had
changed into an astonishing organization, disciplined for warfare. Seven
hundred thousand bayonets, as if by enchantment, bristled in menace to
the slaveholders' rebellion. The navy-yards and arsenals resounded with
the clang of hammers, and soon the suddenly created armaments appeared
on the waters. Power in finance exhibited by the Government, based on
the confidence and patriotism of the people, was no less astonishing.
New inventions of warfare changed the scoffings in Europe into alarm for
their own security. The trans-Atlantic revilers of republicanism in
America have discovered a people who had a heart in them. Patriotism in
America is reassured of success by the exhibition of a deep-seated
attachment on the part of the Northman to his Government. Seven words
suffice to solve the riddle of free democratic strength--THE MASSES
CONVERTED INTO BEINGS OF POWER. This is the theory, the basis, the
strength of free institutions in America. They have no other foundation.
They have nothing else to rely on for enduring support.
Let the Southern rebel attempt to disguise it as he may, the colored man
of the South is already a patriot on the side of the Union. He has heard
of a people in the North who believed that every human being, by nature,
was entitled '_to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness_.' He
knows that his oppressor hates this people of the North, and for the
sole reason that they entertain this generous sentiment. While the
Pharisaic theologian of the Southern pulpit is expounding his
Bible-doctrine in justification of kidnapping, and appealing to Heaven
for assistance, the colored man turns in disgust at the impiety, and
turns into secret places to beseech Omnipotence to favor the success of
the national arms. Perhaps there is an interfering Providence already
manifest in results. If the plagues of Egypt had been visited on the
rebellious States by an overruling Power, they would scarcely have
afforded a parallel to the calamity which rebel slaveholders have
inflicted on their country. They have exhausted and destroyed much of
what the long toil of the colored man South had assisted to raise up.
Devastation has followed the train of rebellion. The blood of the first
and of the second-born has been the sacrifice on the altar of slavery.
The brutal ruffianism of the pro-slavery spirit has far enough disclosed
its natural aptitudes to have become disgustingly odious in comparison
with the positively better characteristics of the colored man. The rebel
himself has taught a lesson to the world, which he can never unteach.
The twenty-seven millions of free labor in the Union have learned a
lesson through the teachings of slaveholders in rebellion, which they
can not forget. This teaching is nothing less than that the colored man
is capable, by protection and encouragement, of being converted into a
better element of national strength and national prosperity than
slaveholders, as _such_, would ever become.
Could any contemplative mind doubt for a moment the ability of the white
population of the Union, if justly disposed, to raise the colored
population of the country, in a short time, to the platform of a decent
respectability? With unjust prejudice laid aside, and the work of
beneficence acquiesced in, no one could reasonably doubt it. Who
deserves best at the hands of the nation's power, the oppressor or the
oppressed? The one that grasps at the throat of the nation and attempts
its overthrow merely to perpetuate his power of oppression, or the other
who is crying to humanity for protection? The voice of nature, if
undefiled, will answer this question on the side of humanity--if not,
NECESSITY WILL.
The democratic theory which seeks to absolve humanity from oppression,
is not confined to the resistance of a single despot. It goes in the
same degree to a privileged class that arrogates to itself the right to
oppress; nor does it stop at the half-way house of mere negative
protection. It allows in its onward course the full fruition of
'EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW.' In theory, the law is the sovereign, and we
seek to attach such qualities to that sovereign as are compatible with
the general good of society. That theory places no man above the law,
nor any man below its protection. As soon as the individual in society
is raised to the point of negative protection, he is in a measure
converted into a being of power. He can then appeal to his sovereign,
THE LAW, for the vindication of his rights. Experience is continually
demonstrating that men are respected in proportion to their power to
command respect. The very existence of slavery requires and demands the
brutalization of the governing power that upholds it. Were society
absolved from this tyranny, matters would begin to mend. Equalized
protection would be the consequence. Protection, not only to the colored
man, but protection in an almost equal degree to the non-slaveholding
white population, hitherto brought under the ban of disability by a
depressing pro-slavery policy.
Until recently, when the colored race in the United States was spoken of
in connection with the subject of its release from oppression, it was
subjected to the same arguments that kept the white men in slavery in
olden times. The arguments of slaveholders were never truthful, and only
convenient for themselves. They damaged the slave; they damaged every
collateral interest; they damaged the strength of nationality; and more
than all, they damaged every humane principle of civilization. The whole
reasoning in favor of slaveholding has been a vicious fallacy; and
perhaps the time has come, attended by sufficient calamity, to set the
American population to thinking and acting in the right direction.
The colored people South are better fitted for freedom than is commonly
imagined. They are quite well skilled in practical industry, more
especially in agricultural pursuits. There are many of them qualified in
skilled labor in the coarser mechanic arts. The whole of this population
has been trained to diligent labor, under habits of continuous toil. It
has acquired patience in performing labor, by the discipline which
unremitting labor gives. The colored man South has not been brought up
in idleness, or with habits calculated to make him a renegade. Were he
permitted to enjoy the fruits of his industry, there can be no doubt of
his disposition and patience to toil on. In case his rebel master would
not hire him for wages, there would be enough amongst the
non-slaveholding population who would. Production in the South, under
emancipation of the slaves of rebel masters, would not materially fall
off. Give to colored men the fruits of their industry, and many of them
would soon set up for themselves. Perhaps in connection with the soil of
the South, that yields most abundantly in annual value of product, the
rest of the colored population would soon get to emulate the free
colored people of Charleston. The law of subsistence would as much
compel the South to go on without compulsory labor as it does the North,
and there are just as many reasons for it in one section as in the
other; that is, just none at all. Under emancipation, there is little
doubt that actual production could and would soon be put on the
increase, with better distribution of wealth, more widely diffused
comforts, and a broader and better public policy. The only things that
would be curtailed in their proportions would be slave-breeding,
rebel-breeding, and ruffian cultivation.
It may, perhaps, continue to be easier for a time to strike the colored
man than to strike off his shackles. There is a mean and low side of
humanity, a sort of defiled infirmity, that runs into a disposition to
strike the helpless. This is the bravery of ruffianism. There is apt to
be a shrinking away from duty, when the contest involves a conflict with
arrogant power. This is the cowardice of pusillanimity. The American
citizen has been noted for his superior bravery. He has certainly shown
himself brave in the battle-field, and more brave and determined than
any other nation in the vindication and maintenance of the natural
rights of the white man; but he is not done with the business of
disenthrallment. His language is the language of liberty. It must not,
it will not long continue to be spoken by slaves. This was the meaning
of Jefferson, when he penned the _text-words_ of disenthrallment: 'All
men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable
rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.'
Where is to be found the evidence that these rights have been forfeited?
Who dare deny the right of the colored man morally, religiously, or
politically, to assert them? It is true, we have hitherto acted in
defiance of these acknowledged rights. We have outraged them. We have
waged a shameful and shameless warfare against them. The sequences of
that warfare are now upon us. The sin is now being atoned for in blood.
It has not yet been ordained that the principles of injustice should
have permanent duration. If not restrained by humane rationality, they
will culminate in convulsion. The light is now breaking upon the
heretofore obscured vision of the American people. We can now begin to
see with clearness that the colored man's disenthrallment is to become
the white man's future security. This would almost seem to be the
harmony of divine justice in the affairs of men.
No substantial amelioration in the depressed condition of race or class
has yet been brought about in disconnection with the powerful agency of
such race or class. Human nature forbids it. The selfish tenacity of
advantage, resting on what is misnamed 'vested rights,' but having its
foundation in vested wrongs, yields only on compulsion. It is only when
the depressed race or class, acting in somewhat intelligent concert,
exhibits the disposition to aid in the purposes of protection, that the
mercenary power succumbs to necessity. History furnishes no examples to
the contrary. It may not be impossible that our own times may make
history to corroborate the truth of these premises.
When it is asserted that the colored man is wanting in bravery, and is
not endowed with the natural courage to assert and maintain his rights,
we are apt to forget that physical bravery is a thing of cultivation.
There is not the least evidence that, with military discipline and
something to fight for, the colored population of the United States
would not prove as brave as the black regiment of the Revolution. With
such bravery as that regiment exhibited, the four millions and their
prospective increase would require a gigantic force to make profitable
slaves of them. Again, there is something beyond the protection from
domestic violence that demands consideration, in connection with the
military discipline of the colored man. We may reasonably expect that a
large colonization in some quarter will soon take place, and be carried
forward. Education and military discipline, in addition to knowledge in
practical industry, are necessary concomitants to successful
colonization. With these qualities, the colored man will cease to feel
helpless, and be fitted for enterprise, he will have the confidence to
go forward, and the aspirations to impel him. It may be the lot of the
colored man to encounter in some foreign land powers and influences
quite as barbarous as those he has hitherto encountered in the white
man's prejudices. If he is armed for the encounter, he will have little
inclination to shrink from it. Every humane consideration clusters to
the policy of disenthralling the colored man, and of making him a being
of power. Nothing can oppose it but the pro-slavery spirit that seeks to
enslave the American mind to barbarism and the colored millions and
their increase to perpetual bondage.
WATCHING THE STAG.
[AN UNFINISHED POEM, BY FITZ-JAMES O'BRIEN.]
Hela and I lie watching here,
Above us the sky and below the mere.
long
Through distant gorges the-b-l-u-e-moors loom
Till the heath looks blue in the endless gloom.
The eagle screams from the misty cliff,
With a quivering lamb in his taloned griff.
And the echoes leap over hill and hollow,
As the old stag bells to the herd to follow.
The purpled heather is wet with mist,
Till it shines like a drownèd amethyst,
And the old, old rocks with furrowed faces
Start up like ghosts in the lonely places.
With forefeet crossed, stanch Hela lies
Watching my face through her half-closed eyes,
-u-s-
-B-e-t-w-e-e-n--i-s--i-s--s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d-deer
While ^ I pillow my head on the stiffening-s-t-a-g-
LITERARY NOTICES.
BAYARD TAYLOR'S PROSE WRITING'S. Vol. V. A Journey to Central Africa,
with a Map and Illustrations by the Author. New-York: G.P. Putnam.
Boston: A.K. Loring.
This work deservedly ranks as among the best, if not the best, by Bayard
Taylor. The East, as we feel in his poems, was full of the scenes of his
widely varied travels, that which most aroused his sympathy and stirred
his artistic creative powers, and it is of the East that he speaks most
freely and brilliantly. It was in Central Africa that he encountered his
most thrilling adventures, and forgot, as we can there only do, the
civilization of the Western World. Something we would say of the
beautiful typography and paper of this series. If the term _mise en
scène_ were as applicable to books as to dramas, it might be truely said
of Mr. Putnam's that they appear as well between boards as other works
do upon them.
EL DORADO. PROSE WRITINGS OF BAYARD TAYLOR. Vol. IV. New-York: G.P.
Putnam. Boston: A.K. Loring. 1862.
Possibly some twenty years hence 'El Dorado' will be regarded as by far
the best of Bayard Taylor's works--certain it is that in it he is among
the pioneer describers of a land the early accounts of which will be
carefully investigated and duly honored. In picturing lands, where
others have been noting and sketching before, he is strong indeed who is
not driven into mannerism; but in fresh fields and pastures new there is
less danger of seeing through thrice-used spectacles. It is this
consciousness of being the first that ever burst into their silent seas
that made Herodotus and Tudela and Rubriquis and Mandeville so fresh and
vigorous--and there is much of the same peculiar inspiration due to
first-ness perceptible in this volume, which we cordially commend to all
who would be California-learned or simply entertained. Somewhat we must
say however of the fine paper, exquisite typography, and two neat steel
engravings with which this 'Caxton' edition is made beautiful and most
suitable either for a lady's _étagere_-book-shelf or the most elegant
library.
LES MISERABLES. I. FANTINE. BY VICTOR HUGO. Translated by CHARLES E.
WILBOUR. New-York: Carleton. Boston: Crosby and Nichols. 1862.
A novel written twenty-five years ago by Victor Hugo is a curiosity. The
present was kept in reserve because the sordid publisher, who had a
contract for all of Hugo's works, would not give the sum demanded--the
author kept raising his price--it was like Nero and the Sybil, or the
converse of the conduct of the damsel who annually reduced her terms to
Martial:
'Millia viginti quondam me Galla poposcit;
Annus abit: bis quina dabis sestertia? dixit.'
Finally the publisher died, the work was printed, and its first section
now appears in 'Fantine'--a capital picture of life, manners, customs,
in fact of almost every thing in France in 1817. It deals with much
suffering, many sorrows, as its title indicates--for it is easier to
make sensations out of pains than pleasures, and M. Hugo is preëminently
and proverbially 'sensational.' Still it is deeply interesting,
extremely well managed in all art-details, and above all things, is
extremely humane--as a book by Victor Hugo could hardly fail to be. And
as every page bears the impress of a certain characteristic originality
of thought and of observation, we may safely predict that 'Fantine' will
deservedly prove a success. We like the manner in which Mr. Wilbour has
translated it--neither too slavishly nor too freely, but in one word,
'admirably.'
ARTEMUS WARD HIS BOOK. New-York; Carleton. Boston: N. Williams and
Company. 1862.
Once in five or six years we have a new humorist--at one time a Jack
Downing, then a Doesticks, then again a Phoenix-Derby. Last on the list
we have 'Artemus Ward,' as set forth in letters to the Cleveland
_Plaindealer_ and _Vanity Fair_, purporting to come from the proprietor
of a 'side-show,' as cheaper, or less than twenty-five cent exhibitions,
are called in this country. To say that they are excellent, spirited,
and racy--full of strong idioms of language and character, and abounding
in novelties in type which are no novelties to those familiar with
popular life--would be doing them faint justice. They embody a new and
perfectly truthful conception of one of the multitude, and have nothing
that is hackneyed in them.
It is a great test of real stuff in a writer when he dashes off, or
picks up, phrases which are at once taken up by the people. 'Artemus
Ward' has originated many of these, and is perhaps at the present day as
much quoted 'in the broad and long' as any man in the country. It is
needless to say that all who relish broad eccentric humor will find his
Book very well worth reading. We regret that it does not embrace certain
other excellent sketches which we know he has written, but trust that
these will appear in due time in a second part or in a new edition. The
volume before us is very neatly got up, well illustrated, and tastefully
bound.
LYRICS FOR FREEDOM AND OTHER POEMS. UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE
CONTINENTAL CLUB. New-York: Carleton, 413 Broadway, Boston; Crosby and
Nichols.
At a regular meeting of the 'Continental Club,' held at their rooms in
New-York, it was resolved and carried that a volume of poems written by
certain of the younger members be published 'under its auspices.' As a
noted Democratic sheet, the Boston _Courier_, has declined to notice the
volume on the plea that the name of the society from which it sprung
suggested too forcibly the CONTINENTAL MONTHLY, possibly a favorable
mention by us of our young New-York brother-in-literature may seem
partial and too en-famille-iar to be fair. Be this as it may, we can not
resist the expression of the honest conviction, for which we have many a
good indorser, that while it would be a matter of some difficulty to
compile a better collection of lyrics from the vast number which the war
has thus far called forth, its production by a limited number of a
single association is indeed remarkable. There is the right ring and the
true feeling perceptible in all of them; earnest enthusiasm flowing
bravely on the tide of musical words, and a clear conviction of the
justice of our cause springing from liberal and progressive political
views. It is enough indeed to say of most of the lyrics that they are
written from a principle, and with faith in the necessity of
Emancipation, and are not mere war-songs, full of commonplace, as
applicable to one cause as another. They are songs of the American war
of freedom in 1861, and as such will rank high in our literary history.
THE REJECTED STONE; OR, INSURRECTION VERSUS RESURRECTION IN AMERICA. By
a Native of Virginia. Second Edition, Boston: Walker, Wise and Company.
1862.
We are as gratified at the reappearance of this glorious work as we are
astonished to learn that it has only reached a second edition. As it is
beyond comparison the most remarkable literary result thus far of the
war, as it has made a strong sensation in very varied circles, as it is
a book which has given rise to anecdotes, and as its wild eloquence,
bizarre humor and intense earnestness, have caused it to be read with a
relish even by many who dissent from its politics, we had supposed that
ere this its sale had reached at least its tenth edition. Meanwhile we
commend it to all, assuring them that as a fearless, outspoken work,
grasping boldly at the exciting questions of the day, it has not its
equal. We should mention that in the present edition we find given the
name of its author, the well-known and eloquent Rev. Moncure D. Conway,
formerly of Virginia, now of Cincinnati.
OUR FLAG: A Poem in Four Cantos. By T.H. UNDERWOOD. New-York: Carleton.
Boston: N. Williams. 1862.
During the past year Mr. Underwood has published several poems of
remarkable merit, referring to the war. In the present we have a work of
higher ambition, and one which is truly well done. In it the horrors of
slavery, the iniquitous abuses to which it so often gives rise--the
tortures, vengeances, murders, and fiendish punishments, which in their
turn follow the crime--are portrayed with striking truthfulness and real
power. The author is evidently no Abolitionist on hear-say--the whole
poem gives evidence of practical familiarity with 'the institution,' and
the sense of truth has inspired his pen in many passages with wonderful
power. The terrible sufferings of an _almost_ white man and slave as
here portrayed, his revenge and punishment at the stake, are as moving
as they are manifestly true to life. We commend this little
pamphlet-poem to every friend of freedom, and sincerely trust that it
will attain the large circulation which it deserves.
SKETCHES OF THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND DECLINE OF SECESSION. With a
Narrative of Personal Adventures among the Rebels. By W.G. BROWNLOW,
Editor of the _Knoxville Whig_. Philadelphia: Geo. W. Childs. 1862.
A decided character this 'Parson Brownlow,' and a representative man;
truly and bravely American, very Western in his traits; a man fond of
fierce argument and tough antagonisms, and not fearing the death either
by halter or revolver, which he will probably meet some day, for the
sake of Jehovah and his own stern convictions. Not exactly a man of
_salons_ and elegant _réunions_--yet full of real courtesies and gifted
with the kind heart of a true hater of wickedness, which flashes into
fury at witnessing deeds of cruelty and shame. And he has seen many
such--seen what few have done and lived--he has passed through a life's
warfare with men of his own grim obstinacy without his own honesty and
stern Puritan-like morality. We have followed his course for years--we
have met him 'afore-time,' when quite other subjects of quarrel engaged
him, and could have prophesied then with tolerable accuracy what part he
would play when it came to a question between bayonets and prisons for
the truth.
As we have hinted, he is a splendid hater, and a ferocious antagonist, a
prince of vituperators and a very vitriol-thrower of savage sarcasms at
his enemies and those of humanity. And why should he not be all of this,
when we consider that in the stage whereon his part of life is played a
more delicate student of all the proprieties would have about the same
chances of success as attended the unfortunate cat which ventured
without claws among panthers. Measure such men by their moral worth and
by the good they do, and do not require of the hard-shell Methodist
preacher and tough polemical grappler with Satan in his most bristly and
thick-skinned Western incarnations that he display too much delicacy.
Those who will read his book may gather from it, beyond the interesting
personal and political narrative of which it consists, many useful and
curious hints as to the social development of America and of what men
the country is truly made. It is a _real_ work--one of value--interesting
to all, and very truly one of the monuments of this war and
of the scenes which preceded it in Tennessee.
EDITOR'S TABLE