A Captain under arrest--Opening of Congress--Colonel Dutassy--An
ex-pugilist turned Senator--Mr. Cameron--Ball in the officers’
huts--Presentation of standards at Arlington--Dinner at
Lord Lyons’--Paper currency--A polyglot dinner--Visit to
Washington’s Tomb--Mr. Chase’s Report--Colonel Seaton--Unanimity
of the South--The Potomac blockade--A Dutch-American Crimean
acquaintance--The American Lawyers on the Trent affair--Mr.
Sumner--M‘Clellan’s Army--Impressions produced in America by
the English Press on the affair of the Trent--Mr. Sumner on the
crisis--Mutual feelings of the two nations--Rumours of war with
Great Britain.
_December 1st._--A mixed party of American officers and English went
to-day to the post at Great Falls, about sixteen or seventeen miles
up the Potomac, and were well repaid by the charming scenery, and by
a visit to an American military station in a state of nature. The
captain in command told us over a drink that he was under arrest,
because he had refused to do duty as lieutenant of the guard, he
being a captain. “But I have written to M‘Clellan about it,” said he,
“and I’m d--d if I stay under arrest more than three days longer.”
He was not aware that the General’s brother, who is a captain on his
staff, was sitting beside him at the time. This worthy centurion
further informed us he had shot a man dead a short time before for
disobeying his orders. “That he did,” said his sympathising and
enthusiastic orderly, “and there’s the weapon that done it.” The
captain was a boot and shoe maker by trade, and had travelled across
the isthmus before the railway was made to get orders for his boots.
A hard, determined, fierce “sutor,” as near a savage as might be.
“And what will you do, captain,” asked I, “if they keep you in
arrest?”
“Fight for it, sir. I’ll go straight away into Pennsylvania with my
company, and we’ll whip any two companies they can send to stop us.”
Mr. Sumner paid me a visit on my return from our excursion, and seems
to think everything is in the best possible state.
_December 2nd._--Congress opened to-day. The Senate did nothing. In
the House of Representatives some Buncombe resolutions were passed
about Captain Wilkes, who has become a hero--“a great interpreter
of international law,” and also recommending that Messrs. Mason and
Slidell be confined in felons’ cells, in retaliation for Colonel
Corcoran’s treatment by the Confederates. M. Blondel, the Belgian
minister, who was at the court of Greece during the Russian war,
told me that when the French and English fleets lay in the Piræus,
a United States vessel, commanded, he thinks, by Captain Stringham,
publicly received M. Persani, the Russian ambassador, on board,
hoisted and saluted the Russian flag in the harbour, whereupon the
French Admiral, Barbier de Tinan, proposed to the English Admiral to
go on board the United States vessel and seize the ambassador, which
the British officer refused to do.
_December 3rd._--Drove down to the Capitol, and was introduced to
the floor of the Senate by Senator Wilson, and arrived just as
Mr. Forney commenced reading the President’s message, which was
listened to with considerable interest. At dinner, Colonel D’Utassy,
of the Garibaldi legion, who gives a curious account of his career.
A Hungarian by birth, he went over from the Austrian service, and
served under Bem; was wounded and taken prisoner at Temesvar, and
escaped from Spielberg, through the kindness of Count Bennigsen,
making his way to Semlin, in the disguise of a servant, where Mr.
Fonblanque, the British consul, protected him. Thence he went to
Kossuth at Shumla, finally proceeded to Constantinople, where he was
engaged to instruct the Turkish cavalry; turned up in the Ionian
Islands, where he was engaged by the late Sir H. Ward, as a sort of
secretary and interpreter, in which capacity he also served Sir G.
Le Marchant. In the United States he was earning his livelihood as
a fencing, dancing, and language master; and when the war broke out
he exerted himself to raise a regiment, and succeeded in completing
his number in seventeen days, being all the time obliged to support
himself by his lessons. I tell his tale as he told it to me.
One of our friends, of a sporting turn, dropped in to-night, followed
by a gentleman dressed in immaculate black, and of staid deportment,
whose name I did not exactly catch, but fancied it was that of a
senator of some reputation. As the stranger sat next me, and was
rubbing his knees nervously, I thought I would commence conversation.
“It appears, sir, that affairs in the south-west are not so
promising. May I ask you what is your opinion of the present
prospects of the Federals in Missouri?”
I was somewhat disconcerted by his reply, for rubbing his knees
harder than ever, and imprecating his organs of vision in a very
sanguinary manner, he said--
“Well, d---- if I know what to think of them. They’re a b---- rum
lot, and they’re going on in a d---- rum way. That’s what I think.”
The supposed legislator, in fact, was distinguished in another
arena, and was no other than a celebrated pugilist, who served his
apprenticeship in the English ring, and has since graduated in
honours in America.
I dined with Mr. Cameron, Secretary of War, where I met Mr. Forney,
Secretary of the Senate; Mr. House, Mr. Wilkeson, and others, and was
exceedingly interested by the shrewd conversation and candid manner
of our host. He told me he once worked as a printer in the city of
Washington, at ten dollars a week, and twenty cents an hour for extra
work at the case on Sundays. Since that time he has worked onwards
and upwards, and amassed a large fortune by contracts for railways
and similar great undertakings. He says the press rules America, and
that no one can face it and live; which is about the worst account
of the chances of an honest longevity I can well conceive. His
memory is exact, and his anecdotes, albeit he has never seen any
but Americans, or stirred out of the States, very agreeable. Once
there lived at Washington a publican’s daughter, named Mary O’Neil,
beautiful, bold, and witty. She captivated a member of Congress, who
failed to make her less than his wife; and by degrees Mrs. Eaton--who
may now be seen in the streets of Washington, an old woman, still
bright-eyed and, alas! bright-cheeked, retaining traces of her great
beauty--became a leading personage in the State, and ruled the
imperious, rugged, old Andrew Jackson so completely, that he broke
up his Cabinet and dismissed his ministers on her account. In the
days of her power she had done some trifling service to Mr. Cameron,
and he has just repaired it by conferring some military appointment
on her grandchild.
The dinner, which was preceded by deputations, was finished by one
which came from the Far West, and was introduced by Mr. Hannibal
Hamlin, the Vice-President; Mr. Owen Lovejoy, Mr. Bingham, and other
ultra-Abolitionist members of Congress; and then speeches were made,
and healths were drunk, and toasts were pledged, till it was time for
me to drive to a ball given by the officers of the 5th United States
Cavalry, which was exceedingly pretty, and admirably arranged in
wooden huts, specially erected and decorated for the occasion. A huge
bonfire in the centre of the camp, surrounded by soldiers, by the
carriage drivers, and by negro servants, afforded the most striking
play of colour and variety of light and shade I ever beheld.
_December 4th._--To Arlington, where Senator Ira Harris presented
flags--that is, standards--to a cavalry regiment called after his
name; the President, Mrs. Lincoln, ministers, generals, and a large
gathering present. Mr. Harris made a very long and a very fierce
speech; it could not be said _Ira furor brevis est_; and Colonel
Davies, in taking the standard, was earnest and lengthy in reply.
Then a barrister presented colour No. 2 in a speech full of poetical
quotations, to which Major Kilpatrick made an excellent answer.
Though it was strange enough to hear a political disquisition on
the causes of the rebellion from a soldier in full uniform, the
proceedings were highly theatrical and very effective. “Take, then,
this flag,” &c.--“Defend it with your,” &c.--“Yes, sir, we will
guard this sacred emblem with--,” &c. The regiment then went through
some evolutions, which were brought to an untimely end by a _feu de
joie_ from the infantry in the rear, which instantly broke up the
squadrons, and sent them kicking, plunging, and falling over the
field, to the great amusement of the crowd.
Dined with Lord Lyons, where was Mr. Galt, Financial Minister of
Canada; Mr. Stewart, who has arrived to replace Mr. Irvine, and
others. In our rooms, a grand financial discussion took place in
honour of Mr. Galt, between Mr. Butler Duncan and others, the former
maintaining that a general issue of national paper was inevitable.
A very clever American maintained that the North will be split into
two great parties by the result of the victory which they are certain
to gain over the South--that the Democrats will offer the South
concessions more liberal than they could ever dream of, and that both
will unite against the Abolitionists and Black Republicans.
_December 6th._--Mr. Riggs says the paper currency scheme will
produce money, and make every man richer. He is a banker, and ought
to know; but to my ignorant eye it seems likely to prove most
destructive, and I confess, that whatever be the result of this
war, I have no desire for the ruin of so many happy communities as
have sprung up in the United States. Had it been possible for human
beings to employ popular institutions without intrigue and miserable
self-seeking, and to be superior to faction and party passion, the
condition of parts of the United States must cause regret that an
exemption from the usual laws which regulate human nature was not
made in America; but the strength of the United States--directed by
violent passions, by party interest, and by selfish intrigues--was
becoming dangerous to the peace of other nations, and therefore there
is an utter want of sympathy with them in their time of trouble.
I dined with Mr. Galt, at Willard’s, where we had a very pleasant
party, in spite of financial dangers.
_December 7th._--A visit to the Garibaldi Guard with some of the
Englishry, and an excellent dinner at the mess, which presented
a curious scene, and was graced by sketches from a wonderful
polyglot chaplain. What a company!--the officers present were
composed as follows:--Five Spaniards, six Poles and Hungarians, two
Frenchmen--the most soldierly-looking men at table--one American,
four Italians, and nine Teutons of various States in Germany.
_December 8th._--A certain excellent Colonel who commands a French
regiment visited us to-day. When he came to Washington, one of the
Foreign Ministers who had been well acquainted with him said, “My
dear Colonel, what a pity we can be no longer friends.” “Why so,
Baron?” “Ah, we can never dine together again.” “Why not? Do you
forbid me your table?” “No, Colonel, but how can I invite a man who
can command the services of at least 200 cooks in his own regiment?”
“Well then, Baron, you can come and dine with me.” “What! how do
you think I could show myself in your camp--how could I get my hair
dressed to sit at the table of a man who commands 300 coiffeurs?” I
rode out to overtake a party who had started in carriages for Mount
Vernon to visit Washington’s tomb, but missed them in the wonderfully
wooded country which borders the Potomac, and returned alone.
_December 9th._--Spent the day over Mr. Chase’s report, a copy of
which he was good enough to send me with a kind note, and went out
in the evening with my head in a state of wild financial confusion,
and a general impression that the financial system of England is very
unsound.
_December 10th._--Paid a visit to Colonel Seaton, of the _National
Intelligencer_, a man deservedly respected and esteemed for his
private character, which has given its impress to the journal he
has so long conducted. The New York papers ridicule the Washington
organ, because it does not spread false reports daily in the form
of telegraphic “sensation” news, and indeed one may be pretty sure
that a fact is a fact when it is found in the _Intelligencer_; but
the man, nevertheless, who is content with the information he gets
from it, will have no reason to regret, in the accuracy of his
knowledge or the soundness of his views, that he has not gone to its
noisy and mendacious rivals. In the minds of all the very old men
in the States, there is a feeling of great sadness and despondency
respecting the present troubles, and though they cling to the idea
of a restoration of the glorious Union of their youth, it is hoping
against hope. “Our game is played out. It was the most wonderful and
magnificent career of success the world ever saw, but rogues and
gamblers took up the cards at last; they quarrelled, and are found
out.”
In the evening, supped at Mr. Forney’s, where there was a very
large gathering of gentlemen connected with the press; Mr. Cameron,
Secretary of War; Colonel Mulligan, a tall young man, with dark hair
falling on his shoulders, round a Celtic impulsive face, and a hazy
enthusiastic-looking eye; and other celebrities. Terrapin soup
and canvas-backs, speeches, orations, music, and song, carried the
company onwards among the small hours.
_December 11th._--The unanimity of the people in the South is forced
on the conviction of the statesmen and people of the North, by
the very success of their expeditions in Secession. They find the
planters at Beaufort and elsewhere burning their cotton and crops,
villages and towns deserted at their approach, hatred in every eye,
and curses on women’s tongues. They meet this by a corresponding
change in their own programme. The war which was made to develop and
maintain Union sentiment in the South, and to enable the people to
rise against a desperate faction which had enthralled them, is now to
be made a crusade against slaveholders, and a war of subjugation--if
need be, of extermination--against the whole of the Southern States.
The Democrats will, of course, resist this barbarous and hopeless
policy. There is a deputation of Irish Democrats here now, to effect
a general exchange of prisoners, which is an operation calculated
to give a legitimate character to the war, and is _pro tanto_ a
recognition of the Confederacy as a belligerent power.
_December 12th._--The navy are writhing under the disgrace of the
Potomac blockade, and deny it exists. The price of articles in
Washington which used to come by the river affords disagreeable proof
to the contrary. And yet there is not a true Yankee in Pennsylvania
Avenue who does not believe, what he reads every day, that his
glorious navy could sweep the fleets of France and England off the
seas to-morrow, though the Potomac be closed, and the Confederate
batteries throw their shot and shell into the Federal camps on the
other side. I dined with General Butterfield, whose camp is pitched
in Virginia, on a knoll and ridge from which a splendid view can be
had over the wooded vales and hills extending from Alexandria towards
Manassas, whitened with Federal tents and huts. General Fitz-John
Porter and General M‘Dowell were among the officers present.
_December 12th._--A big-bearded, spectacled, moustachioed, spurred,
and booted officer threw himself on my bed this morning ere I was
awake. “Russell, my dear friend, here you are at last; what ages have
passed since we met!” I sat up and gazed at my friend. “Bohlen! don’t
you remember Bohlen, and our rides in Turkey, our visit to Shumla
and Pravady, and all the rest of it?” Of course I did. I remembered
an enthusiastic soldier, with a fine guttural voice, and a splendid
war saddle and saddle-cloth, and brass stirrups and holsters, worked
with eagles all over, and a uniform coat and cap with more eagles
flying amidst laurel leaves and U.S.’s in gold, who came out to see
the fighting in the East, and made up his mind that there would be
none, when he arrived at Varna, and so started off incontinent up the
Danube, and returned to the Crimea when it was too late; and a very
good, kindly, warm-hearted fellow was the Dutch-American, who--once
more in his war paint, this time acting Brigadier-General[9]--renewed
the memories of some pleasant days far away; and our talk was of
cavasses and khans, and tchibouques, and pashas, till his time was up
to return to his fighting Germans of Blenker’s division.
He was _not_ the good-natured officer who said the other day, “The
next day you come down, sir, if my regiment happens to be on picket
duty, we’ll have a little skirmish with the enemy, just to show you
how our fellows are improved.” “Perhaps you might bring on a general
action, Colonel.” “Well, sir, we’re not afraid of that, either! Let
’em come on.” It did so happen that some young friends of mine, of
H.M.’s 30th, who had come down from Canada to see the army here,
went out a day or two ago with an officer on General Smith’s staff,
formerly in our army, who yet suffers from a wound received at the
Alma, to have a look at the enemy with a detachment of men. The enemy
came to have a look at them, whereby it happened that shots were
exchanged, and the bold Britons had to ride back as hard as they
could, for their men skedaddled, and the Secession cavalry slipping
after them, had a very pretty chase for some miles; so the 30th men
saw more than they bargained for.
Dined at Baron Gerolt’s, where I had the pleasure of meeting Judge
Daly, who is perfectly satisfied the English lawyers have not a
leg to stand upon in the Trent case. On the faith of old and very
doubtful, and some purely supposititious, cases, the American lawyers
have made up their minds that the seizure of the “rebel” ambassadors
was perfectly legitimate and normal. The Judge expressed his belief
that if there was a rebellion in Ireland, and that Messrs. Smith
O’Brien and O’Gorman ran the blockade to France, and were going on
their passage from Havre to New York in a United States steamer,
they would be seized by the first British vessel that knew the fact.
“Granted; and what would the United States do?” “I am afraid we
should be obliged to demand that they be given up; and if you were
strong enough at the time, I dare say you would fight sooner than do
so.” Mr. Sumner, with whom I had some conversation this afternoon,
affects to consider the question eminently suitable for reference and
arbitration.
In spite of drills and parades, M‘Clellan has not got an army yet. A
good officer, who served as brigade-major in our service, told me the
men were little short of mutinous, with all their fine talk, though
they could fight well. Sometimes they refuse to mount guard, or to go
on duty not to their tastes; officers refuse to serve under others to
whom they have a dislike; men offer similar personal objections to
officers. M‘Clellan is enforcing discipline, and really intends to
execute a most villainous deserter this time.
_December 15th._--The first echo of the San Jacinto’s guns in England
reverberated to the United States, and produced a profound sensation.
The people had made up their minds John Bull would acquiesce in the
seizure, and not say a word about it; or they affected to think
so; and the cry of anger which has resounded through the land, and
the unmistakable tone of the British press, at once surprise, and
irritate, and disappoint them. The American journals, nevertheless,
pretend to think it is a mere vulgar excitement, and that the press
is “only indulging in its habitual bluster.”
_December 16th._--I met Mr. Seward at a ball and cotillion party,
given by M. de Lisboa; and as he was in very good humour, and was
inclined to talk, he pointed out to the Prince of Joinville, and all
who were inclined to listen, and myself, how terrible the effects of
a war would be if Great Britain forced it on the United States. “We
will wrap the whole world in flames!” he exclaimed. “No power so
remote that she will not feel the fire of our battle and be burned
by our conflagration.” It is inferred that Mr. Seward means to show
fight. One of the guests, however, said to me, “That’s all bugaboo
talk. When Seward talks that way, he means to break down. He is most
dangerous and obstinate when he pretends to agree a good deal with
you.” The young French Princes, and the young and pretty Brazilian
and American ladies, danced and were happy, notwithstanding the
storms without.
Next day I dined at Mr. Seward’s, as the Minister had given _carte
blanche_ to a very lively and agreeable lady, who has to lament over
an absent husband in this terrible war, to ask two gentlemen to
dine with him, and she had been pleased to select myself and M. de
Geoffroy, Secretary of the Trench Legation, as her thick and her thin
_umbræ_; and the company went off in the evening to the White House,
where there was a reception, whereat I imagined I might be _de trop_,
and so home.
Mr. Seward was in the best spirits, and told one or two rather long,
but very pleasant, stories. Now it is evident he must by this time
know Great Britain has resolved on the course to be pursued, and his
good humour, contrasted with the irritation he displayed in May and
June, is not intelligible.
The Russian Minister, at whose house I dined next day, is better able
than any man to appreciate the use made of the Czar’s professions of
regret for the evils which distract the States by the Americans; but
it is the fashion to approve of everything that France does, and to
assume a violent affection for Russia. The Americans are irritated
by war preparations on the part of England, in case the Government
of Washington do not accede to their demands; and, at the same time,
much annoyed that all European nations join in an outcry against the
famous project of destroying the Southern harbours by the means of
the stone fleet.
_December 20th._--I went down to the Senate, as it was expected at
the Legation and elsewhere the President would send a special message
to the Senate on the Trent affair; but, instead, there was merely a
long speech from a senator, to show the South did not like democratic
institutions. Lord Lyons called on Mr. Seward yesterday to read Lord
Russell’s dispatch to him, and to give time for a reply; but Mr.
Seward was out, and Mr. Sumner told me the Minister was down with the
Committee of Foreign Relations, where there is a serious business in
reference to the State of Mexico and certain European Powers under
discussion, when the British Minister went to the State Department.
Next day Lord Lyons had two interviews with Mr. Seward, read the
despatch, which simply asks for surrender of Mason and Slidell
and reparation, without any specific act named, but he received
no indication from Mr. Seward of the course he would pursue. Mr.
Lincoln has “put down his foot” on no surrender. “Sir!” exclaimed the
President, to an old Treasury official the other day, “I would sooner
die than give them up.” “Mr. President,” was the reply, “your death
would be a great loss, but the destruction of the United States would
be a still more deplorable event.”
Mr. Seward will, however, control the situation, as the Cabinet
will very probably support his views; and Americans will comfort
themselves, in case the captives are surrendered, with a promise
of future revenge, and with the reflection that they have avoided a
very disagreeable intervention between their march of conquest and
the Southern Confederacy. The general belief of the diplomatists is,
that the prisoners will not be given up, and in that case Lord Lyons
and the Legation will retire from Washington for the time, probably
to Halifax, leaving Mr. Monson to wind up affairs and clear out the
archives. But it is understood that there is no ultimatum, and that
Lord Lyons is not to indicate any course of action, should Mr. Seward
inform him the United States Government refuses to comply with the
demands of Great Britain.
Any humiliation which may be attached to concession will be caused
by the language of the Americans themselves, who have given in their
press, in public meetings, in the Lower House, in the Cabinet, and
in the conduct of the President, a complete ratification of the act
of Captain Wilkes, not to speak of the opinions of the lawyers,
and the speeches of their orators, who declare “they will face any
alternative, but that they will never surrender.” The friendly
relations which existed between ourselves and many excellent
Americans are now rendered somewhat constrained by the prospect of a
great national difference.
_December_ (Sunday) _22nd._--Lord Lyons saw Mr. Seward again, but it
does not appear that any answer can be expected before Wednesday. All
kinds of rumours circulate through the city, and are repeated in an
authoritative manner in the New York papers.
_December 23rd_.--There was a tremendous storm, which drove over the
city and shook the houses to the foundation. Constant interviews
took place between the President and members of the Cabinet, and
so certain are the people that war is inevitable, that an officer
connected with the executive of the Navy Department came in to tell
me General Scott was coming over from Europe to conduct the Canadian
campaign, as he had thoroughly studied the geography of the country,
and that in a very short time he would be in possession of every
strategic position on the frontier, and chaw up our reinforcements.
Late in the evening, Mr. Olmsted called to say he had been credibly
informed Lord Lyons had quarrelled violently with Mr. Seward,
had flown into a great passion with him, and so departed. The
idea of Lord Lyons being quarrelsome, passionate, or violent, was
preposterous enough to those who knew him; but the American papers,
by repeated statements of the sort, have succeeded in persuading
their public that the British Minister is a plethoric, red-faced,
large-stomached man in top-boots, knee-breeches, yellow waistcoat,
blue cut-away, brass buttons, and broad-brimmed white hat, who is
continually walking to the State Department in company with a large
bulldog, hurling defiance at Mr. Seward at one moment, and the next
rushing home to receive despatches from Mr. Jefferson Davis, or to
give secret instructions to the British Consuls to run cargoes of
quinine and gunpowder through the Federal blockade. I was enabled
to assure Mr. Olmsted there was not the smallest foundation for the
story; but he seemed impressed with a sense of some great calamity,
and told me there was a general belief that England only wanted a
pretext for a quarrel with the United States; nor could I comfort him
by the assurance that there were good reasons for thinking General
Scott would very soon annex Canada, in case of war.