As men led the way in the formation of a_The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 1, July, 1863 Devoted to Literature and National Policy

country, many women, in view of an association of their sex under that

name, seem to think themselves required to adopt ideas and regulations

approaching as closely as may be to those already existing in the male

League. But as, in private life, woman's duties, though equally

important, are not identical with those of man, so whenever in a

community there is call for united, and therefore public action on the

part of its females, it is because something is necessary to be done

which men by their methods cannot do; consequently, in performing it,

our sex, by striving to merely imitate, without regard to uses, the

machinery or measures of the other, would but defeat their own objects.

This can be realized when we reflect on the fact that the public action

of man has always a tendency to be directive of measures political or

governmental, while that of woman is more legitimately humanitarian or

social.

There is a class of thinking women who are very earnest and undoubtedly

conscientious in their misapprehension of the existence of this fact.

And so great is the restless tumult of their indignation at their

supposed wrongs in not exercising direct influence, political and

governmental, that they fail, either to perceive their own particular

work--sufficient in itself to occupy all their faculties--or else they

confound the sphere of society with the sphere of government, imagine

they are not responsible for errors existing in the former, because they

have no immediate control in the latter, and that in political matters

at least, justice requires the direct action of both sexes; whereas,

according to the natural laws of adaptation of means to ends, the

special control of government on the one hand, and of society on the

other, is distinctly divided between them; so that while the existing

government is an organized expression of the manhood of the age that

founded it, the existing society is a like expression of the womanhood

of the time. Society and government, through the inevitable laws of

sympathy and reaction between things closely connected, influence,

modify, and constantly change each other. But any special interference

on the part of one sex with the direct action of the other in its own

province, not only impedes the other, but also argues a neglect of

legitimate duties, which, it were well to remember, require for their

just performance all the energy, intellect, and moral elevation, each

for its own sphere, possessed by the respective manhood and womanhood

of the community interested.

Although aware that the various circles of the Ladies' Loyal League,

already established, entertain ideas which are in some respects, because

of this existing confusion as to duties, political and social,

dissimilar to each other, yet we believe the one grand moral aim, on the

part of the several branches of the organization everywhere, will

finally be the fostering a healthy, intelligent patriotism, in the

_social and domestic circles_ of our land; and that, through the

aggregate influence of a womanhood true to itself and its own work.

If this conviction be founded in fact, the best method by which such a

patriotism can be cultivated becomes a topic of lively interest to every

woman in America who loves her country. Therefore to all such the

following brief consideration of a subject so intrinsically important,

will not, we trust, seem untimely.

We proceed then to respectfully suggest to the ladies of the Loyal

League some measures and ideas, which, it is hoped, will prove in their

judgment not unworthy of general adoption, in the various branches of

our association.

In enumerating methods whereby it is believed our sex has preëminent

capacity to cultivate a genuine patriotism in our country, we will, as

first in order, mention those easily recognized ones already generally

understood.

As members of the Ladies' Loyal League, we can do good service, first,

by cheering, honoring, and aiding in every fit way, and by every

legitimate means, such men, privates no less than officers, as are our

country's brave defenders, or as have been wounded in being such.

Second, by encouraging new enlistments, and taking pride in seeing the

dear members of our own households go forth to the help of our

imperilled country. Third, by paying special honor to such women in our

midst, as have sent son or husband or father or any near relative to

camp life and battle field, in defence of our free institutions. In

ordinary times, and in ordinary society, individuals take grade

according to active intelligence, or the show of wealth, but in times

like the present--and especially in an association whose awakening

principle is patriotism, those persons who have made the greatest

sacrifices for country should rank first. Indeed is it not advisable

that the League confer honorary distinction on every woman who has given

up such near relatives as son or husband to the dangers of this bloody

war? So long as the United States is in her present condition, so long

must we, as patriots, honor our soldiers, encourage enlistments, and pay

our tribute of respectful admiration to those of our own sex whose

beloved ones have already laid down their lives, or are now offering

their lives in our national defence.

Another moral aim of our League, as explicitly stated in many of the

pledges signed throughout the country, is to frown on all traitors and

all such as we know to be sympathizers with them. We hope no one's

displeasure, will be aroused by a word here. It is very true, no warmly

patriotic woman can now, in the present hour of peril, cordially

associate with such persons as offensively intrude their treasonable

sentiments. But let the patriotic woman not go too far--let her not

forget that when human beings give, as it were, a moral sanction to

feelings of hatred or contempt, they unchain a demon in their breasts.

We are all oftentimes shocked by anecdotes illustrative of the rancorous

spite, and vulgar, unwomanly malignity, cherished by many Southern

females against the Union and its defenders. Now were it not well for

us, on the other side, to take warning, and, for the sake of our own

peace of mind, our own dignity of character, our own Christian virtues,

not fall into the fallacy of thinking it right to indulge in feelings

and words of hate, even toward the criminally disloyal. This topic is

one involving so much of social and personal happiness, we are tempted

to enlarge upon it; but as all our remarks at this time are intended as

mere hints and suggestions, and not as an elaborate discussion, we pass

on to another method of fostering a healthy living patriotism--the fifth

and last of those to which we now direct attention, but the one

evidently the most difficult, and yet for final results the most

important of all. It is the cultivation, in American women, of a true

understanding and appreciation of the principles of our democratic

institutions--with a view to their practical social bearing, and

consequent obligations upon our sex.

Two years ago, a distinguished English philosopher and historian, lately

deceased, expressed the fear that our American system of government was

in advance of the culture of democratic ideas among our people.

Doubtless this observation took the shape of a fear because its author

was cognizant of the truth that when the spirit of a government fails to

be continually nourished by a sympathetic spirit in the prevailing tone

of society throughout the nation over which it presides, then the

government has small assurance of perpetuity.

Being patriots, and having, as women, so much to do with matters social

and educational, would it not be desirable to understand clearly wherein

the foundation principles of our government differ from that of

despotisms and monarchies, and to ascertain whether our practical

life--our society--is in conformity with our own vaunted democracy or

not?

Now the principles upon which our republic was founded teach that one

person has no right to trample on the rights of another--that we can

have no aristocratic order--that he who labors with head or hand is

intrinsically more honorable than the mere idler and pleasure seeker,

however wealthy--that legally neither birth nor riches confer any

special privileges. And in all this the spirit of our American

government is in direct opposition to the spirit of monarchical

institutions. But how is it with American society, in the moulding and

directing of which our sex has so much to do?

However opposed to each other democratic and republican partisans may

feel, the titles of their parties are terms which imply principles

synonymous--and alike in harmony with the genius our government. But

examine society among these parties. Mix with the social circles of our

capitals, during the meetings of our State Legislatures or sessions of

Congress, when democratic ladies are in the ascendency: make another

visit when the ladies of republicans are leading society in the same

places--and do you not find in the practical life of both parties a lack

of the simplicity and earnestness of real republicanism and democracy?

Yes, to our shame as daughters of a republic, we must admit that we take

more pride in ostentation than in simplicity; and that our dominant

social life and culture are a mere reflection, so far as the freedom of

our government will permit them to be, of social life and culture amid

the arrogant aristocracies of Europe!

The relation of an incident which came under our observation in a

Northern city may not be considered out of place here, since it is

illustrative of the workings of our anti-democratic social system, and

how it may even be brought to swallow up practically all sense of the

obligations of patriotism.

Last winter, a sick soldier, who had been suffering in hospital for many

months, was finally discharged as incurable, found by his old widowed

mother, and brought to his relatives, in the city mentioned, to die. As

a soldier, so long as he could bear a musket--and when he was too weak

to carry arms, so long as he could carry a cup of water to the wounded

and dying on the bloody field of Corinth--since which exertion he had

been himself helpless--so long did he serve his country faithfully and

well. But when he came home to die, though some half a dozen Union

families knew his condition, only one paid him the least attention and

respect. It may be supposed this was because his relatives and their

immediate friends were abundantly able to minister to his wants, so that

any outside proffers would seem but officiousness. On the contrary, his

relatives were poor, sickly, and, doubtless because of sickness,

inefficient people. However strange, it is nevertheless true, that

members from two of these Union families, some of them attendants on the

aid society, and all loudly patriotic people, ridiculed the attention of

the one Union family who did try to cheer the suffering soldier,

expressing the sentiment that they would scorn to pay him any attention,

'his people were such a mean, low set.' That was the term applied to the

relatives of the dying hero! and this--not because they failed in

patriotism--not because they were guilty of any immoralities--but

because they were burdened, beyond their strength, by poverty and ill

fortune! And this neglect was persisted in till the end. The dying boy

felt the cruelty of it--if he did not also feel the ingratitude of

it--as may be inferred from the last words he uttered, wherein, after

alluding to the family who did minister to him, he added, with parting

breath, the melancholy comment: 'I am glad somebody noticed me.'

This instance of the pride of class in our country going so far as to

destroy the impulses of ordinary charity, and to blot out of the

conscience the claims of a suffering soldier upon the personal gratitude

of every patriotic heart that can reach him, is, we do hope and believe,

an extreme case. But being a fact, and one illustrative of the

contradiction between the principles of our government and the

principles that sway our social life, we relate it in order to vividly

impress the mournful reality of that contradiction, and the consequent

urgent duty of all women who are indeed patriotic, to make earnest

efforts to bring the daily life of our people, in dress, manners, home

surroundings, and motives of action in family and social circles nearer

to the spirit of true democracy.

To do this requires so much of personal culture and denial of selfish,

arrogant instincts in ourselves, so much of modification in our training

of our children, so much uprooting on our part of cherished prejudices

in society, that, as before stated, it is a most difficult work. But

however difficult, it must be accomplished--and by American women, too,

for men have no power to lead in such a matter as this: it must be

accomplished, or the hope of the freedom and progress of humanity will

be crushed, and democracy on earth die, even out of institutions of

government.

The action of a government, if not modified by the differing social life

of its people, is the practical realization of its theory: and social

life among the people, if not too far restricted by the arbitrary

interference of government, is also a practical realization of its

controlling spirit; consequently, the freer the government the more

plainly are evinced the prevailing principles of those who give the tone

to society; and under our democratic system, women--those who give this

tone to society--are with justice esteemed freer than elsewhere.

But of what value to the race is this greater freedom, if we employ it

in imitating the spirit and customs that are the result of the impeded

society of nations less beneficently governed; rather than in taking

advantage of our wider opportunities to develop a true womanhood, such

as would cause us to regard man neither as a natural foe nor as a model

for servile imitation--such as would prompt us to influence man, not by

any direct sharing in the performance of his peculiar work, but by doing

our own so intelligently and beautifully, that it shall sympathize with,

and elevate the spirit of his.

The society and government of a nation are two great institutions

equally important, and requiring for their wise development equal mental

capacity. And in the economy of Providence in regard to the distribution

of responsibility between the sexes, while man has hitherto modified

governments, woman, among Christian nations--and possibly among pagan

also--has always moulded society. We glance back thus to repeat our

leading idea, because we wish to add here, that to the minds of those

who realize the truth of it, the often vexed question of the comparative

intellectual ability of the sexes is put at rest. For where the imposed

responsibilities, though differing, are equally great, we may justly

infer that the Deity has bestowed on the differing sexes, upon whom

these responsibilities are respectively distributed, equal capacity for

wise performance in its own sphere, and equal power to intellectually

comprehend the other's sphere. For although not so well fitted to

perform the peculiar duties which belong to the other sex--yet each one,

in order to intelligently perform its own labor, must of necessity

understand and sympathize entirely with that of the other.

We cannot linger now upon how society and government always act and

react upon each other--how, in our own particular case, the colonial

matrons of the country lived democracy, before our forefathers

instituted it--how, in times of after peace, the introduction of the

leaven of the spirit of European manners and society caused the

daughters, not having been sufficiently warned and instructed of their

danger, to fall from the practised faith of their mothers, till to-day

we read the alarming fact that American society has slid back, little by

little, till now, alas, it is nearly in conformity with the moral

barbarism of aristocratic institutions! In view of this retrograde state

of things, as patriotic women of America, we can do nothing less than

perform the work of our mothers over again. God grant we may do it--and

do it more effectually than they--inasmuch as we, it is to be hoped,

realize the necessity of so instructing our daughters, that after

generations of women will never, like us, see society lagging behind the

divine principles of true democracy.

The heart of many a patriotic female, throbbing with anguish for her

torn and bleeding country, who has no husband, struggling on the side of

the holy cause, at home or in the army, to be sustained by the

inspiration of a loving woman's self-denying patriotism; who has no sons

or brothers to send to the battle field, and to write brave, cheering,

blessed letters to; whose means are so swallowed up by daily necessities

that she has no money--has not even time to bestow on aid societies and

loyal leagues--the heart of many such, in our land now, bends low in

self-abasement, and groans daily with the thought that she is useless to

her country in its hour of bitter need. Let all such females raise up

their drooping heads, cheer up their hearts, and take courage. Neither

God nor her country requires a woman to act in the face of circumstances

which are inexorable. But this work of reforming the spirit and

remodelling the customs of society on a simple democratic basis, is one

in which every woman--no matter what her condition, nor how

circumstanced--is capable of doing loyal service to country and

humanity. For if she has the will, she can bring her own life, and that

of those affected by her influence, gradually away from the sphere of

principles which are antagonistic to our national institutions.

Let a controlling majority of our sex throughout the United States thus

act--and were our threatened Government doomed now to be indeed

overturned, the startled world has no cause to despair! For then the

women of our land would prove its saviors--for, having recreated society

according to the principle of democracy, they would, through the laws of

reaction, restore that principle again to American institutions;

restore--never again to be shaken thence, because upheld by the

intelligent coöperation of woman.

WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

[The Continental, drawing its very life from its desire of upholding,

strengthening, and sustaining our sacred Union, welcomes the article

from 'west of the Mississippi,' the object of which is to encourage,

through a common literature, the fraternal relations between East and

West, and cherish the great bond of national unity by proclaiming

kindred ties.

We of the East stretch forth loving hands to our brothers of the West,

and, feeling true and loyal hearts beating through the dim spaces

dividing us, bid them God speed, as bone of our bone, and flesh of our

flesh, whose prosperity is our life, whose ruin would be our own

desolation.

'As from the East the lovely exile goes,

Fair on the West a young Aurora glows;

And all the flowers Ionian shores could yield

Blush forth, reblooming in the Hesperian field.'

EDS. CONTINENTAL.]

From our quiet homes, on the western bank of the Mississippi, very

nearly in Boston latitude, we send daily thoughts of business, friendly

interest, and political sympathy unto you who dwell upon our Atlantic

shore. Some of us look back unto you as the prodigal son is said to have

regarded his father's house. All of us have intimate ties binding us

unto you. From you, as the fountain head of literature and intelligence,

through your magazines and journals, we are constantly supplied with the

living current of thought and mental activity. Is it anything but fair

that we should occasionally seek to respond and acknowledge the debt and

the fellowship? For what shall more tend to strengthen the bonds of our

broad Union than these common sympathies of a widespread and national

fraternity of literary tastes and gratifications? Assimilation of mind,

community of thought produced by free interchange of opinion, in the way

of social intercourse, these will open our hearts to each other and

strengthen the links of our national brotherhood. That we may love each

other, let us know each other; that we may know each other, let us not

fail to look each other fairly in the face.

West of the deep and gently flowing northern Mississippi, I know, is a

long way off from the surging waters of your eastern coasts. When you

have come this distance, you are, in so far as distance only is

concerned, pretty well on your way toward the Rocky Mountains, and the

new land of El Dorado, the young and golden Nevada. But yet we are in

fact much nearer to your golden markets than to the hidden ore of our

new Territories. Time and space, whose natural demands have been so

rudely disregarded by the iron progress of science and skill between you

and us, still to a great degree maintain their ancient rule over the

lands west of us. That vast, thrifty vine of speedy transportation,

which has wound itself about the trunk of our national tree, strikes

here and there one of its tendrils out upon the branches beyond us, over

the region of a few counties. In one instance, in the State immediately

south of us, a single energetic scion has crept even to the banks of

the rapid Missouri, and others are pushing steadily on in determined

emulation. But in most cases, we must be content to ride to the

westward, only on the back of the laggard and unambitious coach, that

tortoise of travel, crawling on through prairie and swamp. And it is

still within the recollection of almost the youngest inhabitant, how the

daily trains, drawn by horse, mule, or ox, dragged themselves through

our streets, proclaiming from their cotton coverings their distant

destination, illustrating on their march the Western 'Excelsior'--

'The wheels in mud were sticking fast,

As through a boundless prairie passed

A youth, who drove a two-mule team,

While on his wagon top was seen.

PIKE'S PEAK.'

Thus eastward we are within forty-eight hours of your press, while

westward we are nearly as many days distant by private conveyance from

the land of fabled wealth. But time and space must eventually give in.

They are not equal to the task; and already the shadow of the great

Pacific road makes them tremble for their natural tenure of the free

West. It might have done for Æsop to talk about the tortoise and the

hare, when they had not steam in those days to course their streams and

stalk across their plains with giant tread, eclipsing the old

seven-league boots of their fancy; but the tortoise is a used-up

individual, is short of breath, and it is the passenger that sleeps,

while the hare leaps onward to his covert.

Being thus brought near to you by the swift convoys of science, it will

be evident that we are not so far away as we seem. We do not perpetrate

an Irish bull when we say that the distance _to_ a place is often

greater than the distance in returning. It is, on the contrary, a well

authenticated natural fact--a phenomenon, if you please. And by way of

illustration we may aver that it is a great deal farther from your

metropolis to west of the Mississippi, than from west of the Mississippi

to the metropolis.

You sit in your cosy parlors and offices and think of some friend or

relative, perhaps a son or daughter, in the 'far West.' It seems as if a

sea spread out between you, or at least the better part of a continent.

You think of India and China, perchance, or of England or France, and

you feel as if they were all nearly equidistant with the home of your

beloved ones. It is so far away out to the Father of Waters, and you can

never make up your mind, without great and frequent resolution, to

undertake such a journey as this.

But, my friends, it is not half so far as that, from us to the Atlantic

coast. It is not so far from us to you, as it is to some tardy customer,

whose bills are yet to collect, a hundred miles down the country by a

two-days' stage adventure. Not nearly so far. Why, when we want to go to

New York or Boston, we don't pack our trunks and take a cargo of luggage

on board for a two-months' voyage. We just tumble hurriedly a few things

into a valise or carpet sack before we go to bed, and the next morning

off we start, and after two days of sight-seeing and newspaper reading

along the way, and two nights' comfortable sleeping-car rest, we wake up

at the dawn of the third day to bid you good morning and inquire after

the markets; and that is the end of it.

It isn't so very far, after all. We put off in the morning, bid good

evening to Chicago, good morning to Toledo, a ten-o'clock good night to

Buffalo, and we sit down to a late breakfast with you the following day.

But then if you have never been out here, it's a long, long distance,

and we advise you not to try it all of a sudden, nor to come without a

trunk. _Quod erat demonstrandum._

Then, in the next place, being out here, what sort of a people are we?

This is a very important query. In the eyes of many we are Western

semi-barbarians, without an overplus of manners, means, comforts,

knowledge, or many, if any, of the means of Eastern and refined

enjoyment. We have come hither to make our fortunes, or to care for

those who have, and we are the fit objects of spiritual and temporal

commiseration and missionary operations. That is the idea somewhat

candidly expressed, isn't it? Oh, no! you don't think so poorly of us as

that; but then we are a great ways off, in fact, in a new country, among

strangers for the most part, and of course we cannot expect to find

everything at hand which we enjoyed in our former comfortable homes.

Well, we are, many of us, from the 'far' East, and most of us from

eastward. But we have tried to bring whatever of refinement, manners,

knowledge, proprieties, and comforts we before possessed, such as they

were, with us, and we haven't lost many of them. We do not believe that

contact with the Indians has very much barbarized us. We still read and

write and live in houses which we have built, and conduct mercantile and

other transactions on former equitable principles; and our

communications and intercourse with each other may still be said to be

civilized, at least in great measure. We eat and drink what we formerly

did, not excepting occasional shad and frequent oysters; and you do not

seem to be averse to trying our deer and grouse once in a while--while

we even share with you our wheat, cattle, and pork. We don't wear

moccasons as yet, nor buckskin with Indian trimmings, instead of doeskin

with the latest cut. We try, for the sake of appearances, to wear cotton

and woollen and silk; and beads and trinkets are in no extraordinary

demand. Beavers and furs are seen upon our streets; and the sound of the

piano heard in the land, is not a very unusual disturbance. Our boys, as

of old, smoke cigars in secret, fearful of ancient birch, and gum drops

still adhere to the pockets of our girls in school. We don't see a very

remarkable difference between the children about us and those we knew at

a somewhat early age. Brick and stone rise with us into comfortable and

even aspiring buildings, and the price of board is not less than we have

paid before, nor so very much more. We neither travel nor live on half

fare. And men still drive the horse before the cart, and carry the wheat

in both ends of the bag as they go to mill.

In fact, we don't see that civilization has lost much flesh in its

arduous journey to the far West; nor that, being human before, we have

become less human now, or discarded our manners when we shut the doors

of our birthplace behind us. We know indeed that Colenso went to convert

the heathen, and that the heathen succeeded in converting him, thus

putting the boot on the other leg; but the Indians have not yet won us

to their dusky faith, although we must confess that assimilation to

their copper-colored principles seems to have made some Copperheads

among us.

As to works of art, they are not very plentiful hereabouts, excepting in

the way of monuments perhaps. We have a generous number of those,

erected to the large-heartedness and wisdom of persons who engaged in

great improvement schemes, in the line of speculation, when there was

but a fictitious basis of wealth in this land, before the bubble burst.

These monuments, however, are not generally esteemed ornamental, and the

wealth so lavishly expended upon them came not from the bosom of our

communities, neither was it imported from north of us, nor west of us,

but from whence I will not say. Perhaps some one who reads can help to

account for part of it. These monuments, however, such as they are,

have, by the liberal contributions made for their erection, exceeded in

cost that of Bunker Hill, or the half-finished shot tower in Washington.

Our only statues do not represent either the Father of his Country, nor

the late old public defunctionary who sat in his chair--but they are

principally devoted to 'the poor Indian,' in native costume. These

statues, frequently wooden, exhibit the wonted hospitality of this race,

and maintain the attitude of proffering a cigar to the friendly passer

by.

Of paintings there is not a superfluity; still we have a small

collection, comprising several which have for some years been on public

exhibition, illustrating 'The Good Samaritan;' 'Prodigious;'

'Washington's Blacksmith shoeing Washington's Horse,' and others of

less note, while ----'s panorama of the war has lately departed from us.

Still we have our public and private schools, seminaries, and churches,

as others have in fully civilized countries; our newspapers, white and

bronze; our leading men, and officeholders; natives of all climes and

kindreds, Jew and Gentile, German and French, Bohemian and Scotch,

English and Irish; our generals and our corporals; our learned and our

unlearned; debtors and creditors--comprising mostly all of us; but

believe me, friend, not a solitary living Indian.

I think we are a generous, hospitable, liberal people, up to the full

limit of our means and capabilities. Being all away from home, as it

were, and all strangers together, we have learned the blessedness of

sympathy, and how a little lift is often a great boost, and a friend in

need a friend indeed. It was formerly said that when a stranger

appeared, the inhabitants emulously set to work to take him in, not

however in the flattering and hospitable sense of the words. But as

almost without exception any man in a new place or position is a verdant

man, so we honestly maintain that they took themselves in, and found it

rather difficult to take themselves out again. I believe that we are as

quiet, honest, genteel, and mind-your-own-business a set of folks as you

may find in most other and more favored communities. With the constant

and increasing accessions to our society from more enlightened regions,

it would be a wonder did we not attain in time to a level with many

other and older-settled countries, who are apt to look abroad with

serene complacency gathering motes in open eyes, We have had our castles

in the air, and some of them are now underground; but we have read of

South Sea bubbles, rise and fall in stocks, 'On to Richmonds,'

McClellans, and Congress; and we don't think the beams are all in our

own eyes and the motes too.

In fact we are not heathen nor barbarian, Goth nor Vandal, Hottentot nor

Fire Eater--but bone of your bone, flesh of your flesh--one with you in

all the customs, proprieties, civilization, and hopes of the great

American people; bound to save the republic of our fathers, if we go to

the death in defence of our mutual rights, principles, and homes.

Do you ask then, 'What is the need of saying all this, since we know it

all?' I reply, there is need of saying it, and of repeating it again.

There may not be need of it for you, my friend; there is need of it for

many others. Talk not of making us of one flesh twain. It cannot be. It

is not a question of mere _interest_ that shall bind us as a people

inseparably in one. God will not solder a chain. It is a higher bond, a

holier bond. We are essentially and intrinsically one; one by nature;

one by mutual sympathies, by blood relations, by dearest ties; one in

all that constitutes the unity of a family relation; one in heart, one

in aim, one in mind, purpose, education, and will. None can make us two.

Lines may be drawn by ambitious schemers, divisions discussed, but these

do not constitute separation or alienation. The heart of the people

beats in profound and resolute unison. What God hath joined together let

not man put asunder.

Rise, then, as thou art already rising, great heart of the troubled

nation, throb from one confine to the other, bid faction's agitation

hush, crush down opposition, scorn the unholy threat, dash the

traitorous scheme, and declare the resolute and solemn purpose of all

the members to live and govern together, as parts of the same living

unity, till the whole body politic becomes a prostrate, lifeless corpse.

And from the western border of the States, even from among the youngest

and least of the children of the Union of Seventy-six, the union of

oaths and the union of hearts, the union of instincts and the union of

hopes, do we, in the name of her daughters and sons, bid you, upon the

eastern confines, and the States between, you the mothers, and you the

elder daughters, all hail, and God speed you in the work of forging

anew, even in the fierce fires, the links that bind us into one; 'so

making peace.'

For we are of you and with you, and will be ever, while our setting sun

is your rising sun--ever, until we become two distinct and divergent

races--till you cease to be Joseph and we cease to be Benjamin--till you

become Edom and we become Moab--till long centuries shall have erased

all kindred ties and bonds of consanguinity, and all men, forgetful of

history, shall sink together into vassalage and ancient barbarism. But

until then we are one in heart, one in life, and must abide one in fact,

or sink together to common shameful desolation.

THE CAVALIER THEORY REFUTED.

A remarkable feature of all discussions of questions connected with the

present civil war, is the lack of any attempt to question the foundation

of important assertions. Our orators and writers have been ready to

explain or soften adverse statements, but they have rarely questioned

the existence of any asserted facts. One of the most persistent

assumptions of the secessionists has been that the inhabitants of their

States are the descendants of the gentry of England, and that the

Unionists of the loyal States have neither any identity of origin nor a

historical pedigree. On this assumed fact they build two arguments:

first, that being homogeneous, they are united to a degree to which the

Northerners can never attain; secondly, that the English people, and

especially the English gentry, are closely allied to them in blood, and

should naturally sympathize with them in their voluntary opposition to

the constituted Government.

I propose to show that not only are these assertions unfounded, but that

the reverse is the truth; and this I feel authorized in doing for

several reasons.

In the first place, if there be no advantage in placing ourselves right

in our own eyes, our cause can be advanced in the eyes of foreign

observers, by the publication of the truth. Were the facts as

represented, an Englishman would be justified, to a certain degree, in

sympathizing with a large number of the descendants of Englishmen,

engaged in a revolt against a superior number of foreigners. His intense

nationality, which has so long given his nation an undue influence,

leads him to take this view, and his belief in English invincibility

causes him to prejudge the case, and to deem the subjugation of his

Southern relatives an impossibility.

Secondly, class prejudices are aroused everywhere in Europe by the idea

that a nation of gentlemen is contending for every right against a

vulgar crowd; the idea of what in reality constitutes an American

democracy being still exceedingly nebulous to the European mind.

Thirdly, we have borne too long the imputation thus cast on us, for our

own good in the management of our own affairs. Already expression has

been given to threats of ultimate division of the North into separate

nationalities, on the ground that we have no common interests and no

common origin. It seems well, therefore, to investigate the data at

hand, and to see if the South be so united or the North so divided as

alleged.

A few tables, prepared from the official Census returns, will serve to

place the question in a clear light, and they will be easily confirmed

or rejected.

I assume in the following table that the inhabitants of the United

States were citizens by birth, and by deducting at the end of each

decade the number of immigrants, we have what may fairly be claimed as

the percentage of natural increase. I have added the slight excess over

the percentage to the column of native born, believing this advantage at

least belongs to them:

WHITE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES.

TABLE NO. I.--INCREASE AND IMMIGRATION.

-----+--------+----------+----------+-------+-------+-------+-------+

Date.| of | per | | | | | |

|Natural | Census. | 1790. | 1800. | 1810. | 1820. | 1830. |

-----+--------+----------+----------+-------+-------+-------+-------+

1790 | | 3,172,464| 3,172,464| | | | |

| 33.7 | | 1,071,971| 50,000| | | |

| | |----------+-------| | | |

1800 | | 4,294,435| 4,244,435| 50,000| | | |

| 34.4 | | 1,465,290| 16,200| 70,000| | |

| | |----------+-------+-------| | |

1810 | | 5,845,925| 5,709,725| 66,200| 70,000| | |

| 32.1 | | 1,835,672| 21,250| 22,470|114,000| |

| | |----------+-------+-------+-------+ |

1820 | | 7,839,317| 7,545,397| 87,450| 92,470|114,000| |

| 32.1 | | 2,424,228| 28,071| 29,781| 36,594|151,824|

| | |----------+-------+-------+-------+-------|

1830 | |10,509,815| 9,969,625|115,521|122,251|150,594|151,824|

| 29 | | 2,899,444| 33,501| 35,452| 43,673| 44,028|

| | |----------+-------+-------+-------+-------+

1840 | |14,165,038|12,869,069|149,022|157,703|194,267|195,852|

| 25.1 | | 3,238,699| 37,403| 39,583| 48,761| 49,157|

| | |----------+-------+-------+-------+-------+

1850 | |19,442,272|16,107,768|186,425|197,286|243,028|245,009|

| 23.9 | | 3,868,994| 44,456| 47,151| 58,083| 58,557|

| | |----------+-------+-------+-------+-------+

1860 | |26,706,425|19,976,762|230,881|244,437|301,111|303,566|

-----+--------+----------+----------+-------+-------+-------+-------+

-----+--------+----------+-------+---------+---------

Date.| of | per | | |

|Natural | Census. | 1840. | 1850. | 1860.

-----+--------+----------+-------+---------+---------

1790 | | 3,172,464| | |

| 33.7 | | | |

| | | | |

1800 | | 4,294,435| | |

| 34.4 | | | |

| | | | |

1810 | | 5,845,925| | |

| 32.1 | | | |

| | | | |

1820 | | 7,839,317| | |

| 32.1 | | | |

| | | | |

1830 | |10,509,815| | |

| 29 | |599,125| |

| | |-------| |

1840 | |14,165,038|599,125| |

| 25.1 | |150,380|1,713,251|

| | |-------+---------|

1850 | |19,442,272|749,505|1,713,251|

| 23.9 | |179,131| 409,467|2,598,214

| | |-------+---------+---------

1860 | |26,706,425|928,636|2,122,718|2,598,214

-----+--------+----------+-------+---------+---------

This table shows us that in the States in 1860, out of 26,706,425 white

inhabitants, 19,976,762 were the descendants of the original citizens of

1790. I omit the Territories, as the number of inhabitants cannot affect

the result, and it is difficult to decide upon their nationality.

In Table II, I propose to divide the inhabitants of 1790 into four

classes, the first comprising New England; the second, New York, New

Jersey, and Pennsylvania; the third, Virginia, North Carolina, South

Carolina, and Georgia; and the fourth, Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and

Tennessee.

Allowing to each class the same percentage of increase as in the former

table, we shall see how our nineteen millions of native-born citizens

originated:

INCREASE OF NATIVE WHITE POPULATION.

TABLE NO. II.

-----+---------+------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------

Date.|Increase.|Table No. I.| England. | &c. | &c. | &c.

-----+---------+------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------

1790 | | 3,172,464 | 992,781 | 908,195 | 923,383 | 348,105

| 33.7 | | 335,417 | 306,911 | 312,030 | 117,618

-----+---------+------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------

1800 | | 4,244,435 | 1,328,198 | 1,215,106 | 1,235,413 | 465,718

| 34.4 | | 458,465 | 419,596 | 426,582 | 160,647

-----+---------+------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------

1810 | | 5,709,725 | 1,786,663 | 1,634,702 | 1,661,995 | 626,365

| 32.1 | | 574,369 | 525,589 | 534,350 | 201,364

-----+---------+------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------

1820 | | 7,545,397 | 2,361,032 | 2,160,291 | 2,196,345 | 827,729

| 32.1 | | 758,541 | 694,103 | 705,676 | 265,908

-----+---------+------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------

1830 | | 9,969,625 | 3,119,573 | 2,854,394 | 2,902,021 | 1,093,637

| 29 | | 907,176 | 830,274 | 844,086 | 317,908

-----+---------+------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------

1840 | | 12,869,069 | 4,026,749 | 3,684,668 | 3,746,107 | 1,411,545

| 25.1 | | 1,012,464 | 927,852 | 943,272 | 355,111

-----+---------+------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------

1850 | | 16,107,768 | 5,039,213 | 4,612,520 | 4,689,379 | 1,766,656

| 23.9 | | 1,210,270 | 1,108,292 | 1,126,661 | 423,771

-----+---------+------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------

1860 | | 19,976,762 | 6,249,483 | 5,720,812 | 5,816,040 | 2,190,427

-----+---------+------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------

Here then we see that New England has contributed nearly one third of

the number, and nearly one quarter of the entire population.

But I will endeavor further to analyze the constitution of the different

States which were added to the Union previous to 1860. The following

table will show the numbers at each decade:

TABLE NO. III.

NORTHERN FOREIGN IMMIGRATION AND SOUTHERN EMIGRATION.

-----+----------------------------------++-----------------------------------

| FREE STATES. || SLAVE STATES.

|-----------+----------+-----------++-----------+----------+------------

|Inhabitants| | ||Inhabitants| |

Date.|per Census.| Natives. |Immigrants.||all Native.|Emigrants.|Immigrants.

-----+-----------+----------+-----------++-----------+----------+-------------

1810 | 3,653,219| 3,421,365| 231,854 || 2,192,706 | 95,654 |

| | | || | |

1820 | 5,030,371| 4,521,323| 509,048 || 2,808,946 | 215,048 |

| | | || | |

1830 | 6,874,302| 5,973,967| 900,335 || 3,635,513 | 360,145 |

| | | || | |

1840 | 9,560,165| 7,711,417| 1,848,748 || 4,604,873 | 552,779 |

| | | || | |

1850 | 13,257,795| 9,651,733| 3,606,062 || 6,184,477 | 271,558 |

| | | || | |

1860 | 17,993,585|11,970,295| 6,023,290 || 8,712,840 | -- | 706,373

-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------

We have now certain data from which to argue, and I will first

investigate the alleged homogeneity of the South. Conceding that every

citizen of the two classes of Virginia, etc., and Delaware, etc., in

1790, was indisputably the descendant of an English cavalier, and that

the increase of population found an outlet into the new Slave States,

how would the case stand?

In 1860 these States contained 8,712,840; by Table II we calculated they

should contain 8,006,467; so that even in this case there are some

700,000 foreigners. But a little more research shows that the case is

much more unfavorable.

Up to 1840, the Southern States not only could have furnished all the

settlers in the Slave States, but must have sent out colonists. In 1840,

they had 4,604,873 inhabitants; add to this the natural increase, 25.1

per cent. (1,155,823), and we have 5,760,696 native born, and 423,781

foreigners required make their total of 6,184,477 inhabitants.

But in the next decade, add to the 5,760,696 native born, their

percentage of increase 23.9 (1,376,806), and we have 7,137,502,

requiring 1,575,338 foreigners, _more than one sixth_, for their total

of 8,712,840 white inhabitants.

By no conceivable chance can more than five sixths of the population of

the South be descended from the English cavaliers.

But if we concede to every Virginian, not only his inherent gentility,

but his unswerving purpose never to emigrate out of slave territory, and

an intuitive presentiment which pointed out which were to be the slave

portions of adjacent Territories, by these same percentages of increase

the 442,215 Virginian cavaliers of 1790 could be the progenitors of only

2,785,927 patricians to rally around the model cavalier of

1860--Jefferson Davis.

Lastly, in an estimate published in 1848 by Mr. Jesse Pickering, devoted

entirely to the consideration of immigration as a national question, it

is argued, with every appearance of truth, that in 1840 the foreign

population of the Slave States was 1,177,965. But these must have

displaced an equal number of the native born, and we should have only

3,426,908 of that class in 1840, 4,287,061 in 1850, and 5,311,668 in

1860, or in that case only five eighths of the population could be of

native descent, provided that not one emigrated. When we consider that

the great immigration of all was between 1840 and 1860, we are forced to

conclude that certainly not more than one half of the inhabitants of the

present confederate States can present the faintest claim to a descent

from the citizens of 1790.

When we seriously endeavor to investigate the claims of Virginians to a

descent from the English gentry, we are stopped by their practical

denial of the first principles of genealogy.

The public records of their State, as shown by the highest authority,

the bishop of the diocese, are most imperfect. The records of the

parishes have been lost, the churchyards destroyed, and few authorities,

save tradition, can be given for these ambitious claims. Bishop Meade's

work, especially devoted to the history of the 'Old Churches and Old

Families of Virginia,' gives less than thirty families, clearly traced,

to the English gentry. These are those of Ambler, Barradall, Baylor,

Bushrod, Burwell, Carter, Digges, Fairfax, Fitzhugh, Fowke, Harrison,

Jacqueline, Lee, Lewis, Ludwell, Mason, Robinson, Spottswood, Sandys,

and Washington. I believe I have omitted none, and have rather strained

a point in admitting some.

I do not, of course, mean to deny that others may exist, but until the

proofs are submitted to examination, there is no justice in presuming

them to exist. Let us see how far the historians of Virginia support the

'cavalier' theory. Robert Beverley (I quote from the edition published

at Richmond in 1855) says:

'Those that went over to that country first, were chiefly single

men who had not the incumbrance of wives and children in England;

and if they had, they did not expose them to the fatigue and hazard

of so long a voyage, until they saw how it should fare with

themselves. From hence it came to pass, that when they were settled

there in a comfortable way of subsisting a family, they grew

sensible of the misfortune of wanting wives, and such as had left

wives in England sent for them, but the single men were put to

their shifts. They excepted against the Indian women on account of

their being pagans, as well as their complexions, and for fear

they should conspire with those of their own nation to destroy

their husbands. Under this difficulty they had no hopes but that

the plenty in which they lived might invite modest women, of small

fortunes, to go over thither from England. However, they would not

receive any but such as could carry sufficient certificate of their

modesty and good behavior. Those, if they were but moderately

qualified in all other respects, might depend upon marrying very

well in those days, without any fortune. Nay, the first planters

were so far from expecting money with a woman, that 'twas a common

thing for them to buy a deserving wife that carried good

testimonials of her character, at the price of one hundred pounds,

and make themselves believe they had a bargain.

'§67. But this way of peopling the colony was only at first. For

after the advantages of the climate and the fruitfulness of the

soil were well known, and all the dangers incident to infant

settlements were over, people of better condition retired thither

with their families, either to increase the estates they had

before, or to avoid being persecuted for their principles of

religion or government.

'Thus in the time of the rebellion in England _several_ good

cavalier families went thither with their effects to escape the

tyranny of the usurper, or acknowledgment of his title. And so

again, upon the Restoration, many people of the opposite party took

refuge there, to shelter themselves from the king's resentment. But

Virginia had not many of these last, because that country was

famous for holding out the longest for the royal family of any of

the English dominions.[13] For which reason the Roundheads went,

for the most part, to New England, as did most of those that in the

reign of King Charles II were molested on account of their

religion, though some of these fell likewise to the share of

Virginia.

As for malefactors condemned to transportation, though the greedy

planter will always buy them, yet it is to be feared they will be

very injurious to the country, which has already suffered many

murders and robberies, the effect of that new law of England.'

Beverley notes also about these servants that 'a white woman is rarely

or never put to work in the ground, if she be good for anything else.'

Bishop Meade (vol. i, p. 89) speaks also of these female servants:

'While the company and the Governor were endeavoring to improve the

condition of the colony, by selecting a hundred young females of

good character, to be wives to the laborers on the farms of

Virginia, King James had determined to make of the colony a Botany

Bay for the wretched convicts in England, and ordered one hundred

to be sent over. The company remonstrated, but in vain. A large

portion, if not all of them, were actually sent. The influence of

this must have been pernicious. Whether it was continued by his

successors, and how long, and to what extent, I know not.'

And again (pp. 365-'6), he says:

'The greatest difficulty they (the vestrymen) appear to have had

was with the hired servants, of whom, at an early period, great

numbers came over to this country, binding themselves to the richer

families. The number of illegitimate children born of them and

thrown upon the parish, led to much action on the part of the

vestries and the legislature. _The lower order of persons in

Virginia, in a great measure, sprang from these apprenticed

servants and from poor exiled culprits.'_

Stith says (ed. 1747, p. 103), under date of 1609:

'But a great part of this new company consisted of unruly sparks,

packed off by their friends to escape worse destinies at home. And

the rest were chiefly made up of poor gentlemen, broken tradesmen,

rakes, and libertines, footmen, and such others as were much fitter

to spoil or ruin a commonwealth, than to help to raise or maintain

one.'

Again (p. 306), in describing one of the domestic quarrels of the

colony, he copies a statement:

'And whereas it was affirmed that very few of his majesty's

servants were lost in those days, and those persons of the meanest

rank, they replied that for one that then died, five had perished

in Sir Thomas Smith's time, many being of ancient houses, and born

to estates of a thousand pounds a year, some more, some less, who

likewise perished by famine.'

These extracts are all that I can urge in support of the claim of

Virginians to be descended from the English gentry. There may be many

other authorities; it is for the asserters of this theory to produce

them, and I certainly would republish them if I could obtain them.

Let us, however, leave Virginia for a time, to consider the origin of

the inhabitants of Delaware, Maryland, the Carolinas, Georgia, and those

other confederate States which also claim the honor of an English

paternity. Here our means of information become more plain and

accessible. From about 1730 up to the time of the Revolution, these

colonies were the object of the constant attention of England. The wars

with France and Spain and the projects of the proprietors of these

grants of land combined to make the public of England anxious for

information concerning them. I will merely cite from the _London

Magazine_ of that date, though a more extended search, I doubt not,

would add to the strength of my position. I find in the first place that

the new population was not only not cavalier, but not even English. I

find that 'the design of this settlement (Georgia) was to provide an

asylum or place of refuge for the honest industrious poor, and the

unfortunate, with some view to the relief of the persecuted Protestants

in Germany. Among these unfortunate persons it could not be guarded

against that numbers, unfortunate only by their own vices or follies,

intruded themselves among the real 'objects of charity.' In 1737, these

Saltzburghers had built a town, Ebenezer, in Georgia. Mr. Oglethorpe

also 'planted upon the fourth frontier, at a place called by him Darien,

a colony of Scottish Highlanders.' 'The southernmost settlement in South

Carolina is now the town of Purrysburg, which was built by Captain

Purry, a gentleman of Swisserland, at the head of a number of his own

countrymen, who went over with him soon after that country became a

royal government.' In 1765 a new fort was built 'on the Savannah river,

about fifteen miles above Hillsborough township, which will be of great

use to the three new settlements of Irish, French, and German

Protestants.' In 1762, 'the Governor of South Carolina has granted forty

thousand acres of land to be laid out into two townships for a number of

people from Ireland, who are expected here.'

In 1762, 'upward of six hundred German emigrants, men, women, and

children, consisting of Wurtzburghers and Palatines, all Protestants,

who were brought here by one Colonel Stumpel, with a promise to be

immediately settled in America,' were landed in England, and charitably

aided to go to South Carolina. In 1766, I read of Florida, 'the

principal town is Pensacola, and as many of the French, who inhabited

here before the treaty, have chose to become British subjects for the

sake of keeping their estates,' that more foreigners were added to the

Southern colonies.

Mr. Pickett, whose history of Alabama was published at Charleston, S.

C., in 1851, adds, 'a company of forty Jews, acting under the broad

principle of the charter, which gave freedom to all religions, save that

of the Romish Church, landed at Savannah. Much dissatisfaction, both in

England and America, arose in consequence of these Israelites, and

Oglethorpe was solicited to send them immediately from the colony. He,

however, generously permitted them to remain, which was one of the

wisest acts of his life, for they and their descendants were highly

instrumental in developing the commercial resources of this wild land.'

'The colony of Georgia had prospered under the wise guidance of

Oglethorpe. The colonists, being from different nations, were various in

their characters and religious creeds. Vaudois, Swiss, Piedmontese,

Germans, Moravians, Jews from Portugal, Highlanders, English, and

Italians were thrown together in this fine climate, new world, and new

home.'

Even Virginia was not entirely English. Barber's account of the State

(p. 451) says of the valley of the Shenandoah:

'The eastern part of the valley being conveniently situated for

emigrants from Pennsylvania, as well as from lower Virginia, the

population there came to be a mixture of English Virginians and

German and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. The German Pennsylvanians,

being passionate lovers of fat lands, no sooner heard of the rich

valleys of the Shenando and its branches, than they began to join

their countrymen from Europe in pouring themselves forth over the

country above Winchester. Finding the main Shenando mostly

preoccupied, they followed up the north and south branches on both

sides of the Massanutten, or Peaked Mountain, until they filled up

all the beautiful vales of the country for the space of sixty

miles. So completely did they occupy the country, that the few

stray English or Irish settlers among them did not sensibly affect

the homogeneousness of the population.'

And again:

'The first settlements of this portion of the valley were made by

the Scotch Irish, with a few original Scotch among them. They

settled in the neighorhoods around Martinsburg, in Berkely county,

Winchester, and almost the entire counties of Orange and Guilford.

The same race went on into North Carolina, and settled in the

counties of Orange and Guilford, especially in the northern and

middle parts of the latter county.'

Beverley writes (p. 228):

'The French refugees sent in thither by the charitable exhibition

of his late majesty King William, are naturalized by a particular

law for that purpose. In the year 1699 there went over about three

hundred of these, and in the year following about two hundred more,

and so on, till there arrived in all between seven and eight

hundred men, women, and children, who had fled from France on

account of their religion.'

Bishop Meade (ii. 75) writes:

'That twelve Protestant German families, consisting of about fifty

persons, arrived, April 17th, in Virginia, and were therein settled

near the Rappahannock river. That in 1717, seventeen Protestant

German families, consisting of about fourscore persons, came and

set down near their countrymen. And many more, both German and

Swiss families, are likely to come there and settle likewise.'

This report was made in 1720.

These facts show in the clearest manner that a great percentage of the

inhabitants of the seceding States are not of English origin. Even the

English were not all Cavalier and Episcopalian. The _London Magazine_,

in an 'Account of the British Plantations,' says:

'What contributed much more toward the establishment of the colony,

was their granting a plenary indulgence to people of all religions,

as by their charter they were empowered to do; for by this great

numbers of dissenters were induced to sell their estates in England

and transport themselves and families to Carolina; so that by the

year 1670 a numerous colony was at once sent out.'

One last consideration, of possible impurity of blood, and I will

proceed to examine the antecedents of those colonists who were of

English blood.

In 1853, a memoir of James Fontaine was published, accompanied by

letters from members of his family. He was a Huguenot, who had settled

in Virginia, and his descendants have been among the most distinguished

of her citizens.

The letters of his sons to relatives in England are very instructive. I

quote from one from Peter Fontaine, dated March 2, 1756, in which he

regrets that the English had not intermarried with the Indians:

'But here methinks I can hear you observe, 'What! Englishmen

intermarry with Indians?' But I can convince you that they are

guilty of much more heinous practices, more unjustifiable in the

sight of God and man (if that indeed may be called a bad practice);

for many base wretches among us take up with negro women, by which

means the country swarms with mulatto bastards, and these

mulattoes, if but three generations removed from the black father

or mother, may, by the indulgence of the laws of the country,

intermarry with the white people, _and actually do every day so

marry_.'

This is the testimony of a Virginian gentleman, made a century ago; I do

not care to more than point to the possible infusion of other than

English blood into the veins of the gentlemen who desire to adopt the

Cavalier as their national device.

We now proceed to examine the social position, prior to the emigration,

of those Englishmen who did in a certain degree colonize the present

Slave States, and in a much greater degree colonize New England. I must

confess having long wondered at the persistent statement of Englishmen

that the citizens of the United States were the offspring of the

vagabonds and felons of Europe. Having examined the history of the

families of New England with much interest, and finding therein no

confirmation of this idea, I had held it but the outbreak of prejudice

and ignorance. Yet since the present rebellion has caused so much

inquiry into the antecedents of the Southerners, I find that the

assertion is well founded, but that it concerns those who have hitherto

been loudest in their claims to a distinguished ancestry.

I find among the items of monthly intelligence in the _London Magazine_,

the records of felons sentenced to transportation to his majesty's

plantations in America, and often the different colonies named. I find a

calculation incidentally made, about 1750, that 500 culprits were hung

annually in Great Britain--and bloody as the circuits then were, I

cannot believe that less than ten times that number annually received

the questionable charity of expatriation. I will give a few extracts to

show the foundation upon which Southern society has been erected.

In October, 1732, '68 men and 50 women, felons convict, were carried

from Newgate to Black Fryars, and put on board a lighter to be carried

down the river to be shipped on board the Cæsar, off of Deptford, for

transportation to Virginia.' January, 1736: 'This morning 140 felons

convict for transportation, were carried from Newgate, and shipped for

the plantations, and 18 likewise from the new gaol at Southwark.' In

May, 106 were also so shipped. In 1738, 126 were shipped at one time

'for the plantations.' In 1739, 127 were shipped 'to America.' In 1741,

9 of the felons on board a ship lying at Blackwall, 'to be transported

to Virginia,' made a bold dash to escape. In May, 1747, 'We are informed

that several large ships sailed lately from Liverpool with the rebel

prisoners, under a strong convoy to Virginia and Maryland, and other of

his majesty's plantations, which makes the whole of what have been

transported upward of 1,000.' In January, 1749, 'the 'Laura,' with 135

convicts, bound to Maryland, was cast away.' In 1754, Mr. Stewart was

the contractor to transport convicts 'to America.' In 1758, '63 men and

women transports were sent from Newgate on board the ship 'Trial,' bound

to Maryland, and 45 from the new gaol, Southwark.' Later in the same

year, 53 'for America'--36 men and 20 women 'for the plantations.' In

1761, a ship sails with 8 men and 27 women 'convicts to America.' In

October, '27 women and 18 men from Newgate, 14 from the new gaol, and 62

from the country gaols, were transported to America this month.' In

1762, 36 women and 5 men convicts were shipped 'to America;' '62

convicts were embarked for Maryland.'

In 1766, I find: 'The above observation occurred to my mind a few days

ago, on seeing the convicts pass along to the water side, in order to be

shipped for America, with fifes playing before them, 'Through the wood,

laddie,' '--as an evidence that the practice was then in force and a

matter of course.

In a 'Tour through the British Plantations,' published in this magazine,

in 1755, which contains a good account of each colony, I read of

Virginia that under Sir Edwyn Sandys, 'there were 12,000 acres laid off

for the use of the company, and 100 tenants or planters sent to be

placed thereon; and 3,000 acres for the support of the Governor, for the

planting of which 100 more men were sent; and what was now become

absolutely necessary, there were no less than 90 young women, of a

healthful constitution, and unspotted reputation, sent out to be married

to the planters, instead of diseased and profligate strumpets, _as is

now_ the ridiculous practice.... Thus the company and colony began to be

in a thriving way: but now they began to be oppressed by the Government

here, for in November they were ordered to send over to Virginia, at

their own charge, 100 felons or vagabonds, then it may be supposed in

prison, which they were obliged to comply with.'

The same writer says of Maryland:

'The convicts that are transported here sometimes prove very worthy

creatures and entirely forsake their former follies; but the trade

has for some time run in another channel; and so many volunteer

servants come over, especially Irish, that the other is a commodity

much blown over. Several of the best planters, or their ancestors,

have, in the two colonies,[14] been originally of the convict

class, and therefore are much to be praised and esteemed for

forsaking their old courses.'

In 1751 (p. 293) is printed the following:

'A LETTER LATELY PUBLISHED IN VIRGINIA.

'SIR: When we see our papers filled continually with accounts of

the most audacious robberies, the most cruel murders, and infinite

other atrocities perpetrated by convicts transported from Europe,

what melancholy, what terrible reflections must it occasion! What

will become of our posterity? These are some of thy favors,

Britain! Thou art called our mother country; but what good mother

ever sent thieves and villains to accompany her children; to

corrupt some with their infectious vices, and murder the rest? What

father ever endeavored to spread the plague in his family! We do

not ask fish, but thou givest us serpents, and worse than serpents!

In what can Britain show a more sovereign contempt for us, than by

emptying their gaols into our settlements, unless they would

likewise empty their offal upon our tables? What must we think of

that board, which has advised the repeal of every law we have

hitherto made to prevent this deluge of wickedness overwhelming us;

and with this cruel sarcasm, that these laws were against the

public utility, for they tended to prevent the improvement and well

peopling of the colonies! And what must we think of those

merchants, who, for the sake of a little paltry gain, will be

concerned in importing and disposing of these abominable cargoes?'

With these quotations I would leave the subject to the consideration of

every unprejudiced judgment. Is it not for the Southerner, even for the

Virginian, to produce further evidence of his Cavalier descent before it

can be allowed? We see abundant proofs, taken from authorities in no way

connected with the present inimical feelings of the North and South,

that a very large portion of the English colonists consisted of

transported felons. To this direct evidence--which can only be rebutted

by evidence of the extinction of the descendants of this class and the

infusion of an equal amount of gentle blood--we have thus far only the

fact of the presence of a very few good families, and the boasts of

prejudiced partisans.

And now, after having indicated the grounds for a careful criticism of

Southern claims, let me assert the claims of New England, not to gentle

blood, but to a purely English ancestry. Here we come at once upon solid

ground, and the authorities are numerous and trustworthy. Genealogy has,

for the past ten or twelve years, been a favorite study in New England;

and, as Sir Bernard Burke writes, 'for ten or twelve years before the

civil conflict broke out ... Massachusetts was more genealogical than

Yorkshire, and Boston sustained what London never did, a magazine

devoted exclusively to genealogy.' The history of different families,

the records of nearly all the older towns, the colonial records, have

all been placed in print. Many of these books are larger than any

English works on the subject, and are monuments of patient industry.

After such researches we may claim to speak intelligently of our

ancestry, and to point to the proofs of our assertions. In one work,

contained in four volumes, covering two thousand five hundred pages, Mr.

Savage has attempted to record the names of the settlers of New England

and of two generations of their descendants. Imperfect as such an

attempt may be, what other section of our country or any nation can

pretend to such a knowledge of its antecedents? I give the result of his

twenty years' study in his own words:

'From long and careful research I have judged the proportion of the

whole number living here in 1775, that deduce their origin from the

kingdom of England, i.e., the southern part of Great Britain,

excluding also the principality of Wales, to exceed ninety-eight

in a hundred.'

'A more homogeneous stock cannot be seen, I think, in any so

extensive a region at any time, since that when the ark of Noah

discharged its passengers on Mount Ararat, except in the few

centuries elapsing before the confusion of Babel.'

So much for the idle slander that New England has no records nor

homogeneity.

As to the other alleged stigma of Puritanism. Could Virginia maintain

her claim to a Cavalier ancestry instead of failing on even a

superficial scrutiny, the contrast attempted to be drawn between Puritan

and Cavalier is based on a fallacy. When these colonies were

established, the distinction was a political one as clearly as the

succeeding divisions of Whig and Tory. In those days the gentry were the

leaders--the Puritan was as much a gentleman in the technical English

sense as the Cavalier. To take an instance which will strike our

Virginia friends, who quote the Fairfaxes and Washingtons: Lord Fairfax,

the Puritan, married the daughter of Lord Vere, 'a zealous Presbyterian

and disaffected to the king.' Their daughter married the gay Cavalier,

duke of Buckingham.

The Washingtons were connections, and rather humble ones, of the

Spencers. Yet the latest account of the families show Henry Lord Spencer

'standing by the side of the Lords Northumberland and Essex, and the

other noblemen who were afterward the leaders of the Parliament during

the civil war.'

Puritan and Cavalier! The phrase only means that those, both of gentry

and yeomanry, who had sufficient brains to understand liberty, and the

courage to fight for it, combined and forever broke the chains of royal

or oligarchical oppression. If the gentry were a minority in the party,

so much the less reason to boast of such an ancestry.

Still, as no point in a contest should be thrown away, let it be avowed

that Puritanic New England could always display a greater array of

'gentlemen by birth' than Virginia, or even the entire South. This is

said deliberately, because we know whereof we speak. If the fact be of

service in any way, it can easily be substantiated. A list of such names

as I can at present remember is longer than any list I have been able to

collect from Southern publications. These are, Adams, Amory, Anderson,

Appleton, Belcher, Bond, Bowdoin, Bromfield, Browne, Burrill, Chauncy,

Chester, Chute, Checkley, Clark, Clarke, Cotton, Coolidge, Corwin,

Cradock, Davenport, Downing, Dudley, Dummer, Eyre, Fairfax, Foxcroft,

Giffard, Jaffrey, Jeffries, Johnson, Hawthorne, Herrick, Holyoke,

Hutchinson, Lawrence, Lake, Lechmere, Legge, Leverett, Lloyd, Lowell,

Mascarene, Mather, Miner, Norton, Oliver, Pepperell, Phips, Phippen,

Prince, Pynchon, Saltonstall, Sears, Sewall, Thornton, Usher, Vassall,

Ward, Wendell, Wetmore, Wilson, Winslow, Winthrop, Wyllys.

I insert this list only for the benefit of those who have yielded to the

claims of Virginia through ignorance on points which are peculiarly the

care of genealogists. It can easily be extended, and every year, as our

records are more fully examined, it will increase.

If we leave the dry details, which I have presented simply as

indications of the method in which this question can be discussed, and

regard the problem in a more general view, it is surprising to see how

theory and fact agree. The United States are essentially English to-day,

despite the millions of foreigners which have been absorbed into its

population. The tendency of its citizens has been toward a democracy,

and yet not toward anarchy and lawlessness. The throes of a gigantic

revolution have not sufficed to outweigh the instinctive love of law and

order peculiar to the English race. Though events unforeseen by the

authors of the Federal Constitution have called for exercises of power,

obscurely permitted perhaps by that instrument, yet unknown to former

practice, still there has been no popular convulsion at the North, no

armed outbreak, no phrensy of mob power. There is as yet no such thing

known as an American mob.

When we inquire what controlling influence has impressed this form upon

the national character, the enemies of the predominant party

instinctively show that it is New England. Not the comparatively limited

New England of 1863, but the New England stock and influence which has

invigorated nearly every State of the Union. In their ignorance of the

past, these revilers of New England have been blindly attacking a

greater fact than they were aware of. Not only is nearly a third part of

our native-born population the offspring of the New England of the

Revolution, but long before that time the intermixture had commenced.

Whitehead's 'New Jersey' (p. 159) quotes Governor Burnet's letter,

written in 1729:

'The people of New Jersey (being generally of New England

extraction, and therefore enthusiasts) would consider the number of

planters, etc., as a repetition of the same sin as David committed

in numbering the people.'

The History of Dorchester, Massachusetts, quotes a letter from the

Secretary of Georgia, in 1755, in relation to a colony from that town,

in which he says:

'I really look upon these people moving here to be one of the most

favorable circumstances that could befall the colony.'

It is added:

'This settlement has furnished Georgia with two governors, two of

its most distinguished judges, the theological seminary of South

Carolina and Georgia with an able professor, the Methodist

Episcopal Church with an influential and pious bishop, the

Presbyterian and Baptist Churches of that State with many of their

ablest and most useful ministers; and six of her sons have been

called to professorial chairs in collegiate institutions.'

The first attempt at colonizing the Mississippi delta was made by the

Lymans, Dwights, and their associates from Connecticut. New York

received a constant accession from New England long before 1775.

Here, then, history and theory both agree. New England, colonized by

Englishmen, homogeneous in a remarkable degree, has been the only

thoroughly pure nationality within our territories. The few stray

Englishmen of education in the Southern colonies, the much greater

number of convicts, the increasing immigration of French, Irish, Scotch,

and German settlers, have not only failed to overwhelm this compact and

thoroughly alive minority, but have been formed and moulded into shape

by it. In protesting against New England, the Vallandighams and Coxes

are only proving the nullity of 'expunging resolutions.' 'Can they make

that not to be which has been?' Until they can recall the past,

annihilate the past inhabitants of these States, and from stones raise

up some other progenitors for the present generation, they cannot

destroy the influence of New England.

And yet we are called upon to believe that the race which has thus done

the greatest work of the past two centuries was the random aggregation

of opposite and mongrel races, the offspring of ignorance, poverty, and

crime. We are to believe that while the pure blood of English gentlemen

in Virginia has produced not only the gentlemanly vices of pride,

treachery, and falsehood in the leaders, but the ignoble faults of crime

and debasement in the 'poor trash'--that some occult influence of

climate has advanced an entire community at the North far above the

position of its progenitors--that while the gentle Cavalier has been

overcome by the seductive charms of luxury and repose, the ignoble

Puritan has thrown off his degrading antecedents, and has obtained the

control of the allied races. The servant has become the master, the scum

of all nations has overpowered the choicest offspring of that race which

Macaulay terms 'the hereditary rulers of mankind.'

These conclusions, so eminently logical and convincing, we must believe,

or we must doubt the pure blood of the aristocracy of the Slave States.

Is it not more reasonable to believe, as facts daily prove, that New

England was colonized from the hardiest and best portion of the English

stock? That our ancestors, accepting the state of English society as a

fact, neither invited nor repelled the accession of the gentry. That

many of that class did join in the enterprise, and that, where they were

worthy, they received the slight preference which is accorded to

personal advantages of any sort. That the bulk of the colonists were

separated from this class by slight barriers, that many of them were

excluded only by a want of the necessary property to maintain the

position, and that on this new territory these distinctions were

speedily forgotten--not because the higher class deteriorated, but

because the lower, having but a slight advance to make, soon stood on an

actual equality with them.

If the sympathy of England were now as desirable and as strongly

expected as it was two years ago, I might urge the matter further. As it

is, it seems sufficient to overthrow the claims of Southerners, based

upon false pretences, and supported only by unblushing effrontery, and

to refute the slanders which have been thrown upon an entire section of

the loyal States.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 13: Yet our author had already shown that Dennis, Cromwell's

captain, 'contrived a stratagem which betrayed the country. He had got a

considerable parcel of goods aboard, which belonged to two of the

Council, and found a method of informing them of it. By this means they

were reduced to the dilemma, either of submitting or losing their goods.

This caused factions amongst them, so that at last'--we blush to

add--'the colony surrendered--and saved the goods.' _En dat Virginia

quintam._ The fifth crown had its price, even for a 'usurper.']

[Footnote 14: Virginia was the other of which he was writing.]

THE EARLY ARBUTUS.

Give me water, give air, give me light!

Oh, as life in my heart ebbs away,

I pine through the dim, chilly night,

I long for the sun's kindly ray!

Even I, a poor little Arbutus!

I was plucked from my beautiful earth,

And my soul it then quitted its form;

What since has my life e'er been worth?

Ah, would I had never been born!

Thus I sigh, a poor little Arbutus!

Now to man in my anguish I cry:

Ah, but what for a sigh does he care?

To heaven I now raise my eye,

And mourn in my futile despair!

Even I, a poor, dying Arbutus!

Ah, a life for a life--it is just!

But a life for a nothing, oh, cruel!

Still low must I languish in dust?

And is there for me no renewal?

Ah, for me, poor, broken Arbutus!

Into elements now I resolve,

Yet to life I still cling with each breath;

As slowly away I dissolve,

Life's sweeter as closer to death!

Unto me, but a little Arbutus!

Too precocious the life which I bore,

Which I drew sweetly in with each breath!

The fulness of life did no more

Than ripen a fruitage for death,

Within me, a too early Arbutus!

THE THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR.

Few persons, at the beginning of this unhappy war, anticipated its

prolongation to the present day. The projected rebellion was so daring

and sudden in its appearance, so utterly causeless and reckless in its

pretexts and objects, that an astounded people could scarcely believe it

to be serious in its character and destined to give them any real and

protracted trouble. The rebels themselves fed the credulity of their

deluded victims with the promise of a peaceful separation, or, at the

worst, of a short and triumphant contest, to be speedily followed by a

career of boundless prosperity, expansion, greatness, and glory. And, on

our part, when we came at length to understand that war was inevitable,

we were scarcely less sanguine in our anticipation of easy victory and

of the instant restoration of that noble Government, which the domestic

enemy, with the most wicked ambition, sought to overthrow and utterly

destroy. Confidently and even boastingly, we contrasted our strength

with the weakness of the insurrection; we numbered our men in comparison

with those of the rebellious States, proud of the favorable result; and

we weighed the means of the adversary with our own, in such scales as

our sanguine hopes and extravagant ideas served only too well to impose

upon us.

The ultimate basis of our calculation was undoubtedly sound and solid,

and the anticipated result must eventually come according to our

original views, though not within the period then too hastily assigned

for the duration of the bloody and disastrous contest. The stupendous

force of our Government is amply sufficient to crush the rebellion in

all its vast proportions, however slowly the great work may be carried

on, and however wastefully and unskilfully the national means may be

applied to that indispensable end. Though occasionally baffled in our

projects, we are still advancing on the whole; and there is evidently no

possible escape for the leaders of the rebellion. They must already

begin to entertain fearful apprehensions of their certain ultimate doom.

Our great fleet hovers upon their coast and penetrates their bays and

rivers, cutting off most of their commerce with the outside world, and

isolating them within the narrow limits of the territory actually

occupied by them; while our immense armies are pressing them at all

important points, with a deliberation and steadiness which evidently

spring from the consciousness of superior strength and the certainty of

ultimate triumph. The Mississippi river is virtually open to our

commerce, or at least to the complete occupation of our gunboats and

armies, and the suffering enemy is thus cut off from his communication

with Texas, and from the only available resources on which he can

securely rely to sustain him much longer in his wicked and desperate

game of treason. His condition is in the last degree perilous; he seems

to be in the very agony of dissolution, or at least in that stage which

immediately precedes it. His extremities are already cold with the chill

of mortal congestion; but the fever rages all the more fiercely about

the vital parts, where the maddened energies of the whole system are

concentrated in the last desperate struggle for life. Possibly there may

be a little reaction here and there, or even a violent convulsive effort

of tremendous energy; an incursion may be made into Kentucky, or some

temporary success achieved in other quarters; but the revival will be

deceptive and evanescent, and the fitful return of life to the limbs

will only serve to complete the process of exhaustion and to hasten the

final catastrophe.

After two years of civil war, maintained under great embarrassments and

disadvantages--two memorable years, during which all the malignant

powers of treason and hate have been arrayed against the Union with the

determined purpose to destroy it--the condition of the Federal

Government is wonderfully good, presenting a vivid contrast to the

wretched poverty and prostration of the ambitious States which have so

rashly assailed it. It would be vain to deny the vast injury suffered by

the whole nation, from the inauguration and continuance of this most

unnatural strife. It is chiefly this widespread mischief which

constitutes the stupendous crime of the rebellion. Thousands upon

thousands of valuable lives have been sacrificed; the maimed victims of

the war appeal to our sympathies on every side; widows and orphans fill

the whole land with lamentation. These are calamities that cannot be

compensated by any material prosperity, however great and imposing.

Besides, it is impossible to conceal from ourselves, upon mature

reflection, that in the present marvellous activity of business and the

great abundance of money, we are drawing largely on the future, and

maintaining present prosperity at the cost of burdens which will weigh

heavily both on ourselves and on coming generations. Nevertheless, the

wonderful success of our financial measures and the evidently increasing

strength of the Government, in spite of its immense efforts, and with

all the alternations of triumph and defeat, of success and failure, of

good fortune and disaster, cannot fail to inspire every friend of the

Union with hope and confidence. That this great struggle for national

existence can be conducted with so little disturbance to the prosperity

of the loyal States, and, indeed, with actual increase of activity and

immediate success in almost all departments of business, affords the

best evidence of the solidity and greatness of our country, and of its

ability finally to maintain itself against the vast and powerful

conspiracy by which it has been so vigorously assailed. At this moment,

the domestic foe, notwithstanding his defiant attitude, is actually

writhing in the grasp of an outraged nation; and the foreign enemies of

our cause, so recently rejoicing in our misfortunes and elated with the

envious anticipation of our utter overthrow, are now looking on with

silent apprehension and ill-concealed chagrin at the growing strength we

exhibit with every day's experience in the mighty contest. They are

disappointed that we are not overwhelmed by every slight check we

suffer, and astounded that we are not at all discouraged even by serious

disasters to our arms. We derive renewed energy and courage from our

very reverses, which give us the inestimable advantage of experience,

and enable us finally to turn misfortune into good. Our determination

becomes more fixed and immovable with every demand upon our fortitude;

and thus the power of the nation advances steadily through all the

varying incidents of the struggle, so that now, after these two years of

sanguinary civil war, with the gigantic rebellion still wrestling and

warring in the bosom of the republic, we yet stand before the world an

object of respect and fear to those who hate us and wish us evil, while

the masses of men in all countries, who love liberty and desire to

escape from despotism, still seek our shores as the very Canaan of

promise and the asylum of freedom, even in the midst of our grand

struggle for existence as a nation.

It is the people, in their national capacity, as distinguished from the

mere agents of Government, who present this sublime spectacle to the

view of mankind. The Government for the time being may commit blunders

and follies innumerable; yet behind all these, there is the solid and

enduring judgment of the nation, which will eventually correct all

errors, and bring back the wandering statesman to the paths of common

sense and ultimate safety. Two years have not sufficed to teach us what

we require to know in order to bear ourselves altogether nobly and

calmly in so grand an emergency. We have not yet been sufficiently

schooled in war, and especially in the bitter experience of civil war,

to be able to resist the pressure of great dangers and difficulties,

and, at the same time, to maintain undisturbed all the ordinary

operations of civil life, and to secure due respect for personal rights

and liberties. The mighty and unexampled convulsion of the whole nation,

consequent on the rebellion of a wealthy and powerful section, which

constituted the bulk of one great political party in the country, and

which necessarily had connections of interest and sympathy with large

numbers in all the States, has tended to develop party political

animosities to the highest pitch. This terrible excitement, continued

without interruption for two years, has served at least to test the

patriotism of the people, and to determine whether faction was destined

so far to prevail as to paralyze the hand of Government and render

secession triumphant through our own dissensions. These fearful contests

of party have run their course up to the present time, without serious

trouble; and it is now apparent that the mass of the people are settled

in their devotion to the Union, and will sustain no man or party in

factious opposition to the Government, or even in ill-timed exertions to

obtain redress of acknowledged wrongs, when those exertions are

calculated to embarrass the nation in its mortal struggle for safety and

triumph. The existence of the nation, its unity and tranquillity, are

paramount to all personal or party rights and interests; and though we

may be justly indignant that many arbitrary and unnecessary things are

done, yet must they be borne patiently for the sake of the country. The

time for accountability will come at last. Under the pressure of vast

responsibilities and difficulties, the agents of the people may

plausibly, or even justly, excuse themselves for almost any

irregularity; and the most honest and devoted patriot may, with apparent

truth, be accused of sympathy with the adversary, if he take occasion,

in the midst of great perils, to urge his personal sufferings, to the

inconvenience and annoyance of the Government.

But while the last two years have subjected us to great difficulties,

which have been happily surmounted, if not with entire immunity from

evil, at least with substantial safety and great preponderance of good,

we have yet to undergo an ordeal such as every thoughtful man might well

wish to avoid. The greatest of all trials is to come upon us in the

course of another year, if, unhappily, the war should last so long.

Nothing could be more unfortunate than one of our presidential

elections, to be carried on in the midst of a horrible civil war. It is

impossible to anticipate the troubles which may ensue--the sympathies

which may be expressed for the rebellion--the intolerance which may seek

to suppress freedom of speech under pretext of preventing the

consequences of treason--and the fearful license of denunciation which

may be assumed and permitted, under that natural delicacy which would

hesitate to use even a necessary severity against a political enemy and

a rival. Deplorable and dangerous excitement is almost certain to

prevail in all quarters; and we may well congratulate ourselves and our

country, if we should pass through such a contest without having

numerous scenes of trouble and even bloodshed in the war of parties, as

episodes and accompaniments to the grand war of the sections. In its

effects on the national cause at home and abroad, the violence of that

proceeding will be something like one of those lamentable occurrences

which sometimes take place in the army, when portions of our own

forces, through misapprehension, turn their arms against each other in

the face of the enemy. If we shall not actually take each other's lives,

we shall weaken and distract the country by our dissensions and mutual

denunciations. Ambition on both sides--on the part of those in power

seeking to retain it and using their authority for that end, and on the

part of their opponents resisting perhaps beyond the bounds of

legitimate opposition--will shed its baleful influence through the land,

and intensify the animosities naturally arising upon the recurrence of

our great quadrennial struggle.

Yet would that grand emergency offer to a wise and patriotic

Administration an inestimable opportunity for the noblest exhibition of

unwavering firmness, justice, and self-denial. Should there be presented

an example of perfect singleness of purpose, with no room for suspicion

of sinister objects, or personal ambitions and enmities; should the

Administration in all its departments, devote itself exclusively to the

sacred work of preserving the nation, regardless of all consequences to

individuals or parties, then would the approbation of a grateful people

be its sure reward, and the patriotic masses would take care not only of

the Government, but of those, also, who had thus nobly and fearlessly

administered it in the critical hour of its mortal danger. A contrary

course would only lead to disaster in the momentous operations of the

war, and to distraction and weakness among the people, whose duty and

disposition it is to sustain the Government in all honest efforts to

conquer the rebellion. The temptation insensibly to depart from this

pure and patriotic policy is great and almost irresistible. It is so

easy and so natural for one in power to persuade himself that he ought

to retain it, that himself or his party is the only safe depositary of

public authority, and that the general interest requires him to be

sustained by all the means at his command, _per fas aut nefas_, that few

men in this country ever avoid the error of using official position and

patronage to promote personal and party ends. This is the very bane and

opprobrium of our institutions. It has already so perverted the

democratic system, that men of the highest ability and character no

longer seek political position, and seldom succeed if they do. Alas for

our country, if this pernicious practice should prevail in conducting

the tremendous operations of the present civil war!--if the coming

presidential election should be permitted to cast the ominous influence

of party intrigue and official mismanagement upon our struggling armies

and our heavily taxed people! Let us fervently pray that our suffering

country may escape this danger. It is in the power of the Administration

in a great measure to control the whole subject; and upon it will rest

the chief responsibility for any serious error that may be committed. It

will be responsible not merely for its own conduct, but also for that

which it necessitates or provokes on the part of opposing interests and

parties. There must be forbearance, united with firmness and infinite

discretion in the use of just authority. A more difficult position was

never occupied by any party since the organization of the Government.

But in proportion to the difficulty and responsibility will be the merit

of a wise and successful administration in this most perilous crisis.

If the progress of the war thus far, running through more than half of

one Administration, has brought us under the ominous shadow of a coming

presidential election, it has, on the other hand, effected a vast

modification of opinion and feeling on some questions from which the

greatest disturbances might well have been anticipated. From the

beginning it was felt to be inevitable that the long continuance of the

war would seriously affect the relation of master and slave directly in

the rebellious States, and indirectly in all others wherever that

relation existed. Far more rapidly than could well have been anticipated

has this result been effected; but what is of much greater interest and

importance, the violent prejudices of the people have melted away before

the inevitable fact, and even the celebrated proclamation no longer

excites the fierce animadversion with which it was at first greeted.

From the escaped slaves of the rebellious States and the free colored

men of the North, negro regiments have been organized and are still in

process of formation. There is no outcry against the policy, but there

seems to be a general acquiescence in the propriety of using the African

race to assist in putting down the traitors who are ready to overthrow

all free government in order to perpetuate the subjugation of that

unfortunate people. Had the fortunes of war resulted in a speedy

annihilation of the confederate authority, it would have been utterly

impossible to have made any serious inroad upon the institution of

slavery. Sympathy for the Southern people, and a natural indisposition

to inaugurate fundamental changes, always attended with immense

temporary disadvantages and inconveniences, would have prevented any

thorough policy of emancipation from being adopted. But the day of

moderation and compromise has now passed by, probably forever. The

persistence of the rebels in their mad scheme, although their efforts

were plainly destined to ultimate defeat, has secured for themselves the

greatest boon which even the highest wisdom in the calmest times could

have conferred. Their prodigious folly and wickedness have been

overruled by a higher power, and mercifully directed to the complete

regeneration of Southern society. The operation is severe, but in the

end it will be salutary. In a state of continued peace, this could not

have been done. Scores of years would have been required to prepare the

Southern mind for it; but now, by one huge convulsive effort, made by

themselves with far different views, all obstacles are swept away, and

slavery is likely to come to a sudden and final end. A feeble

insurrection, soon extinguished, would not have accomplished this work;

and even now, if the war should speedily end, there would be serious

embarrassment in disposing of the troublesome questions arising out of

the subject. The continuance of the war, on its present basis, will soon

settle the whole difficulty; and among the many tremendous evils and

calamities attending the progress of the war, this inevitable result is

one of the greatest compensations. Few men, perhaps, would have desired,

or, by deliberate action, have promoted this violent destruction even of

so pernicious a system as that which prevailed in the South; but, on the

other hand, with the experience of the last two years, still fewer men,

in the loyal States at least, can be found to deny that the judgment is

righteous, and that, in the actual circumstances, it is destined to be

in the end as beneficial to the Southern people themselves, as it is, in

its immediate consequences, just in its retribution for their enormous

crime. In the progress of so tremendous a war, in which, notwithstanding

its origin and cause, the insurrectionary States have strangely been

enabled to command foreign capital, together with the sympathy and even

the indirect assistance of foreign powers, it would have been

shortsighted in the extreme to have anticipated that slavery would

escape attack. Though made the pretext for violence, and prominently put

forward as the justification of rebellion, it was evidently the weakest

point in the rebel cause, and was, therefore, alike from the choice of

the rebels as from the necessity of the Government, destined to become

the central object and pivotal point of the whole contest. Having once

been placed in this position, and fixed in it by the inveterate

enmities of prolonged war, it must from that time abide the arbitrament

of arms. Two years of fierce and calamitous war seem to have brought the

South to this alternative: either to restore the Union with immediate

freedom to the slaves, or to accomplish its dissolution, with a doubtful

and troubled continuance of the system for an uncertain period in the

future.

If the continuance of the struggle thus far has done so much toward a

final settlement of the most troublesome of all questions growing out of

the contest between the North and the South; if it has probably prepared

the way for disposing of slavery in all the States where it now exists,

and even given the African a _status_ as a soldier of the republic; it

has also had an equal effect in other important aspects. It has tended

to develop and settle definitely the political objects and purposes of

the contending parties. With the South, these, to some degree, have

necessarily been changed. The original designs of the rebels, whatever

they may have been in the beginning, have been modified according to the

stringent exigencies of their condition. Their daring and ambitious

plans have been restrained by the public opinion of the civilized world,

and still more by the limitation of their own resources. So long as

their strength was untried, imagination ran riot, and there was no bound

to the magnificence of their bad schemes. But the experience of two

years has taught them that, in their realization, all such wild dreams

are destined to be curtailed within the inexorable limits of

possibility. They have only begun to discover how narrow these limits

are to them. Unexpected obstacles have arisen on every side, and the

soaring purposes of the rebellion have vainly beaten their bruised and

wearied wings against the solid walls which circumscribe them within the

humble limits of their present uncertain hopes and expectations. The

Federal Government, on the other hand, has not changed its purpose, as

avowed in the beginning, to restore the national authority, in its unity

and integrity, over the whole country. The prospect of accomplishing

this end has grown brighter from the beginning. We have passed through

almost all phases of party excitement; faction has tried its perilous

experiments upon the national temper; divisions have been industriously

fomented; and for a time discord has threatened seriously to weaken us.

But the patriotism of the people has finally prevailed, and the question

may now be considered settled. The people not less than the Government

are fully committed to the grand purpose of putting down the rebellion

and restoring the Union. Nor does this work, immense as it is, seem to

be disproportioned to the national means and energies. The people

believe themselves competent to the mighty task, and with this patriotic

confidence, the undertaking is already more than half accomplished. The

enemy has not the power to defeat our purpose. By our own unhappy

divisions, we might possibly defeat ourselves; but with a united and

determined people, there is not the slightest room for doubt.

The war continues to be carried on solely in the disaffected region.

Threats of transferring the seat of the contest to the loyal States have

constantly been made, and are now renewed with an energy of assertion

equal to the longing desires with which the straitened rebels look upon

the fat fields and the groaning storehouses of the Northern States.

Their futile threats do indeed express their wishes or their disordered

imaginations, rather than their actual intentions or their possible

achievements. If they could transfer the war to Pennsylvania and Ohio,

or even to Kentucky and Maryland, a new aspect would be given to the

controversy, and different results might well be anticipated. But the

time for such enterprises on the part of the rebels, if it ever

existed, has evidently passed by, and is not likely to return. One of

the strongest indications of the ultimate result of the war has been the

rigid uniformity with which the military operations have been

continually pushed back upon the soil of the seceded States, and

maintained there in spite of all their efforts to the contrary. In all

instances, their incursions into the States mentioned, though projected

upon the grandest scale and with the most hopeful results, have

eventually proved to be miserable failures; and if they have not always,

or even in any instance, met with the severe punishment that ought to

have followed them, it was only because the attempts were too

preposterous to have been anticipated by a vigilant foe, and we were too

confident in our strength to make the preparation necessary properly to

repel them. With such experience on our part, after two years of

constant efforts to invade our territories successfully met and more

than merely repelled, it would be evidence of gross inefficiency and

weakness in us, to permit the enemy to gain even a temporary foothold in

any one of the loyal States, or even to attempt it, without the complete

overthrow and destruction of the invading force. Our manifest policy is

to attack them in their own country, and to hold them there, until we

can annihilate their military power. We have successfully accomplished

one half this programme; but so far we have failed in the other. However

humiliating may be the admission, we are nevertheless compelled to make

it. We have not yet overthrown their main armies in any decisive

engagements; although we have achieved many important successes and made

some fatal encroachments on the territory of the enemy, crippling his

power and cutting off his resources. From the very inception of the

rebellion, its field of operations has been gradually contracting. One

after another the strongholds of the enemy have fallen into our hands,

and whole regions of his territory have been over run and occupied by

our forces, with every appearance of having been finally and forever

lost to them. Our standards, advancing steadily, though slowly, have not

receded anywhere, except temporarily, and then only, it would seem, to

make still further advance into the very heart of the confederacy. With

some few exceptions, such as the withdrawal of the army from the

Peninsula, this has been the history of the last two years; and there is

nothing in the present condition of affairs which would appear to

forebode a departure from this uniform progress of our arms. We may

complain, perhaps justly, of the slowness of this process. In the ardor

and impatience of our patriotism, we may demand more rapid and energetic

action, claiming that our immense resources shall be used with greater

vigor and concentration, and our vast armies hurled like a thunderbolt

upon the enemy, to crush him with one sudden and overwhelming blow.

Truly this would be a grand result--a consummation most devoutly to be

wished--making short work of the bloody war which has so terribly

afflicted our country. This done, there could not be any serious

difficulty in resuscitating the love of Union among the masses in the

South, and of reëstablishing the Union on its old foundations.

It may or may not be reasonable to demand such energy and speedy success

at the hands of the Government. At all events, it is natural that the

country, having confided unlimited means to the constituted authorities,

should become impatient under the delays and difficulties of the

contest, and that inexperienced men should expect the unequal forces of

the two sections to be brought into quick and decisive conflict, with a

result accordant to the relative strength of the opposing parties. A

true Napoleonic genius might well have accomplished this grand result

within the two years that have already passed. But such a mighty spirit

has not yet come forth at the call of our agonized country; or if,

perchance, he has made his appearance, he has certainly not been

recognized and received by the powers that be. We must, therefore, needs

be contented with the slow and gradual approach we are evidently making

toward a final solution of the bloody problem. And as, even in the

greatest misfortunes, there is often some hidden compensation for the

unhappiness they produce, so in this case, perhaps we may find, in the

great changes destined to be wrought in the condition of the Southern

people by their stubborn perseverance in the war, ground for consolation

in the midst of the calamities and bereavements which every day

continues to bring upon us. The Southern rulers and masters pride

themselves on their inveterate animosity. They glory in their own shame,

and imagine themselves successful, so long as they can protract the

struggle and renew the slaughter of great battles in which they are not

utterly overthrown, though thousands of innocent victims are sacrificed

to their mad and wicked ambition. But in truth, with every day of

continued war they are only the more effectually destroying themselves,

especially in that particular in which they are most anxious and

determined to succeed. For the security of their slave property and the

peaceful continuance of the institutions which sustain it, it would have

been far better for them had they been thoroughly beaten and effectually

put down at the very beginning of the war. There might then have been a

chance for slavery to escape, at least for a while. Now it must be

admitted there is hardly the vestige of such a chance. It is almost

alike certain that slavery has been shaken to its very foundations in

every State, whether the rebellion shall now either succeed or fail. The

rebels have been wrong in all their calculations. Exactly the reverse of

their aims and expectations will be the reward of their treason. They

sought to overthrow the Government in order to perpetuate slavery; they

have only succeeded in overthrowing slavery, to the certain

strengthening and probable perpetuation of the Government they hate.

The leading rebels, occupying the seats of usurped power in their

ephemeral confederacy, have succeeded in arousing and sustaining a

considerable feeling of nationality and independence among the masses of

their population. Grasping the sceptre of ill-gotten authority with

great boldness, they have wielded it with a corresponding energy. Their

early successes and their protracted resistance, sustained for more than

two years by means of large and formidable armies, organized,

disciplined, and led with great skill, have sufficed to give them credit

and support at home, and much consideration abroad. In the midst of

stirring events, carried away by the first impulse of excitement, the

Southern people have not been in a mood to calculate the consequences of

a long struggle. They have been elated and blinded by their apparent

triumphs; and they, whose crafty purpose all the time has been to make

use of them for the furtherance of their own ambitious projects, have

been careful to preoccupy the minds of the people, and to conceal from

them, by the plausible pretences and superficial successes of the hour,

the certainty of ultimate discomfiture which has awaited them from the

beginning. Occasionally, it is true, there have been indications that

light was beginning to dawn on the popular mind; and in spite of the

complete system of terror and compression which the leaders have

inaugurated and sustained with the utmost determination, and with the

most relentless rigor, we have seen every now and then, in different

parts of the confederacy, the vivid flashes of a still living sentiment

of love for the Union. As the hopes of the conspiracy become gradually

less bright, this sentiment of affection for the old and honored

Government of our fathers will grow stronger and more outspoken, and

will not be confined to mere individual expressions. When the people

begin to open their eyes and see the strength of the rebellion rapidly

wasting away, with the repetition of its fruitless endeavors; when

victories no longer compensate for the privations and horrible disasters

which follow in their track; when, finally, they understand, as they

soon must, that the whole movement is destined to end in utter failure,

and that this failure is to be only the more overwhelming the longer the

unhappy contest shall be continued, a complete revulsion of feeling may

well be expected to take place. Many things in the course of the

struggle have combined to delay the advent of this inevitable change.

The progress of our arms has been extremely slow, with many checks and

defeats in those campaigns and at those points which seemed to be the

most important. If we have been successful in the West, it has not been

without protracted efforts and immense expenditure of life and means--a

long and bloody struggle, the uncertainty of which has not tended to

strengthen us during its pendency. On the other hand, the brilliant

successes of the rebels on the Rappahannock and at Charleston have not

been fully counteracted by their actual and definitive discomfiture in

other quarters. When Vicksburg and Port Hudson fall, as fall they must,

the emptiness of all their triumphs will be felt and appreciated. Bull

Run, twice famous, Fredericksburg, Charleston, Chancellorsville--all

will then appear in their true light as magnificent phantoms of delusive

success, alluring the proud victors to further fruitless efforts and

barren victories, only to overwhelm them with more tremendous ruin, in

the end which is slowly but certainly approaching.

Thus the continuance of the war, with its exhausting expenditures and

its bloody sacrifices of life, is destined to be not altogether without

its advantages in other respects besides its influence on the great

question of slavery. It is preparing the public mind of the South for a

most vehement reaction against all the false ideas which have been the

animating spirit of the rebellion. In proportion to the greatness of the

conflict, the immensity of its disasters, its delusive promises and

barren victories, will be the thoroughness of the discomfiture, the

completeness of the overthrow, the utter disgrace of the confederate

cause, and of the men who have been its authors and leading

representatives. It will be impossible for the Southern people to say,

'We have been engaged in a noble cause; we have failed for the time

being; but there is a future for us in which we shall surely triumph.'

On the contrary, every Southern man will feel that there is no

resurrection for the bad designs which will thus have been forever

prostrated. They have in them none of the elements of resuscitation.

Failure in the present contest is annihilation forever. The very

foundation and active power of the fatal movement will have been swept

away, while at the same time the authors and the cause alike will be

stamped with eternal infamy, as having aimed at the subversion of human

liberty, and only succeeded in producing ruin and devastation to the

beautiful region which they have misled and betrayed into a wicked war.

The events of the mighty conflict will live in history, but only as an

example of just punishment for a great crime, and as a solemn warning

against the indulgence of selfish and unprincipled ambition in all

future ages.

WAS HE SUCCESSFUL?

'Do but grasp into the thick of human life! Every one _lives_

it--to not many is it _known_; and seize it where you will, it is

interesting.'--GOETHE.

'SUCCESSFUL.--Terminating in accomplishing what is wished or

intended.'--WEBSTER'S _Dictionary_.

The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 1, July, 1863 Devoted to Literature and National Policy · 第 2 / 6 章

As men led the way in the formation of a Loyal League throughout the