Mrs. Meeker died the next week.
The funeral took place on the day which had been fixed for Hiram's
marriage with Emma Tenant. After it was over, William Meeker removed
with his wife from the small house to live with his father, and we will
say here that both contributed much to make Mr. Meeker's latter days
happy.
Hiram did not wait an hour, but took the stage the same afternoon, while
Dr. Frank remained with his father over the next day.
One morning, two or three days after his return, Hiram presented himself
at the house and inquired for _Mrs._ Tenant. On this occasion he was
cased in a complete suit of the deepest black, with crape reaching to
the very top of his hat. He was the picture of despairing grief.
It happened that Emma was not at home, so that Mrs. Tenant was not
surprised that she should be sent for. She did not know Hiram had not
inquired for her daughter. She came in with the impression that he was
all that he should be; his failure to write often being thought quite
excusable under the circumstances.
She had not, however, advanced three steps into the room before
_feeling_ there was something wrong.
Hiram, regarded in a certain light, presented a most comical, though
most lugubrious appearance. He was so completely acting a part that his
very looks and gestures, and, in short, the minutest movements of his
body, were manifestly 'got up.' One would think an automaton had been
employed and set to work to do a certain amount of mourning, and furnish
the requisite quantity of family grief.
Nevertheless Mrs. Tenant advanced and greeted Hiram cordially.
He put out the tips of his fingers, produced his pocket handkerchief,
as if to be ready for an overflow, but uttered no word, no articulate
sound.
This continued for at least five minutes, Mrs. Tenant endeavoring to say
something the while by way of condolence.
'I shall never recover from the shock,' at last he ejaculated; 'never!'
He did not look Mrs. Tenant in the face, but kept his eyes fixed on
vacancy.
'I am very sorry Emma is not in, but you will not have to wait long,'
remarked Mrs. Tenant at last.
'I do not think I shall be able to see her,' said Hiram, with a groan.
'Not see her; not see Emma? Why, what do you mean?' exclaimed the
mother, now fully roused.
'This is no period to devote myself to things of time and sense. I feel
that all my thoughts should be centred on eternity.'
[You should have seen the activity Hiram had been displaying in his
counting room since his return.]
This was enough for Mrs. Tenant. She understood him now, and determined
to bring matters at once to a crisis.
'Mr. Meeker,' she said, 'will you be so kind as to step with me into the
library a few moments?'
Hiram acquiesced.
She rang the bell, and said to the servant:
'When Miss Tenant comes in, request her to go to my room, and wait for
me there.
'Now, Mr. Meeker,' she said, as soon as they were seated, 'let me ask
you a plain question: Is it your intention to break your engagement with
my daughter?'
'Really, ma'am, I do not wish to speak on the subject at present,'
whispered Hiram, looking at the crape on his hat.
'But you must, you _shall_ speak. Do you think you can trifle with me,
sir?'
Hiram was silent.
'SPEAK! I say. Do you intend to keep your engagement with my daughter?'
Thus invoked, Hiram murmured something about--'under the
circumstances'--his 'great affliction'--'change in your own
family'--'business troubles'--'not sure of his own situation'--'perhaps
it would be best not to consider it a positive engagement'--'that is,
for the present'--'after a season should'--
The street-door bell rang, and Mrs. Tenant heard not another word. Her
heart scarcely beat as she listened to the footsteps of the old servant
along the hall. Agitated by a rush of tumultuous emotions, she was
unable to breathe during the short parley between Emma and the domestic.
At length she heard the welcome sound of Emma's step up the staircase,
and she drew a long full breath of relief. Then she started up and rang
the bell sharply, yes, furiously, and remained standing till the
servant, with quickened pace, came in.
'William, show Mr. Meeker the door.'
Hiram sprang to his feet. He did not like the general _look_ matters
were assuming.
'Go,' said Mrs. Tenant, pointing to the entrance.
In less than a quarter of a minute Hiram was walking down the street.
'It is over with me, anyhow,' he muttered.
But for once in his life he felt very small. 'To be turned out of doors
by a woman; still, nobody will know it.' He was soon busy in his
counting room, examining one of Hill's invoices.
Mrs. Tenant threw herself on the sofa, and was apparently lost in
thought for several minutes. Then she rose and went to her daughter.
THE CHICAGO (ILLINOIS) AND OTHER CANALS.
CORK, Ireland, _April 18, 1863_.
HON. ISAAC N. ARNOLD, M.C.,
_Chicago, Illinois_.
DEAR SIR:
Here I am in this beautiful city, in glorious old Ireland, so many of
whose gallant sons have fallen in our defence, and thousands more of
whom now fight the battles of our country. When I think of Shields, and
Meagher, and Corcoran, and their brave associates, shedding their blood
that the Union may live; when I feel myself surrounded here by friends
of my country, and realize how fervently all Ireland desires our
success, my heart swells with gratitude for this noble race, and my
prayers are, that Providence would crown them with every blessing.
When you received my promise to attend as a delegate the Chicago Canal
Convention, little was it then supposed by me, that duty would call me
before that time to Europe. So much of my promise, however, as embraced
the discussion of the question, will now be redeemed. The project of an
enlarged _thorough-cut_ canal, uniting Chicago and the lakes with the
Illinois river and Mississippi, has long attracted my attention. As a
Senator of the United States, for many years, from a Southwestern State,
then devoted to the Union, and elected to the Senate on that question, I
have often passed near or over the contemplated route, always
concluding, that this great work should be accomplished without delay.
Every material interest of our whole country demands the construction of
this canal, and the perpetuity of the Union is closely identified with
its completion. It is for the nation's benefit, and should be the
nation's work. It will give new outlets to the Mississippi, through the
lakes, to the ocean, and neutralize that too exclusive attraction of
Western commerce to the Gulf, which has so often menaced the integrity
of the Union. We must make the access from the Mississippi, through the
lakes, to the ocean, as cheap, and easy, and eventually as free from tar
or toll, as to the Gulf, and the flag of disunion will never float again
over an acre of the soil, or a drop of all the waters of the mighty
West.
It is clear that, centuries ago, the lakes and Mississippi were united,
through the Illinois and Wisconsin rivers, and we must remove the
obstructions, now divorcing their waters, and restore their union, by
thorough-cut canals. In a few years, the saving of transportation, in a
single year, would more than pay the cost of the work. The increase of
population, wealth, products, imports, exports, and revenue, which would
follow the completion of this work, can scarcely now be estimated, and
it should be accomplished if for no other reason, as a most profitable
investment of capital for the benefit of the nation.
But, great as is the importance of these enlarged canals, uniting the
Illinois and Wisconsin rivers with the lakes, other great works,
connecting with the East, are indispensable. But great as is the
importance of these are the enlarged locks of the Erie, Champlain, Black
River, Syracuse, and Oswego, Cayuga, Seneca, Chemung, and Elmira to the
Pennsylvania State line, Rochester, and Alleghany River. Nearly all of
these are 70 feet wide and 7 feet deep, and require only an enlargement
of the locks, whilst a few require to be widened and deepened. The
Chemung canal connects the Susquehanna with the Erie canal, at
Montezuma, and the Chenango is nearly completed to the north branch of
the Susquehanna at the Pennsylvania State line, whence, the Susquehanna
canal passes through Wilkesbarre, Northumberland, Middleton, and
Wrightsville, to Havre de Grace, in Maryland, on tide water, at the
head of Chesapeake Bay. The great canal, from the southern boundary of
New York, down the Susquehanna to tide water, is now five feet deep, and
from 40 to 50 feet wide, and can all be readily enlarged to the
dimensions of the Erie canal. With these works thus enlarged, the
connection of the lakes would not only be complete with the Hudson, and
by the Delaware and Raritan canal with the Delaware, and by the Delaware
and Chesapeake canal with the Chesapeake Bay, but also by the direct
route, down the Susquehanna, to Baltimore, Norfolk, and Albemarle Sound.
Is not this truly national, and is it not equally beneficial, to the
East and the West, to open all these routes for large steamers? The
system, however, would not be complete, without uniting Champlain with
the St. Lawrence, Ontario with Erie, and Huron and Michigan with
Superior.
The enlarged works should also be provided through Wisconsin, Indiana,
Ohio, and western Pennsylvania, to the lakes, to the extent that these
canals can be made of the dimensions of the Erie, and supplied with
water. Nor should we forget the widening of the canal at Louisville, the
removal of obstructions in the St. Clair flats and upper Mississippi,
and the deepening of the mouth of this great river. The construction of
these works would be costly, but as a mere investment of capital, for
the increase of our wealth and revenue, they would pay the nation
tenfold.
As the main object of these works is cheap transportation, the tolls
should be diminished, as the works were completed, to the full extent
that freight could be carried more cheaply in large boats, and provision
should be made for an adequate sinking fund, so as gradually to
liquidate the whole cost, and then to collect no more toll than would
pay to keep the works in repair. Such is the true interest of the States
and of the nation. If New York could collect a toll for navigating the
Hudson, it would be against her interest, for the diminution and
diversion of business, and tax on labor and products, would far exceed
the net proceeds of any such toll. The same principle will apply to
these canals. As some of them, unfortunately, are owned by private
companies, adequate provision should be made, to prevent these aids from
being perverted to purposes of individual speculation. The Erie and
Ontario canal, at the falls of Niagara, and the Superior, Huron, and
Michigan canal (less than a mile long), at the falls of St. Mary, should
be made ship canals, much larger than those of Canada.
The cost of all these works may exceed $100,000,000, but the admirable
financial system of Mr. Secretary Chase, would soon supply abundant
means for their construction. Already the price of gold has fallen
largely, our legal tenders are being funded, by millions, in the
Secretary's favorite 5-20 sixes, and we shall soon have, under his
system, a sound, uniform national currency, binding every State and
citizen to the Union, and fraught ultimately with advantages to the
nation, equal to the whole expense of the war.
In passing down the Susquehanna canal, at Middletown, commences the
canal which, by way of Reading and the Schuylkill, connects Philadelphia
with the Susquehanna and the lakes. Most of this work is already six
feet deep, but the whole route, if practicable, should be enlarged to
the dimensions of the Erie canal.
I have met in the British Museum some documents showing the original
project (absurdly abandoned) for a large canal from the Schuylkill to
the Susquehanna. A slight change will restore this work, and give to
Philadelphia a complete seven-foot canal, via the Schuylkill and
Susquehanna to the lakes, as short as from New York, and through a
richer country, both mineral and agricultural. It appears that
Washington and Franklin both favored this route.
1. Gunboats, and large commercial steamers, could then pass, without
interruption, through all the lakes, to the St. Lawrence, the Hudson,
the Delaware, Susquehanna, Chesapeake Bay, Albemarle Sound, the Ohio,
and Mississippi.
2. In case of war, foreign or domestic, the saving to the Government in
prices of articles they must buy, and in transportation of men,
munitions of war, supplies, and coal, would be enormous. It is believed
that the excess of cost in prices and transportation during this
rebellion, occasioned by the want of these works, WOULD MORE THAN PAY
FOR THEIR CONSTRUCTION. Nor is this the only loss, but victories no
doubt have often been turned into defeats, for the want of proper
facilities for the movement of gunboats, of supplies, and munitions, and
the rapid concentration of troops and reënforcements.
3. The ability to obtain supplies, and coals, and vessels, from so many
points, and especially gunboats, where the coal, iron, and fluxes are in
justaposition, would hasten construction, and cheapen prices to the
Government.
The enormous naval and military power, gained by such works, would tend
greatly to prevent wars, foreign or domestic; or, if they did occur,
would enable us to conduct them with more economy and success. It is
said such vessels can be built on the lakes, and so they can, for lake
defence, but they would be liable to capture or destruction there,
before completed, by the enemy, and iron vessels, and iron-clads, could
not be constructed so cheaply, where there is neither coal nor iron, as
in regions like the Delaware, Susquehanna, Alleghany, and Ohio, where
these great articles abound, and can be used on the spot, with so much
economy.
It must be remembered, also, that, if these iron steamers and iron-clads
are constructed on the seaboard or the lakes, still, the iron and coal
for building them, and the coal for running them, could be supplied much
more cheaply, if these enlarged canals were finished. Besides, events
are now occurring, and may again, in our history, requiring the
immediate construction of hundreds of iron vessels, rams, iron-clads,
and mortar boats, calling for all the works on the seaboard, the lakes,
the Western rivers, and enlarged canals, to furnish, in time, the
requisite number. Rapid concentration of forces, naval and military, and
prompt movements, are among the greatest elements of success in war. It
will be conceded, that the ability to run gunboats, iron-clads, rams,
and mortar boats, through all our lakes, to and from them to all our
great rivers, and to connect from both, through such enlarged canals,
with the seaboard, and the Gulf, would vastly increase our naval and
military power.
Is it not clear, then, that if such a movement, with such resources and
communications, had been made, in sufficient force, the first year of
the war, so as to seize, or effectully blockade, all the rebel ports, to
occupy, by an upward and downward movement, the whole Mississippi and
all its tributaries, isolating and cutting rebeldom in two, and thus
preventing supplies from Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas, that the
contest must have been closed long ere this, and thus saved five or six
times the cost of these works. As indicating the consequence of our
occupation and command of the Mississippi and the Gulf, let us see its
effect on the supply of the single indispensable article of _beef_ to
the rebel army and people.
By the census of 1860, table 36, the number of cattle that year in the
loyal States was 7,674,000; in Texas alone, 2,733,267; in Louisiana,
329,855; and in Arkansas, 318,355;--in those parts of the rebel States
east of the Mississippi, not commanded by our troops and gunboats,
2,558,000, and in the parts of those States thus commanded by us,
1,087,000. Thus it will be seen, that the cattle in Texas alone (whence
the rebels, heretofore, have derived their main supplies), raised on
their boundless prairies, and rich perennial grass, have largely
exceeded all the cattle in those parts of the rebel States east of the
Mississippi, commanded by them. But that commanded by us, of the
Mississippi and its tributaries, and the Gulf, as is now the case, cuts
off the above supplies from Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, west and north
Mississippi, north Alabama, and west and middle Tennessee. Hence the
cries of starvation from the South; hence, mainly, the rise there in the
price of beef, from a few cents to a dollar a pound. Controlled, as the
Gulf and Mississippi and its tributaries now are by us, so as to prevent
any Western supplies of beef, and the desolation and inundation which
have swept over so much of the rest of rebeldom since 1860, their army
and people cannot be supplied with beef throughout this year. Nor would
running the blockade help them in this respect, for Europe has no
supplies of beef to spare, requiring large amounts from us every year.
The revolt, then, is doomed this year by starvation, if not, as we
believe, by victories. Indeed, I imagine, if our Secretaries of War and
of the Navy were called on for official reports, they could clearly
show, that with ample appropriations in July, 1861, and all these works
_then_ completed, they could have crushed the revolt in the fall of 1861
and winter of 1862. All, then, that has been expended since of blood and
treasure, and all the risks to which the Union may have been exposed,
result from the want of these works. Surely, these are momentous
considerations, appealing, with irresistible force, to the heart and
judgment of every true American statesman, and patriot.
Great, however, as are the advantages in war to be derived from the
construction of these works, it is still more in peace, and as arteries
of trade, that the benefit would be greatest. If iron steamers are to
control the commerce of the world, the cheap construction and running of
such vessels may decide this great question in our favor. Now, whether
these steamers are to be built on the seaboard or interior, the coal,
and iron, and timber, with which to make them, and the coal and supplies
with which to run them, could be furnished much more cheaply by these
enlarged canals. And even if the vessels be of timber, the engines,
boilers, anchors, &c., must be of iron, and they must be run with coal,
all which would be furnished cheaper at our lakes and seaboard, by these
enlarged canals. Nor is it only for the construction of engines and
boilers for steamers, or coal to run them, that these works would be
important, but the cheapening of transportation of coal, iron, timber,
and supplies would be greatly beneficial in all industrial pursuits. It
is, however, in cheapening the transportation of our immense
agricultural products to the East, South, seaboard, and the return
cargoes, that these works would confer the greatest benefits. The value
of the freight transported on these canals, last year, was over
$500,000,000; but, when all should be enlarged, as herein proposed, the
value of their freight, in a few years, would exceed SEVERAL BILLIONS OF
DOLLARS. They would draw from a vastly extended area, from augmented
population and products, and with greater celerity and economy of
movements, from the increased distances that freight could be carried,
and additional articles. With these improvements, millions of bales of
cotton would be carried annually on these enlarged canals. All of
Missouri, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Kansas, and the Northwestern
Territories, up the Missouri and its tributaries, with large portions of
Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and even of Texas, on the Red
river, would be added to the region from which supplies would be sent,
and return cargoes proceed by these works. Our exports abroad would
soon reach a BILLION of dollars, of which at least one third would
consist of breadstuffs and provisions. Corn was consumed, last year, in
some of the Western States, as fuel, in consequence of high freights.
But this could never recur with these enlarged canals. Indeed, the
products to be carried on these canals would include the whole valley of
the lakes, the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri; and many articles, thus
reaching there, thence be carried, on our great imperial railway, to the
Pacific, bringing back return cargoes for the same routes. Breadstuffs
and provisions and cotton would be carried more cheaply through these
canals to the manufacturing States, and their fabrics return, the same
way, in vastly augmented amounts, to the West.
Last year, even during a war, breadstuffs and provisions, reaching
$109,676,875 in value, were exported abroad, from the loyal States
alone; but, with these enlarged canals, the amount could be more than
tripled, the augmented exports bringing in increased imports, and vast
additional revenue. Can we not realize the certainty of these great
results, and have we not the energy and patriotism to insure their
accomplishment? Assuredly we have.
Nor is it only our revenue from duties that would be increased to an
extent sufficient of itself, in a few years, to pay the principal and
interest of the debt incurred in the construction of these works, but
our internal revenue, also, would be prodigiously augmented.
The census of 1860 shows our increase of wealth, from 1850 to 1860, to
have been 126.45 per cent. (Table 35). Now, if we would increase our
wealth only one tenth, in the next ten years, by the construction of
these works, then (our wealth being now $16,159,616,068) such increase
would make our wealth, in 1870, instead of $36,593,450,585, more than
sixteen hundred millions _greater_, or more than _ten times_ the cost of
these works; and, in 1880, instead of $82,865,868,849, over three
billions six hundred millions more, or more than twenty times the cost
of those works. The same percentage, then, of our present internal tax,
on this augmented wealth, estimated at only one per cent., would be
$16,000,000 (annually) in 1870, and $36,000,000 (annually) in 1880, and
constantly increasing. Add this to the great increase of our revenue
from duties, as the result of these works, and the addition would not
only soon liquidate their cost, but yield a sum which, in a few years,
would pay the principal and interest of our public debt.
With such works, we would certainly soon be the first military, naval,
and commercial power of the world. The West, with these reduced
freights, would secure immense additional markets for her products, and
the East send a much larger amount of manufactures, in return cargoes,
to the West.
A new and great impulse would be given to the coal and iron interest. If
the Delaware, Susquehanna, and their tributaries, and the Ohio and its
tributaries, especially the Youghiogheny, Monongahela, and Alleghany had
the benefit of low freight, afforded by these canals, they could supply
not only the seaboard at reduced rates, but also central and western New
York, the Canadas, and the whole lake region, with coal and iron.
Indeed, the increased demand, thus caused for these great articles,
would soon bring our make of iron, and consumption of coal, up to that
of England, and ultimately much larger. Freight is a much greater
element in the cost of coal and iron, than of agricultural products, but
the increased exchange would be mutually advantageous.
With this system completed, the Mississippi might communicate by large
steamers with all the lakes, and eastward, by the enlarged canals, to
Chicago or Green Bay, or pass up the Ohio, by the Wabash or from
Lawrenceburg or Cincinnati to Toledo, or by Portsmouth or Bridgeport to
Cleveland or by Bridgeport to Erie city, or by Pittsburg, up the
Alleghany, to Olean and Rochester, on the Erie canal, or by ship canal,
from Buffalo to Ontario, thence, by the St. Lawrence, to Lake Champlain
and the Hudson, or by Oswego to Syracuse, or by the Erie canal from
Buffalo to the Hudson, or by the Chenango or Chemung route, down the
Susquehanna, to Philadelphia, or Baltimore, or down the Chesapeake to
Norfolk, and on through Albemarle Sound south. Or, going from the East,
or South, westward by these routes, the steamer could proceed west, and
up the Missouri, to the points where they would meet the great railway
leading to the Pacific. Indeed, if we do our duty now, the next
generation may carry similar canals from the head of Lake Superior to
the Mississippi and Missouri, and up the Kansas or Platte to the gold
mines of Colorado, or, from the great falls of the Missouri, to the base
of the Rocky mountains, with railroad connection thence to the mouth of
the Oregon and Puget's sound. There would be connected with this system,
the lakes, and all the Eastern waters, the Ohio and all its tributaries,
including the Youghiogheny, Monongahela, Alleghany, Kanawa, Guyandotte,
Big Sandy, Muskingum, Scioto, Miami, Wabash, Licking, Kentucky, Green
river, Barren, Cumberland, and Tennessee, the upper Mississippi and its
tributaries, especially the Illinois and Wisconsin, the Desmoines and
St. Peter's, the lower Mississippi and all its vast tributaries, the St.
Francis, White river, Arkansas, Red river, and Yazoo. These are no
dreams of an enthusiast, but advancing realities, if _now_, _now_ we
will only do our duty in crushing this rebellion, and exorcise the foul
fiend of slavery, that called it into being. We may best judge of what
we may do in the future, by what we have done in the past. We have
constructed 4,650 miles of canals (including slackwater), at a cost of
$132,000,000. We have constructed (including city roads) 31,898 miles of
railroad, at a cost of $1,203,285,569, making an aggregate, for
railroads and canals, of $1,335,285,569. Now, one tenth of this sum will
probably make all the works proposed now to be executed, for they are
all only enlargements of existing canals, except the ship canal round
the falls of Niagara, and a similar canal from Lake Champlain to the St.
Lawrence, a work of vast importance, but that can only be accomplished
with the aid and consent of Canada, and is not now estimated.
These improvements would be truly national, especially as provision
would be made for deepening the mouth of the Mississippi. We propose to
make or enlarge no mere local works, but only such as connect the
Atlantic and the Gulf with the lakes, Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri,
Hudson, Delaware, Susquehanna, Chesapeake bay, and Albemarle sound.
There local routes must be constructed or enlarged by local or State
expenditures.
The canals in New York, constituting so large a portion of the system,
have already (mostly) the requisite width and depth, and only need an
enlargement of the locks. The great Delaware and Raritan canal,
connecting New York with Philadelphia, has a depth of 8 feet, and the
Delaware and Chesapeake, uniting them with the Susquehanna and the
lakes, Baltimore, Norfolk, and Albemarle sound, has a depth of ten feet.
No doubt the enlightened proprietors of the Delaware and Raritan canal
would, on fair terms to themselves and the Government, enlarge that
canal (if practicable) to the depth of the Delaware and Chesapeake,
which would be of incalculable benefit to the whole country, but
especially to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Norfolk.
The Pennsylvania canals proposed to be enlarged are the Schuylkill,
leading by the Union from Philadelphia, through Reading to Middleton on
the Susquehanna, and thence up that river to the Erie and the lakes. The
Schuylkill canal, 70 miles to Reading, has a depth of 6 feet, and from
Reading to Middleton, 4 feet. The Susquehanna canal, from Havre de
Grace, Maryland, at the head of tidewater, and the Chesapeake bay to the
New York line, and system, has a uniform depth of 5 feet, and is about
300 miles long. This canal, leading through Maryland and Pennsylvania
along the Susquehanna, can readily and cheaply be enlarged to the
dimensions of the Erie canal, and will then furnish Norfolk, Baltimore,
and Philadelphia a direct route to the lakes by the enlarged system,
fully equal to that of New York. Western Pennsylvania and Pittsburg
would have the route, by the enlarged system, up the Alleghany and Olean
to Rochester on the Erie canal, and thence to the Hudson or the lakes,
and from Bridgeport to Cleveland or Erie city. Ohio would have the
benefit of the routes (enlarged) to and from Cleveland to Bridgeport or
Portsmouth on the Ohio, and to and from Toledo to the mouth of the
Wabash or Miami or to Cincinnati. These canals are 40 feet wide and 4
feet deep. Indiana would have the benefit of the Wabash and Erie canal
to Evansville, on the Ohio, from Toledo, and to and from the same point
to the mouth of the Miami at Lawrenceburg and to Cincinnati, and would
also largely participate in the benefit of the Chicago and Illinois
canal of the whole system. Wisconsin would have the benefit of all these
canals, but especially of that connecting the Wisconsin river with Green
Bay, and the rest of the lakes with Lake Superior. Illinois would have
the benefit of the Wabash and Erie, the Chicago and Illinois, and of the
entire system. Indeed, with a thorough-cut canal from the Illinois river
to Chicago, fact will outstrip fancy as regards the progress of that
great city. And here a strong argument in favor of the whole of these
works is presented to every true American, by the fact that the vast and
increasing heavy and bulky products of the West demand the enlarged
works, and if she cannot have them by the Hudson, the Delaware, and
Susquehanna, she will have them by the Canada canals, and the St.
Lawrence to its outlet in the Gulf. Minnesota would have the benefit of
the improvement of the upper Mississippi, and of the canals uniting the
Wisconsin with Green Bay, and Superior with the other lakes. Iowa,
Missouri, Kansas, and the whole Western Territories would have the
benefit of the improvement of the Mississippi, of the routes by Chicago,
Green Bay, the Ohio, and the whole system. The glorious new free State
of Western Virginia would have the benefit of all the routes up and down
the Ohio and Mississippi to the lakes, the Hudson, Delaware,
Susquehanna, and the Gulf. So would Kentucky, and the enlargement of the
Louisville canal would be within her own limits. When we reflect that
Kentucky borders for nearly a thousand miles on the Ohio and
Mississippi, with her streams, the Big Sandy, Licking, Kentucky, Green
river, and Barren (which last four have 766 miles of slackwater
navigation), Cumberland, and Tennessee, all tributaries of the Ohio, the
benefits to her would be prodigious. The interest of the States of
Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, North Alabama, on the
Tennessee river, and Texas, on the Red river, would be greatly promoted.
They would all have improved routes to and from the mouth of the
Mississippi, and to and from the Ohio, the lakes, and the Atlantic.
Eastern Virginia and North Carolina would derive great advantages by the
enlarged routes, connecting Albemarle sound and the Chesapeake with New
York, Philadelphia, the Hudson, the Delaware, the Susquehanna, and the
lakes. Delaware and Maryland could avail themselves most beneficially of
all these routes, and Baltimore would derive immense advantages from
the enlarged route by the Susquehanna to the lakes, having then as good
a route there as New York, and the difference of distance being only 30
miles. New Jersey, by her route from the Delaware and Raritan to the
Hudson, and by her rising cities near or opposite Philadelphia and New
York, and by the enlarged system to the lakes, would find all her
interests greatly advanced, and the business on her canals and railroads
vastly increased. Michigan, with a larger lake shore than any other
State, fronting on Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, St. Clair, the
connecting straits and rivers, and Lake Erie, would derive immense
advantages. By her immediate connection with the whole New York and
Eastern system, and by Toledo, Cleveland or Erie city, to the Ohio
river, and by the Chicago or Green Bay routes to the Mississippi and the
Gulf, her vast agricultural products in the peninsula would find new and
augmented markets; while, with the ship canal to Lake Superior, her
magnificent iron and copper mines on that immense inland sea, as well as
those in Wisconsin, and the splendid pineries and fisheries of both
States, would receive an immense development. Pennsylvania has no large
available through route now from the Delaware and Susquehanna to the
lakes, nor from Pittsburg. The proposed system would give her those
routes, as well from the East as from the West. This would give to her
coal and iron, her vast agricultural products, her immense manufactures,
and all her industrial pursuits a new impulse, while her two great
cities, Philadelphia and Pittsburg, would be greatly advanced in wealth
and population. When we reflect that coal and iron have mainly
contributed to make England what she is, and how superior, in this
respect, are the natural advantages of Pennsylvania with her bituminous
and anthracite coal and iron and fluxes in juxtaposition, with a
_continent_ surrounding her to furnish a market, with her central
location, fronting on the deep tidewater of the Delaware, and upon the
lakes and the Ohio, with its two great confluents at Pittsburg, the
Alleghany and Monongahela, we cannot fully realize the immense
advantages which she would derive from these enlarged communications.
But what of New York? With all her routes, as well as that of the Erie
canal, enlarged as proposed, with her mighty system extending to the
lakes and St. Lawrence, from Lake Champlain to Superior, south by the
Delaware and Susquehanna, west by the Alleghany, Ohio, Missouri, and
Mississippi, and her great city with an unrivalled location, what an
imperial destiny lies before her, with the Union preserved? Oh! if she
would only fully realize these great truths, and spurn from her embrace
the wretched traitors who, while falsely professing peace, mean the
degradation of the North and the dissolution of this Union, who can
assign limits to her wealth and commerce?
Let us now examine the relations of New England to these proposed works.
Vermont, upon Lake Champlain, by the enlarged system, connecting her
with the Hudson, the St. Lawrence, and the lakes, would be greatly
advanced in wealth and population. But with cheapened transportation to
and from Lake Champlain or the Hudson, not only Vermont, but all New
England, in receiving her coal and iron, and her supplies from the West,
and in sending them her manufactures, will enjoy great advantages, and
the business of her railroads be vastly increased. So, also, New
England, on the Sound, and, in fact, the whole seaboard and all its
cities. Bridgeport, New Haven, New London, Providence, Fall River, New
Bedford, Boston, Portland, Bangor, Belfast, and Eastport will all
transact an immense increased business with New York, Philadelphia,
Baltimore, and the West. As the greatest American consumer of Western
breadstuffs and provisions, and of our iron and coal, and the principal
seat of domestic manufactures, the augmented reciprocal trade of New
England with the South and West will be enormous. Her shipping and
shipbuilding interests, her cotton, woollen, worsted, and textile
fabrics, her machinery, engines, and agricultural implements, boots and
shoes, hats and caps, her cabinet furniture, musical instruments, paper,
clothing, fisheries, soap, candles, and chandlery, in which she has
excelled since the days of Franklin, and, in fact, all her industrial
pursuits, will be greatly benefited. The products of New England in
1860, exclusive of agriculture and the earnings of commerce, were of the
value of $494,075,498. But, in a few years after the completion of these
works, this amount will be doubled. Such is the skilled and educated
industry of New England, and such the inventive genius of her people,
that there is no limit to her products, except markets and consumers. As
New York increases, the swelling tide of the great city will flow over
to a vast extent into the adjacent shores of Connecticut and New Jersey,
and Hoboken, West Hoboken, Weehawken, Hudson City, Jersey City, and
Newark will meet in one vast metropolis. Philadelphia will also flow
over in the same way into Camden and adjacent portions of New Jersey,
whose farms already greatly exceed in value those of any other State.
The farms of New Jersey in 1860 were of the average value of $60.38 per
acre, while those of South Carolina, the great leader of the rebellion,
with all her boasted cotton, rice, and tobacco, and her 402,406 slaves,
were then of the average value of $8.61 per acre. (Census Table 36.) And
yet there are those in New Jersey who would drag her into the rebel
confederacy, cover her with the dismal pall of slavery, and who cry
_Peace! peace!_ when there is no peace, except in crushing this wicked
rebellion. The States of the Pacific, as the enlarged canals reached the
Mississippi and Missouri, and ultimately the base of the Rocky
mountains, would be greatly advanced in all their interests.
Agricultural products and other bulky and heavy articles that could not
bear transportation all the way by the great Pacific railroad, could be
carried by such enlarged canals to the Mississippi and Missouri, and
ultimately to the base of the Rocky mountains, and thence, by railroad,
a comparatively short distance to the Pacific, and westward to China and
Japan. In order to make New York and San Francisco great depots of
interoceanic commerce for America, Europe, Asia, and the world, these
enlarged canals, navigated by large steamers, and ultimately toll free,
are indispensable.
We have named, then, all the Territories, and all the thirty-five
States, except three, as deriving great and special advantages from this
system. These three are Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida, with a
white population, in 1860, of 843,338. These States, however, would not
only participate in the increased prosperity of the whole country, and
in augmented markets for their cotton, rice, sugar, tobacco, and timber,
and in cheaper supplies of Eastern manufactures, coal, iron, and Western
products, but they would derive, also, special advantages. They have a
large trade with New Orleans, which they would reach more cheaply by
deepening the mouth of the Mississippi. They could pass up Albemarle
sound, by the interior route, to Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, or
the West, and take back return cargoes by the same route. Georgia, also,
by her location on the Tennessee river, together with South Carolina,
connected with that river at Chattanooga, would derive great benefits
from this connection with the enlarged canals and improved navigation of
the West, sending their own and receiving Western products more cheaply.
Thus, every State and every Territory in the Union would be advanced in
all their interests by these great weeks, and lands, farms, factories,
town and city property, all be improved in value.
But there is another topic, connected with this subject, of vast
importance, particularly at this juncture, to which I must now refer. It
is our public lands, the homestead bill, and immigration. On reference
to an article on this subject, published by me in the November number of
THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY, it will be found that our unsold public lands
embraced 1,649,861 square miles, being 1,055,911,288 acres, extending to
fifteen States and all the Territories, and exceeding half the area of
the whole Union. The area of New York, being 47,000 square miles, is
less than a thirty-fifth of this public domain. England (proper), 50,922
square miles; France, 203,736; Prussia, 107,921; and Germany, 80,620
square miles. Our public domain, then, is more than eight times as large
as France, more than fifteen times as large as Prussia, more than twenty
times as large as Germany, more than thirty-two times as large as
England, and larger (excluding Russia) than all Europe, containing more
than 200,000,000 of people. As England proper contained, in 1861,
18,949,916 inhabitants, if our public domain were as densely settled,
its population would exceed 606,000,000, and it would be 260,497,561, if
numbering as many to the square mile as Massachusetts. These lands
embrace every variety of soil, products, and climate, from that of St.
Petersburg to the tropics.
After commenting on the provisions of our homestead bill, which gives to
every settler, American or European, 160 acres of this land for ten
dollars (the cost of survey, etc.), I then said:
'The homestead privilege will largely increase immigration. Now,
besides the money brought here by immigrants, the Census proves
that the average annual value of the labor of Massachusetts _per
capita_ was, in 1860, $220 for each man, woman, and child,
independent of the gains of commerce--very large, but not given.
Assuming that of the immigrants at an average annual value of only
$100 each, or less than thirty-three cents a day, it would make, in
ten years, at the rate of 100,000 each year, the following
aggregate:
1st year 100,000 = $10,000,000
2d " 200,000 = 20,000,000
3d " 300,000 = 30,000,000
4th " 400,000 = 40,000,000
5th " 500,000 = 50,000,000
6th " 600,000 = 60,000,000
7th " 700,000 = 70,000,000
8th " 800,000 = 80,000,000
9th " 900,000 = 90,000,000
10th " 1,000,000 = 100,000,000
------------
Total, $550,000,000
'In this table the labor of all immigrants each year is properly
added to those arriving the succeeding year, so as to make the
aggregate the last year 1,000,000. This would make the value of the
labor of this million of immigrants in ten years, $550,000,000,
independent of the annual accumulation of capital, and the labor of
the children of the immigrants (born here) after the first ten
years, which, with their descendants, would go on constantly
increasing.
'But, by the official returns (p. 14, Census), the number of alien
immigrants to the United States, from December, 1850, to December,
1860, was 2,598,216, or an annual average of 260,000.
'The effect, then, of this immigration, on the basis of the last
table, upon the increase of national wealth, was as follows:
1st year 260,000 = $26,000,000
2d " 520,000 = 52,000,000
3d " 780,000 = 78,000,000
4th " 1,040,000 = 104,000,000
5th " 1,300,000 = 130,000,000
6th " 1,560,000 = 156,000,000
7th " 1,820,000 = 182,000,000
8th " 2,080,000 = 208,000,000
9th " 2,340,000 = 234,000,000
10th " 2,600,000 = 260,000,000
--------------
Total, $1,430,000,000
'Thus, the value of the labor of the immigrants, from 1850 to 1860,
was $1,430,000,000, making no allowance for the accumulation of
capital, by annual reinvestment, nor for the natural increase of
this population, amounting, by the Census, in ten years, to about
twenty-four per cent. This addition to our wealth, by the labor of
the children, in the first ten years, would be small; but in the
second and each succeeding decade, when we count children, and
their descendants, it would be large and constantly augmenting. But
the Census shows that our wealth increases each ten years at the
rate of 126.45 per cent. (Census Table 35.) Now, then, take our
increase of wealth, in consequence of immigration, as before
stated, and compound it at the rate of 126.45 per cent. every ten
years, and the result is largely over $3,000,000,000 in 1870, and
over $7,000,000,000 in 1880, independent of the effect of any
immigration succeeding 1860. If these results are astonishing, we
must remember that immigration here is augmented population, and
that it is population and labor that create wealth. Capital,
indeed, is but the accumulation of labor. Immigration, then, from
1850 to 1860, added to our national products a sum more than double
our whole debt on the 1st of July last, and augmenting in a ratio
much more rapid than its increase, and thus enabling us to bear the
war expenses.'
As the homestead privilege must largely increase immigration, and add
especially to the cultivation of our soil, it will contribute vastly to
increase our population, wealth, and power, and augment our revenues
from duties and taxes.
As this domain is extended over fifteen States and all the Territories,
the completion of these enlarged canals, embracing so large a portion of
them, would be most advantageous to all, and the inducement to
immigration would greatly increase, and immigration must soon flow in
from Europe in an augmented volume. Indeed, when these facts are
generally known in Europe, the desire of small renters, and of the
working classes, to own a farm, and cultivate their own lands here, must
bring thousands to our shores, even during the war. But it will be
mainly when the rebellion shall have been crushed, the power of the
Government vindicated, its authority fully reëstablished, and slavery
extinguished, so as to make labor honorable everywhere throughout our
country, and freedom universal, that this immigration will surge upon
our shores. When we shall have maintained the Union unbroken against
foreign and domestic enemies, and proved that a republic is as powerful
in war as it is benign in peace, and especially that the _people_ will
rush to the ranks to crush even the most gigantic rebellion, and that
they will not only bear arms, but taxes, for such a purpose, the
prophets of evil, who have so often proclaimed our Government an
_organised anarchy_, will lose their power to delude the people of
Europe. And when that people learn the truth, and the vast privileges
offered them by the Homestead Bill, there will be an exodus from Europe
to our country, unprecedented since the discovery of America. The wounds
inflicted by the war will then soon be healed, and European immigrants,
cultivating here their own farms, and truly loyal to this free and
paternal Government, from which they will have received this precious
gift of a farm for each, will take the place of the rebels, who shall
have fled the country. We have seen that the total cost of our railroads
and canals, up to this date, was $1,335,285,569, and I have estimated
the probable cost of these enlarged works as not exceeding one tenth of
this sum, or $133,528,556. Let us now examine that question. We have
seen that our 4,650 miles of canals cost $132,000,000, being $28,387 per
mile, or less, by $8,395 per mile, than our railroads. It will be
recollected that a large number of miles of these canals have already
the requisite depth of seven feet, and width of seventy, and need only
an enlargement of their locks. It appears, however, by the returns, that
the Erie canal, the Grand Junction, Champlain canal, and the Black
River, Chemung, Chenango, and Oswego, in all 528 miles, are all seven
feet deep, and seventy feet wide, and cost $83,494 per mile, while the
average cost of _all_ our canals, varying from forty to seventy-five
feet in width, and from four to ten in depth, was $28,387 per mile.
Assuming $28,000 per mile as the average cost of the canals requiring
enlargement, and $83,000 that of those per mile having already the
requisite dimensions, the difference would be $55,000 per mile, as the
average cost of those needing increased dimensions.
The estimated cost, then, would stand as follows:
598 miles New York canals,
enlargement of locks $5,980,000
Enlarging dimensions, etc.,
of 1,696 miles, at $55,000
per mile 93,280,000
-----------
Total, $99,260,000
The conjectural estimate heretofore made by me was $133,528,556, or one
tenth the cost of our existing railroads and canals, and exceeding, by
$1,528,556, the cost of all our present 4,650 miles of canal. Deduct
this from the above $133,528,556, leaves $34,268,556, to be applied to
improving the St. Clair flats, the Mississippi river, deepening its
mouth, and for the ship canal round the Falls of Niagara.
No estimate is now presented of the cost of the canal from Lake
Champlain to the St. Lawrence, because that requires the coöperation of
Canada.
The railroads of our country would increase their business, with our
augmented wealth and population, especially in the transportation of
passengers and merchandise. They would also obtain iron cheaper for
rails, boilers, and engines, timber for cars, breadstuffs and provisions
for supplies, and coal or wood for their locomotives.
Great, however, as would be the effect of these works in augmenting our
commerce, wealth, and population, their results in consolidating and
perpetuating our Union would be still more important. When the Ohio,
Mississippi, and Missouri, and all their tributaries, arterializing the
great valley, shall be united by the proposed routes with the lakes, the
St. Lawrence, the Hudson, Delaware, Susquehanna, Chesapeake, and
Albemarle, what sacrilegious hand could be raised against such a Union?
We should have no more rebellions. We should hear no more of North,
South, East, and West, for all would be linked together by a unity of
commerce and interests. Our Union would become a social, moral,
geographical, political, and commercial necessity, and no State would
risk by secession the benefit of participating in its commerce. We
should be a homogeneous people, and slavery would disappear before the
march of civilization, and of free schools, free labor, free soil, free
lakes, rivers, and canals. It is the absence of such a system (aided by
slavery), _drawing the West and Southwest, by a supposed superior
attraction, to the Gulf_, that has led the Southwest into this
rebellion. But with slavery extinguished, with freedom strengthening
labor's hand, with education elevating the soul and enlightening the
understanding, and with such communications uniting all our great lakes
and rivers, East and West, all crowned with nourishing towns and mighty
cities, with cultured fields and smiling harvests, exchanging their own
products and fabrics, and those of the world, by flying cars and rushing
steamers, revolt or disunion would be impossible. Strike down every
barrier that separates the business of the North and East from that of
the South and West, and you render dissolution impossible. In commerce,
we would be a unit, drawing to us, by the irresistible attraction of
interest, intercourse, and trade, the whole valley of the lakes and St.
Lawrence. Whom God had united by geography, by race, by language,
commerce, and interest, political institutions could not long keep
asunder. Of all foreign nations, those which would derive the greatest
advantages from such an union would be England and France, the two
governments which a wicked pro-slavery rebellion invites to attempt our
destruction. With such a commerce, and with slavery extinguished, we
would have the Union, not as it was, but as our fathers intended it
should be, when they founded this great and free republic. We should
soon attain the highest civilization, and enjoy the greatest happiness
of which our race is capable. So long as slavery existed here, and we
were divided into States cherishing, and States abhorring the
institution, so long as free and forced labor were thus antagonized, we
could scarcely be said to have a real Union, or to exist truly as a
nation. Slavery loomed up like a black mountain, dividing us. Slavery
kept us always on the verge of civil war, with hostility to liberty,
education, and progress, and menacing for half a century the life of the
republic. The question then was not, Will any measure, or any
construction of the constitution, benefit the nation? but, Will it
weaken or strengthen slavery? All that was good, or great, or national,
was opposed by slavery--science, literature, the improvement of rivers
and harbors, homesteads for the West, defences and navies for the East.
American ocean steamers were sacrificed to foreign subsidies, and all
aid was refused to canals or railroads, including that to the Pacific,
although essential to the national unity. Slavery was attempted to be
forced on Kansas, first by violence and invasion, and then by fraud, and
the _forgery of a constitution_. Defeated in Kansas by the voice of the
people, slavery then took the question from the people, and promulgated
its last platform in 1860, by which all the Territories, nearly equal in
area to the States, were to be subjected forever _as Territories_ to
slavery, although opposed by the overwhelming voice of their people.
Slavery was nationalized, and freedom limited and circumscribed with the
evident intent soon to strangle it in all the States, and spread forced
labor over the continent, from the North to Cape Horn. Failing in the
election, slavery then assailed the vital principle of the republic, the
rule of the majority, and inaugurated the rebellion. Slavery kept
perjured traitors for months in the cabinet and the two Houses of
Congress, to aid in the overthrow of the Government. Then was formed a
constitution avowedly based on slavery, setting it up as an idol to be
worshipped, and upon whose barbaric altars is now being poured out the
sacrificial blood of freemen. But it will fail, for the curse of God and
man is upon it. And when the rebellion is crushed, and slavery
extinguished, we shall emerge from this contest strengthened, purified,
exalted. We shall march to the step and music of a redeemed humanity,
and a regenerated Union. We shall feel a new inspiration, and breathe an
air in which slavery and every form of oppression must perish.
Standing upon these friendly shores, in a land which abolished slavery
in the twelfth century, and surrounded by a people devoted to our
welfare, looking westward, along the path of empire, across the
Atlantic, to my own beloved country, these are my views of her glorious
destiny, when the twin hydras of slavery and rebellion are crushed
forever.
If our Irish adopted citizens could only hear, as I now do, the
condemnation of slavery and of this revolt, by the Irish people; if they
could hear them, as I do, quote the electric words of their renowned
Curran against slavery, and in favor of _universal emancipation_; if
they could listen, as they repeated the still bolder and scathing
denunciations of their great orator, O'Connell, as he trampled on the
dehumanizing system of chattel slavery, they would scorn the advice of
the traitor leaders, who, under the false guise of Democracy, but in
hostility to all its principles, would now lure them, by the syren cry
of peace, into the destruction of the Union, which guards their rights,
and protects their interests.
The convention now assembled at Chicago, can do much to inaugurate a new
era of civilization, freedom, and progress, by aiding in giving to the
nation these great interior routes of commerce and intercourse, in the
centre of which your great city will hold the urn, as the long-divorced
waters of the lakes and the Mississippi are again commingled, and the
Union linked together by the imperishable bonds of commerce, interest,
and affection.
WOMAN.
The ever-present phenomenon of revolution bears two forms. They may be
discrete or concrete, but they are two--ideas, movement,--cause,
result--force, effect. And progressive humanity marches upon its future
with ideas for its centre, movement its right and left wings. Not a step
is taken till the Great Field-Marshal has sent his orders along the
lines.
Revolutions go by periods. Are they possibly controlled or influenced in
these years by the stellar affinities of the north pole? Is that
capricious functionary leading up to Casseopeia, in this cycle, or
Andromeda, that we find ourselves turning from great Hercules, fiery
Bootes, and even neglecting the shining majesty of belted, sworded
Orion, to consider woman? I have not consulted the astronomers. The
stars of the heavens are in their places. Male and female, the groups
come to us in winter and retire in summer: their faint splendors fall
down upon our harvest nights, and then give way to the more august
retinue of the wintry solstice. The boreal pivot, whose journal is the
awful, compact blue, may, for aught I know, be hobnobbing at this moment
with the most masculine of starry masculinities. But if it be, it is in
little sympathy with the magnetic pole of human thought, whose fine
point turns unwaveringly in these days of many revolutions to woman as
the centre and leader of the grandest of them all.
A great storm overtook an ancient navigator of the Ægean. He called on
his gods, he importuned them, but the waves rolled and raged the more
angrily the more he prayed. 'Neptune, wilt thou not save me?' 'Go
below,' was the uncourteous answer, and, as with a great blow struck by
the hand of the busy deity, the vessel was suddenly suspended midway
between the surface and the depths of the waters. What a peaceful spot
she had reached! The astonished mariner looked around him in wonder more
than gratitude. 'Good deity,' said he, taking breath, 'I prayed not to
be saved thus _from_ the storm, but _in_ it. Return me to the upper
world, I beseech thee, and let me do my stroke in its battle.'
Storms have swept over the ages as winds over the blue Ægean, and woman,
shrinking from their blasts and the agitations that have followed them,
has prayed to her gods, and been suspended between the depths of man's
depravity and the heights of his achievements, around whose wintry peaks
winds of ambition have roared, storms of vaulting self-love have
gathered, tempests of passion have contended in angry and fierce strife.
To brighten the heights they assailed each one, to clear the lofty airs
embracing them. They shine now where clouds were wont to hover;
sunshine steeps the rugged declivities where mists of ages hung their
impenetrable folds, paths invite where unknown, forbidding fastnesses
repelled even daring feet, and thus the stormy career of conflict is
vindicated in its results. The dove testifies a certain divinity in the
Doing which has produced it.
But that still region where the more timid life has nestled undaring,
unadventured, shrinking from the struggle and the strife above,
recoiling from the seething foulness below--what have we in this
dreamland inhabited by woman? And wherefore the earnest turning
thitherward, in our day, of so many brave, so many earnest, so many sad,
so many yearning, aspiring eyes? Wherefore the restlessness, wherefore
the groans of imprisonment here, wherefore the passionate longings, the
resolute, deep, inextinguishable purpose of escape? Make way, O
propitious gods; I can no longer be saved _from_ this struggle of life,
but _through_ it. This mariner must be brought to the surface, or the
waters will be parted before her by the conquering power in her own
soul, and she will present herself there unaided. But not in the fierce
spirit of a combatant, not as a conqueror--only as one moved by divine
purpose to reach and _take_ her place, to touch and accomplish her work.
What are the qualities of this new soldier in the field of human
struggle? Whence comes and whither goes she?
These inquiries point us to the ideas of the Woman Revolution--its
Movements will be deductions from them.
Man knows neither woman nor her whence or whither. He acknowledges her a
Mystery from his earliest acquaintance with her to the present day.
Whatever his conquests over the hidden and the mysterious elsewhere in
nature, here is a mystery that confronts him whenever he turns
hither--nay, that grows by his attempts at mastering it. The permanently
mysterious is only that which exceeds us, and we study this but to learn
how widely its embracing horizon can spread as we advance. Thus the
woman of the nineteenth century is an incomparably greater mystery to
man than was her sister of the ninth. Scientific conquests do but touch
the periphery of her being; they explore her nature so far as it is of
common quality and powers with the nature of man and of the feminine
animals, and would perhaps do more wisely if they stopped dumb before
what lies beyond and above these levels. For beyond, man reads but to
misread--studies but to vex and confuse himself, and--shall I say
it?--learns to sneer at rather than to reverence what baffles his
inquiries. Does this statement seem harsh? Is it doubted? See its truth.
The only science (so called) which undertakes a study of woman does not
inspire its student with an increased respect for her. As a class,
medical men, above that of other men, are perhaps less chivalrous than
blacksmiths. Lucky is she and lucky are they if it be not diminished
instead. For, assuming man as the standard, the corporeal functions,
which absolutely elevate her in the scale of development, being added to
all that he possesses, and constituting her corporeal womanhood, are
seen by this student only as disabilities from which he is happily
exempt (as if a disability could come into any life but through the door
of an ability); and her larger measure of the divine attributes, faith,
hope, and love--love, as compassion and as maternity--are seen as simple
weaknesses to which he is happily superior.
The greatness of man's individuality lies in his power over the
external; that of woman's is interior, central, as the sun to our
planets, which roll through common fields of space, breathe a common
ether, share a common light and warmth, but know not that ether, that
light, that warmth, whence theirs flows out to them. Central, potent,
commanding, superior to laws which alternately move and still their
currents--nay, being in themselves those very laws--this hidden power is
never touched by them, is shared by them only in fixed measure, beyond
which drafts upon it are protested as inexorably as turn the wheels of
fate in producing a midge or a mastodon.
The greater includes the less, said the first Mathematician. It is no
more true of the geometer's space and the philosopher's matter than of
the physiologist's functional power. Apply the axiom to the functional
quantity of the feminine and masculine, and it will be seen which
includes which, and why man, in all the pride of his highest
achievements, is obliged to confess himself defeated, when, as an
investigator, he addresses himself to the solution of the problem of
womanhood. Her individualizing attributes make in her life a kingdom of
her own. Possessing every function and power which man possesses, either
in identity or equivalent--the faculties, capacities, and functions
common to both differing only comparatively in each from their degree in
the other, the masculine being confessedly the lighter side of the
balance, when the higher and finer attributes are in the scale--woman
has above them all her own unique life, which man can learn only as a
student and spectator, the depths of which all his penetration does not
enable him to explore, the secrets of which his consciousness can never
report. From and through the powers and attributes which centre herein,
come those experiences, perceptions--those faiths, hopes, trusts,
yearnings, aspirations, loves, which ray out to man that purer and
divine light without which he soon stumbles and falls--that warmth
without which his life becomes a wintry waste--that harmony without
which he is an instrument played at will by the cunning fiend of discord
and selfishness--that purity without whose sweet, cleansing current
flowing over and around him he is soon mired in the sloughs of appetite,
or swamped in the unclean sinks of sensualism--that steadfast holding to
things above, without which he soon drops down to grovel along the
earth--that unwavering faith and that utter trust in good which keeps
alive and warm in the heart of humanity its noblest ideals.
Thus the Cross of the feminine life embodies the idea of the revolution
in its favor: revolution, which, above all its wars, national or civil,
its struggles for or against freedom, above all its discoveries in the
world of matter and of force, above all its inventions, its new arts and
its improved old arts, its philanthropies, its religious agitations, is
destined to command for the nineteenth century the respect of the coming
ages. Dion's star upon its forehead, already the dim and distant future
diaphaned in its light, comes up to cheer our waiting, wandering eyes.
It is only woman who can state woman. The unknown quantity falls not
within the terms of any equation to which man can reduce her. Master,
teacher of all other lessons in nature, here he must be the taught.
Leader of all other movements, here he must be follower. Greater must
not only include, it must conduct less.
Whence?
Out of the peaceful, still waters below: no longer stay possible there.
The _vis vitæ_ overruling the _vis inertia_, we take up the line of
march. Fold the napkin away from your eyes, O daughter of the ages, and
behold, there lies your road--a throng already pressing their way where
you thought you were alone. Upward, as well by the universal as by the
special law of the case. Many a tearful eye turned backward to the land
we are leaving--land beloved by woman, though stained with oppression,
darkened by slavery, impoverished by lack of action, dwarfed in its
proportions, devious in many of its loveliest lines--some of its
sweetest paths leading those who set feet of innocent trust in them
down to hell at last; beloved despite all, because the heart of the
traveller is tender and loving; cherished, because her repressed soul is
timid and doubting. We have lacked light, freedom, space for action and
growth, yet are there pleasant places there. All these are now before
us. Dry your tears, O tender souls, suppress your sighs, stifle your
groans. Let us press forward in courage and hope. Forty years, it may
be, in the wilderness, but deliverance at last. The gentle cloud will be
over us by day, the path of duty will shine as a fire upon us by night.
Farewell, then, Africa, land of despot and victim; farewell, Asia, land
of satrap and slave; farewell, Europe, land of monarch and subject:
welcome, broad, varied, exhaustless New World, spreading inviting fields
before longing eyes that falter while they gaze.
Whither?
Two thoughts naturally result from this new attitude: first, to go
straight to the kingdom already laid out and well beaten into paths by
man; second, to be so polite when arrived there as to accept him, his
life, power, work, as standards to which it were wisest that we conform
ourselves with all expedient haste, and thus blot out as speedily as may
be the woman world--let its existence be remembered only as an evil
escaped, a humiliation left behind forever. Has not its narrowness
shamed us, its poverty of action cramped and starved the capacities we
begin to feel unfolding in us--has not its peace made us seem cowards
while we lingered in it, and will not its imperishable purity bear
transplantation, and bloom in perennial beauty on the wider fields to
which we are hastening?