The administration tossed by expedients -- Seward to Dayton --
Spread-eagleism -- One phasis of the American Union finished --
The fuss about Russell -- Pressure on the administration
increases -- Seward, Wickoff, and the Herald -- Lord Lyons
menaced with passports -- The splendid Northern army -- The
administration not up to the occasion -- The new men -- Andrew,
Wadsworth, Boutwell, Noyes, Wade, Trumbull, Walcott, King,
Chandler, Wilson -- Lyon jumps over formulas -- Governor Banks
needed -- Butler takes Baltimore with two regiments -- News from
England -- The "belligerent" question -- Butler and Scott --
Seward and the diplomats -- "What a Merlin!" -- "France not
bigger than New York!" -- Virginia invaded -- Murder of Ellsworth
-- Harpies at the White House.
Rumors that the President, the administration, or whoever has it in
his hands, is to take the offensive, make a demonstration on Virginia
and on Baltimore. But these ups and downs, these vacillations, are
daily occurrences, and nothing points to a firm purpose, to a decided
policy, or any policy whatever of the administration.
A great principle and a great cause cannot be served and cannot be
saved by half measures, and still less by tricks and by paltry
expedients. But the administration is tossed by expedients. Nothing is
hitherto done, and this denotes a want of any firm decision.
Mr. Seward's letter to Dayton, a first manifesto to foreign nations,
and the first document of the new Minister of Foreign Affairs. It is
bold, high-toned, and American, but it has dark shadows; shows an
inexperienced hand in diplomacy and in dealing with events. The
passages about the frequent changes in Europe are unnecessary, and
unprovoked by anything whatever. It is especially offensive to France,
to the French people, and to Louis Napoleon. It is bosh, but in Europe
they will consider it as _une politique provocatrice_.
For the present complications, diplomatic relations ought to be
conducted with firmness, with dignity, but not with an arrogant,
offensive assumption, not in the spirit of spread-eagleism; no brass,
but reason and decision.
Americans will find out how absolute are the laws of history, as stern
and as positive as all the other laws of nature. To me it is clear
that one phasis of American political growth, development, &c., is
gone, is finished. It is the phasis of the Union as created by the
Constitution. This war--war it will be, and a terrible one,
notwithstanding all the prophecies of Mr. Seward to the contrary--this
war will generate new social and constitutional necessities and new
formulas. New conceptions and new passions will spring up; in one
word, it will bring forth new social, physical, and moral creations:
so we are in the period of gestation.
Democracy, the true, the noble, that which constitutes the
signification of America in the progress of our race--democracy will
not be destroyed. All the inveterate enemies here and in Europe, all
who already joyously sing the funeral songs of democracy, all of them
will become disgraced. Democracy will emerge more pure, more powerful,
more rational; destroyed will be the most infamous oligarchy ever
known in history; oligarchy issued neither from the sword, nor the
gown, nor the shop, but wombed, generated, cemented, and sustained by
traffic in man.
The famous Russell, of the London Times, is what I always thought him
to be--a graphic, imaginative writer, with power of description of all
he sees, but not the slightest insight in events, in men, in
institutions. Russell is not able to find out the epidermis under a
shirt. And they make so much fuss about him; Seward brings him to the
first cabinet dinner given by the President; Mrs. Lincoln sends him
bouquets; and this man, Russell, will heap blunders upon blunders.
The pressure on the administration for decided, energetic action
increases from all sides. Seldom, anywhere, an administration receives
so many moral kicks as does this one; but it seems to stand them with
serenity. Oh, for a clear, firm, well-defined purpose!
The country, the people demands an attack on Virginia, on Richmond,
and Baltimore; the country, better than the military authorities,
understands the political and military necessities; the people has the
consciousness that if fighting is done instantly, it will be done
cheaply and thoroughly by a move of its finger. The administration can
double the number of men under arms, but hesitates. What slow
coaches, and what ignorance of human nature and of human events. The
knowing ones, the wiseacres, will be the ruin of this country. They
poison the sound reason of the people.
What the d---- is Seward with his politicians' policy? What can
signify his close alliance with such outlaws as Wikoff and the Herald,
and pushing that sheet to abuse England and Lord Lyons? Wikoff is, so
to speak, an inmate of Seward's house and office, and Wikoff declared
publicly that the telegram contained in the Herald, and so violent
against England and Lord Lyons, was written under Seward's dictation.
Wikoff, I am told, showed the MS. corrected in Seward's handwriting.
Lord Lyons is menaced with passports. Is this man mad? Can Seward for
a moment believe that Wikoff knows Europe, or has any influence? He
may know the low resorts there. Can Seward be fool enough to irritate
England, and entangle this country? Even my anglophobia cannot stand
it. Wrote about it warning letters to New York, to Barney, to Opdyke,
to Wadsworth, &c.
The whole District a great camp; the best population from the North in
rank and file. More intelligence, industry, and all good national and
intellectual qualities represented in those militia and volunteer
regiments, than in any--not only army, but society--in Europe.
Artisans, mechanics of all industries, of trade, merchants, bankers,
lawyers; all pursuits and professions. Glorious, heart-elevating
sight! These regiments want only a small touch of military
organization.
Weeks run, troops increase, and not the first step made to organize
them into an army, to form brigades, not to say divisions; not yet two
regiments manoeuvring together. What a strange idea the military chief
or chiefs, or department, or somebody, must have of what it is to
organize an army. Not the first letter made. Can it be ignorance of
this elementary knowledge with which is familiar every corporal in
Europe? When will they start, when begin to mould an army?
The administration was not composed for this emergency, and is not up
to it. The government hesitates, is inexperienced, and will
unavoidably make heaps of mistakes, which may endanger the cause, and
for which, at any rate, the people is terribly to pay. The loss in men
and material will be very considerable before the administration will
get on the right track. It is painful to think, nay, to be sure of it.
Then the European anti-Union politicians and diplomats will credit the
disasters to the inefficiency of self-government. The diplomats,
accustomed to the rapid, energetic action of a supreme or of a
centralized power, laugh at the trepidation of ours. But the fault is
not in the principle of self-government, but in the accident which
brought to the helm such an amount of inexperience. Monarchy with a
feeble head is even in a worse predicament. Louis XV., the Spanish and
Neapolitan Bourbons, Gustavus IV., &c., are thereof the historical
evidences.
May the shock of events bring out new lights from the people! One day
the administration is to take the initiative, that is, the offensive,
then it recedes from it. No one understands the organization and
handling of such large bodies. They are to make their apprenticeship,
if only it may not to be too dearly paid. But they cannot escape the
action of that so positive law in nature, in history, and, above all,
absolute in war.
Wrote to Charles Sumner, suggesting that the ice magnates send here
from Boston ice for hospitals.
The war now waged against the free States is one made by the most
hideous _sauvagerie_ against a most perfectioned and progressive
civilization. History records not a similar event. It is a hideous
phenomenon, disgracing our race, and it is so, look on it from
whatever side you will.
A new man from the people, like Governor Andrew, of Massachusetts,
acts promptly, decisively; feels and speaks ardently, and not as the
rhetors. Andrew is the incarnation of the Massachusetts, nay, of the
genuine American people. I must become acquainted with Andrew.
Thousands of others like Andrew exist in all the States. Can anybody
be a more noble incarnation of the American people than J. S.
Wadsworth? I become acquainted with numerous men whom I honor as the
true American men. So Boutwell, of Massachusetts, Curtis Noyes,
Senator Wade, Trumbull, Walcott, from Ohio, Senator King, Chandler,
and many, many true patriots. Senator Wilson, my old friend, is up to
the mark; a man of the people, but too mercurial.
Captain or Major Lyon in St. Louis, the first initiator or revelator
of what is the absolute law of necessity in questions of national
death or life. Lyon jumped over formulas, over routine, over clumsy
discipline and martinetism, and saved St. Louis and Missouri.
It is positively asserted that General Scott's first impression was to
court-martial Lyon for this breach of discipline, for having acted on
his own patriotic responsibility.
Can Scott be such a dried-up, narrow-minded disciplinarian, and he the
Egeria of Lincoln! Oh! oh!
Diplomats tell me that Seward uses the dictatorial I, speaking of the
government. Three cheers for the new Louis XIV.!
Governor Banks would be excellent for the _Intendant General de
l'Armee_: they call it here _General Quartermaster_. Awful disorder
and slowness prevail in this cardinal branch of the army. Wrote to
Sumner concerning Banks.
Gen. Butler took Baltimore; did what ought to have been done a long
time ago. Butler did it on his own responsibility, without orders.
Butler acted upon the same principle as Lyon, and, _horrabile dictu_,
astonished, terrified the parleying administration. Scott wishes to
put Butler under arrest; happily Lincoln resisted his boss (so Mr.
Lincoln called Scott before a deputation from Baltimore). Scott,
Patterson, and Mansfield made a beautiful _strategical_ horror! They
began to speak of strategy; plan to approach Baltimore on three
different roads, and with about 35,000 men. Butler did it one morning
with two regiments, and kicked over the senile strategians in council.
The administration speaks with pride of its forbearing, that is,
parleying, policy. The people, the country, requires action.
_Congressus impar Achilli_: Achilles, the people, and _Congressus_ the
forbearing administration.
Music, parades, serenades, receptions, &c., &c., only no genuine
military organization. They do it differently on the other side of the
Potomac. There the leaders are in earnest.
Met Gov. Sprague and asked him when he would have a brigade; his
answer was, soon; but this soon comes very slow.
News from England. Lord John Russell declared in Parliament that the
Queen, or the English government, will recognize the rebels in the
condition of "belligerents." O England, England! The declaration is
too hasty. Lord John cannot have had news of the proclamation of the
blockade when he made that declaration. The blockade could have served
him as an excuse for the haste. English aristocracy and government
show thus their enmity to the North, and their partiality to slavers.
What will the anglophiles of Boston say to this?
Neither England or France, or anybody in Europe, recognized the
condition of "belligerents" to Poles, when we fought in Russia in
1831. Were the Magyars recognized as such in 1848-'49? Lord
Palmerston called the German flag hard names in the war with Denmark
for Schleswig-Holstein; and now he bows to the flag of slavers and
pirates. If the English statesmen have not some very particular reason
for this hasty, uncalled-for condescension to the enemies of humanity,
then curse upon the English government. I recollect that European
powers recognized the Greeks "belligerents" (Austria opposed) in their
glorious struggle against the slavers, the Turks. But then this
stretching of positive, international comity,--this stretching was
done in the interest of freedom, of right, and of humanity, against
savages and slaughterers. On the present occasion England did the
reverse. O England, England, thou Judas Iscariot of nations! Seward
said to John Jacob Astor, and to a New York deputation, that this
English declaration concerning "belligerents" is a mere formality,
having no bearing at all. I told the contrary to Astor and to others,
assuring them that Mr. Seward will soon find, to the cost of the
people and to his own, how much complication and trouble this _mere
formality_ will occasion, and occasion it before long. Is Seward so
ignorant of international laws, of general or special history, or was
it only said to throw dust?
Wrote about the "belligerents" a warning letter to the President.
Butler, in command of Fortress Monroe, proposes to land in Virginia
and to take Norfolk; Scott, the highest military authority in the
land, opposes. Has Scott used up his energy, his sense, and even his
military judgment in defending Washington before the inauguration? He
is too old; his brains, _cerebellum_, must be dried up.
Imbecility in a leader is often, nay always, more dangerous than
treason; the people can find out--easily, too--treason, but is
disarmed against imbecility.
What a thoughtlessness to press on Russia the convention of Paris?
Russia has already a treaty with America, but in case of a war with
England, the Russian ports on the Pacific, and the only one accessible
to Americans, will be closed to them by the convention of Paris.
The governors of the States of Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania assure the
protection of their respective States to the Union men of the Border
States. What a bitter criticism on the slow, forbearing policy of the
administration. Mr. Lincoln seems to be a rather slow intellect, with
slow powers of perception. However, patience; perhaps the shock of
events will arouse and bring in action now latent, but good and
energetic qualities. As it stands now, the administration, being the
focus of activity, is tepid, if not cold and slow; the circumference,
that is, the people, the States, are full of fire and of activity.
This condition is altogether the reverse of the physiological and all
other natural laws, and this may turn out badly, as nature's laws
never can be with impunity reversed or violated.
The diplomats complain that Seward treats them with a certain
rudeness; that he never gives them time to explain and speak, but
interrupts by saying, "I know it all," etc. If he had knowledge of
things, and of the diplomatic world, he would be aware that the more
firmness he has to use, the more politeness, even fastidiousness, he
is to display.
Scott does not wish for any bold demonstration, for any offensive
movement. The reason may be, that he is too old, too crippled, to be
able to take the field in person, and too inflated by conceit to give
the glory of the active command to any other man. Wrote to Charles
Sumner in Boston to stir up some inventive Yankee to construct a
wheelbarrow in which Scott could take the field in person.
In a conversation with Seward, I called his attention to the fact that
the government is surrounded by the finest, most complicated, intense,
and well-spread web of treason that ever was spun; that almost all
that constitutes society and is in a daily, nay hourly, contact with
the various branches of the Executive, all this, with soul, mind, and
heart is devoted to the rebels. I observed to him that _si licet
exemplis in parvo grandibus uti_. Napoleon suffered more from the
bitter hostility of the _faubourg St. Germain_, than from the armies
of the enemy; and here it is still worse, as this hostility runs out
into actual, unrelenting treason. To this Mr. Seward answered with the
utmost serenity, "that before long all this will change; that when he
became governor of New York, a similar hostility prevailed between the
two sections of that State, but soon he pacified everything." What a
Merlin! what a sorcerer!
Some simple-minded persons from the interior of the State of New York
questioned Mr. Seward, in my presence, about Europe, and "what they
will do there?" To this, with a voice of the Delphic oracle, he
responded, "that after all France is not bigger than the State of New
York." Is it possible to say such trash even as a joke?
Finally, the hesitations of General Scott are overcome. "Virginia's
sacred soil is invaded;" Potomac crossed; looks like a beginning of
activity; Scott consented to move on Arlington Heights, but during two
or three days opposed the seizure of Alexandria. Is that all that he
knows of that hateful watchword--strategy--nausea repeated by every
ignoramus and imbecile?
Alexandria being a port of entry, and having a railroad, is more a
strategic point for the invasion of Virginia than are Arlington
Heights.
The brave Ellsworth murdered in Alexandria, and Scott insisted that
Alexandria be invaded and occupied by night. In all probability,
Ellsworth would not have been murdered if this villanous nest had been
entered by broad daylight. As if the troops were committing a crime,
or a shameful act! O General Scott! but for you Ellsworth would not
have been murdered.
General McDowell made a plan to seize upon Manassas as the centre of
railroads, the true defence of Washington, and the firm foothold in
Virginia. Nobody, or only few enemies, were in Manassas. McDowell
shows his genuine military insight. Scott, and, as I am told, the
whole senile military council, opposed McDowell's plan as being too
bold. Do these mummies intend to conduct a war without boldness?
Thick clouds of patriotic, well-intentioned harpies surround all the
issues of the executive doors, windows, crevasses, all of them ready
to turn an honest, or rather dishonest, penny out of the fatherland.
Behind the harpies advance the busy-bodies, the would-be
well-informed, and a promiscuous crowd of well-intentioned
do-nothings.