Emancipation -- The President's hand falls back -- Weed sent for
-- Gen. Wadsworth -- The new levies -- The Africo-Americans not
called for -- Let every Northern man be shot rather! -- End of
the Peninsula campaign -- Fifty or sixty thousand dead -- Who is
responsible? -- The army saved -- Lincoln and McClellan -- The
President and the Africo-Americans -- An Eden in Chiriqui --
Greeley -- The old lion begins to awake -- Mr. Lincoln tells
stories -- The rebels take the offensive -- European opinion --
McClellan's army landed -- Roebuck -- Halleck -- Butler's
mistakes -- Hunter recalled -- Terrible fighting at Manassas --
Pope cuts his way through -- Reinforcements slow in coming --
McClellan reduced in command.
_Vulgatior fama est_, that Mr. Lincoln was already raising his hand to
sign a stirring proclamation on the question of emancipation; that
Stanton was upholding the President's arm that it might not grow weak
in the performance of a sacred duty; that Chase, Bates, and Welles
joined Stanton; but that Messrs. Seward and Blair so firmly objected
that the President's outstretched hand slowly began to fall back; that
to precipitate the mortification, Thurlow Weed was telegraphed; that
Thurlow Weed presented to Mr. Lincoln the Medusa-head of Irish riots
in the North against the emancipation of slaves in the South; that Mr.
Lincoln's mind faltered (oh, Steffens) before such a Chinese shadow,
and that thus once more slavery was saved. _Relata refero._
General Wadsworth is the good genius of the poor and oppressed race.
But for Wadsworth's noble soul and heart the Lamons and many other
blood-hounds in Washington would have given about three-fourths of the
fugitives over to the whip of the slavers.
Within the last four weeks 600,000 new levies are called to arms. With
the 600,000 men levied previously, it is the heaviest draft ever made
from a population. No emperor or despot ever did it in a similar lapse
of time. The appreciation current here is, that the twenty millions of
inhabitants can easily furnish such a quota; but the truth is that the
draft, or the levy, or the volunteering, is made from about three
millions of men between the ages of twenty and forty years. One
million two hundred thousand in one year is equal to nearly 36-100,
and this from the most vital, the most generative, and most productive
part of the population.
The same analysis and percentage applied to the statistics of the
population in the rebel States gives a little above 300,000 men under
arms; however, the percentage of the drafts from the full-aged
population in the South can be increased by some 15-100 over the
percentage in the North. This increase is almost exclusively
facilitated by the substratum of slavery, and our administration
devotedly takes care _ne detrimentum capiat_ that peculiar
institution.
The last draft could be averted from the North if the four millions of
loyal Africo-Americans were called to arms. But Mr. Lincoln, with the
Sewards, the Blairs, and others, will rather see every Northern man
shot than to touch the palladium of the rebels.
These new enormous masses will crush the rebellion, provided they are
not marshalled by strategy; but nevertheless the painful confession
must be made, that our putting in the field of three to one rebel may
confuse a future historian, and contribute to root more firmly that
stupid fallacy already asserted by the rebels, and by some among their
European upholders, of the superiority of the Southern over the
Northern thus called race. Such a stigma is inflicted upon the brave
and heroic North by the strategy, and by the vacillating, slave-saving
policy of the administration.
This is the more painful for me to record, as most of the foreign
officers in our service, and who are experienced and good judges, most
positively assert the superior fighting qualities of the Union
volunteers over the rebels. Our troops are better fed, clad and armed,
but over our army hovers the thick mist of strategy and indecision;
the rebels are led not by anaconda strategians, but by fighting
generals, desperate, and thus externally heroic; energy inspires their
councils, their administration, and their military leaders.
If Stanton and Halleck succeed in extricating the army on the James
river, then they will deserve the gratitude of the people. The malaria
there must be more destructive than would be many battles.
Events triumphantly justify Stanton's opposition to the Peninsula
strategy and campaign. So ends this horrible sacrifice; between fifty
and sixty thousand killed or dead by diseases. The victims of this
holocaust have fallen for their country's cause, but the
responsibility for the slaughter is to be equally divided between
McClellan, Lincoln, Seward and Blair. Even Sylla had not on his soul
so much blood as has the above quatuor. When, after the victory over
the allied Samnites and others, at the Colline gate of Rome, Sylla
ordered the massacre of more than four thousand prisoners who laid
down their arms; when his lists of proscription filled with blood Rome
and other cities of Italy, Sylla so firmly consolidated the supremacy
of the _Urbs_ over Italy and over the world, that after twenty
centuries of the most manifold vicissitudes, transformations and
tempests, this supremacy cannot yet be upturned. But the holocaust to
strategy resulted in humiliating the North and in heaping glory on the
Southern leaders.
If the newly called 600,000 men finish the rebellion before Congress
meets, then slavery is saved. To save slavery and to avoid
emancipation was perhaps the secret aim of Mr. Lincoln, Seward, and
Blair; who knows but that of Halleck, when the administration called
for the additional 300,000 men?
Persons who approach Halleck say that he is a thorough pro-slavery
partisan. His order No. 3, the opinion of some officers of his staff,
and his associations, make me believe in the truth of that report.
Mr. Seward says _sub rosa_ to various persons, that slavery is an
obsolete question, and he assures others that emancipation is a fixed
fact, and is no more to be held back; that he is no more a
conservative. How are we to understand this man? If Mr. Seward is
sincere, then his last transformation may prove that he has given up
the idea of finding a Union party in the South, or that he wishes to
reconquer--what he has lost--the confidence of the party. But this
return on his part may prove _troppo tardi_.
The army of the Potomac is saved; the heroes, martyrs, and sufferers
are extricated from the grasp of death. This epopee in the history of
the civil war will immortalize the army, but the strategian's
immortality will differ from that of the army.
England and France firm in their neutrality. Lord John Russell's
speeches in Parliament are all that can be desired.
Will it ever be thoroughly investigated and elucidated why, after the
evacuation of Corinth, the onward march of our everywhere-victorious
Western armies came at once to a stand-still? The guerillas, the
increase of forces in Richmond, and some eventual disasters, may be
directly traced to this inconceivable conduct on the part of the
Western commanders or of the Commander-in-chief. Was not some
Union-searching at the bottom of that stoppage? When, months ago, a
false rumor was spread about the evacuation of Memphis and Corinth,
Mr. Seward was ready to start for the above-mentioned places, of
course in search of the Union feeling. Perhaps others were drawn into
this Union-searching, Union and slavery-restoring conspiracy.
I have most positive reasons to believe that Gen. Halleck wished to
remove Gen. McClellan from the command of the army. The President
opposed to it. Men of honor, of word, and of truth, and who are on
intimate footing with Mr. Lincoln, repeatedly assured me that, in his
conversation, the President judges and appreciates Gen. McClellan as
he is judged and appreciated by those whom his crew call his enemies.
With all this, Mr. Lincoln, through thin and thick, supports McClellan
and maintains him in command. Such a double-dealing in the chief of a
noble people! Seemingly Mr. Seward and Mr. Blair always exercise the
most powerful influence. Both wished that the army remain in the
malarias of the James river. Whatever be their reasons, one shudders
in horror at the case with which all those culprits look on this
bloody affair. Oh you widowed wives, mothers, and sweethearts! oh you
orphaned children! oh you crippled and disabled, you impoverished and
ruined, by sacrificing to your country more than do all the Lincolns,
McClellans, Blairs, and Sewards! Some day you will ask a terrible
account, and if not the present day, posterity will avenge you.
It is very discouraging to witness that the President shows little or
no energy in his dealings with incapacities, and what a mass of
intrigues is used to excuse and justify incapacity when the nation's
life-blood runs in streams. Without the slightest hesitation any
European government would dismiss an incapable commander of an army,
and the French Convention, that type of revolutionary and
nation-saving energy, dealt even sharper with military and other
incapacities.
Regiments after regiments begin to pour in, to make good the deadly
mistakes of our rulers. The people, as always, sublime, inexhaustible
in its sacrifices! God grant that administrative incompetency may
become soon exhausted!
Mr. Seward told a diplomat that his (Seward's) salary was $8,000, and
he spends double the amount; thus sacrificing to the country $8,000.
When I hear such reports about him, I feel ashamed and sorrowful on
his account. Such talk will not increase esteem for him among
foreigners and strangers; and although I am sure that Mr. Seward
intended to make a joke, even as such it was worse than a poor one.
In his interview with a deputation composed of Africo-Americans, Mr.
Lincoln rehearsed all the clap-trap concerning the races, the
incompatibility to live together, and other like _bosh_. Mr. Lincoln
promised to them an Eden--in Chiriqui. Mr. Lincoln promised them--what
he ought to know is utterly impossible and beyond his power--that they
will form an independent community in a country already governed by
orderly and legally organized States, as are New Grenada and Costa
Rica. Happily even for Mr. Lincoln's name, the logic of human events
will save from exposure his ignorance of international laws, and his
too light and too quick assertions. I pity Mr. Lincoln; his honesty
and unfamiliarity with human affairs, with history, with laws, and
with other like etceteras, continually involve him in unnecessary
scrapes.
The proclamation concerning the colonization is issued. It is a
display of ignorance or of humbug, or perhaps of both. Some of the
best among Americans do not utter their condemnation of this
colonization scheme, because the President is to be allowed _to carry
out his hobby_. The despots of the Old World will envy Mr. Lincoln.
Those despots can no more _carry out their hobbies_. The _Roi s'amuse_
had its time; but the _il bondo can_ of some here, at times, beats
that of the _Italina in Algero_.
The two letters of Greeley to the President show that the old,
indomitable lion begins to awake. As to Mr. Lincoln's answer, it reads
badly, and as for all the rest, it is the eternal dodging of a vital
question.
Mr. Lincoln's equanimity, although not so stoical, is unequalled. In
the midst of the most stirring and exciting--nay, death-giving--news,
Mr. Lincoln has always a story to tell. This is known and experienced
by all who approach him. Months ago I was in Mr. Lincoln's presence
when he received a telegram announcing the crossing of the Mississippi
by Gen. Pope, at New Madrid. Scarcely had Mr. Lincoln finished the
reading of the dispatch, when he cracked (that is the sacramental
word) two not very washed stories.
When the history of this administration shall become well known,
contemporary and future generations will wonder and be puzzled to know
how the most intelligent and enlightened people in the world could
produce such fruits and results of self-government.
The rebel chiefs take the offensive; they unfold a brilliancy in
conception and rapidity in execution of which the best generals in any
army might be proud. McClellan's army was to be prevented from uniting
with Pope. But it seems that Pope manoeuvres successfully, and
approaches McClellan.
If only our domestic policy were more to the point, England and France
could not be complained of. Mr. Mercier behaves here as loyally as can
be wished, and carefully avoids evoking any misunderstandings
whatever. So do Louis Napoleon, Mr. Thouvenel, Lord John Russell,
notwithstanding Mr. Seward's all-confusing policy. Mr. Mercier never,
never uttered in my presence anything whatever which in the slightest
manner could irritate even the _thinnest-skinned_ American.
As I expected, Louis Napoleon and Mr. Thouvenel highly esteem Mr.
Dayton; and it will be a great mistake to supersede Mr. Dayton in
Paris by the travelling agent of the sewing machine. It seems that
such a change is contemplated in certain quarters, because the agent
parleys poor French. Such a change will not be flattering, and will
not be agreeable to the French court, to the French cabinet, and to
the French good society.
On the continent of Europe sympathy begins to be unsettled, unsteady.
As independence is to-day the watchword in Europe, so the cause of the
rebels acquires a plausible justification. Various are the reasons of
this new counter current. Prominent among them is the vacillating, and
by Europeans considered to be INHUMAN, policy of Mr. Lincoln in regard
to slavery, the opaqueness of our strategy, and the brilliancy of the
tactics of the rebel generals, and, finally, the incapacity of our
agents to enlighten European public opinion, and to explain the true
and horrible character of the rebellion. Repeatedly I warned Mr.
Seward, telling him that the tide of public opinion was rising against
us in Europe, and I explained to him the causes; but of course it was
useless, as his agents say the contrary, and say it for reasons easily
to be understood.
McClellan's army landed, and he is to be in command of all the troops.
I congratulate all therein concerned about this new victory. Bleed, oh
bleed, American people! Mr. Lincoln and _consortes_ insisted that
McClellan remain in command. SISTE TANDEM CARNIFEX!
Mr. Roebuck, M. P., the gentleman! About thirty years ago, when
entering his public career as a member for Bath, Mr. Roebuck was
publicly slapped in the face during the going on of the election. A
few years ago Mr. Roebuck went to Vienna in the interests of some
lucrative railroad or Lloyd speculation, and returned to England a
fervent and devoted admirer of the Hapsburgs, and a reviler of all
that once was sacred to the disciple of Jeremy Bentham.
General Halleck may become the savior of the country. I hope and
ardently wish that it may be so, although his qualifications for it
are of a rather doubtful nature. Gen. Halleck wrote a book on military
science, as he wrote one on international laws, and both are laborious
compilations of other people's labors and ideas. But perhaps Halleck,
if not inspired, may become a regular, methodical captain. Such was
Moreau.
Also, Gen. Halleck is not to take the field in person. I am told that
it was so decided by Mr. Lincoln, against Halleck's wish. What an
anomalous position of a commander of armies, who is not to see a field
of battle! Such a position is a genuine, new American invention, but
it ought not to be patented, at least not for the use of other
nations. It is impossible to understand it, and it will puzzle every
one having sound common sense.
Gen. Butler commits a mistake in taunting and teasing the French
population and the French consul in New Orleans. When Butler was going
there, Mr. Seward ought to have instructed him concerning our friendly
relations with Louis Napoleon, and concerning the character of the
French consul in New Orleans, who was not partial to secesh. There may
be some secesh French, but the bulk, if well managed, would never take
a decided position against us as long as we were on friendly terms
with Louis Napoleon.
The President is indefatigable in his efforts to--save slavery, and to
uphold the policy of the New York Herald.
It is said that General Hunter is recalled, and so was General Phelps
from New Orleans; General Phelps could not coolly witness the
sacrilegious massacre of the slaves. The inconceivable partiality of
the President for McClellan may, after all, be possibly explained by
the fact that Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward see in McClellan a--savior of
slavery.
During two days' terrible fighting at Manassas, at Bull Run, and all
around, Pope cut his way through, but the reinforcements from
McClellan's army in Alexandria are _slow_ in coming. McClellan and his
few pets among the generals may not object to see Pope worsted. Such
things happened in other armies, even almost under the eyes of
Napoleon, as in the campaign on the Elbe, in 1813. Any one worth the
name of a general, when he has no special position to guard, and hears
the roar of cannon, by forced marches runs to the field of battle. Not
any special orders, but the roar of cannon, attracted and directed
Desaix to Marengo, and Mac Mahon to Magenta. The roar of cannon shook
the air between Bull Run and Alexandria, and ---- General McClellan
and others had positive orders to run to the rescue of Pope.
I should not wonder if the President, enthusiasmed by this new exploit
of McClellan, were to nominate him for his, the President's, eventual
successor; Mr. Blair will back the nomination.
It is said that during these last weeks, Wallach, the editor of the
unwashed _Evening Star_, is in continual intercourse with the
President. _Arcades ambo._
McClellan reduced in command; only when the life of the nation was
almost breathing its last. This concession was extorted from Mr.
Lincoln! What will Mr. Seward say to it?