One Southron was equal to Yankees ten.
When the Union war began to thrive,
One Southron was equal to Yankees five.
When Donaldson went, 'twas plain to see
One Southron scarce equalled Yankees three.
Now, Manassas is lost; yet, to Richmond view,
One Southron still equals Yankees two.
And lo! a coming day we see,--
And Oh! what a day of pride 't will be,--
When a Northern mechanic or merchant can
Rank square with a Dirt-eater, man for man.
Perhaps this point we may fairly turn,
And Richmond, to her amazement, learn,
When peace shall have come, and war be fled,
And its hate be the tale of time long sped,
That where there is work or thought for men,
One Yankee is equal to Dirt-eaters ten.
* * * * *
LITERARY NOTICES.
UNDER CURRENTS OF WALL STREET. A Romance of Business. By Richard B.
Kimball, Author of 'St. Leger,' 'Romance of Student Life,' &c. New York:
G.P. Putnam; Boston: A.K. Loring. 1861.
In the United States about one person in a hundred is engaged in
mercantile pursuits--in other words, in 'broking,' or transferring from
the producer to the consumer. Of this number, a larger proportion than
in any other country are brokers in the strict sense of the word,
buying, selling, or exchanging money or its equivalents, and managing
credit so that others may turn it into capital. A more active, eventful,
precarious and extraordinary life, or one calling more for the exercise
of sharpness and shrewdness, does not exist, than that of these men.
They are among regular business men what the 'free lance' is among
military men, or the privateer among those of the true marine. Any one
who has been familiar with one of the 'craft,' has probably heard him
say at one time or another--'what I have seen would make one of the most
remarkable novels you ever read;' and he spoke the literal truth.
Realizing this fact, Mr. KIMBALL, a lawyer of twenty years' standing in
Wall St., and consequently perfectly familiar with all its
characteristics, has devoted literary talents, which long ago acquired
for him not merely an enviable American but a wide European celebrity,
to describing this broker-life, with its lights and shadows. Choosing a
single subject and a single class, he has elaborated it with a
truthfulness which is positively _startling_. As we often know that a
portrait is perfect from its manifest verisimilitude, so we feel from
every chapter of this book that the author has, with strictest fidelity,
adhered to real life with pre-Raphaelitic accuracy but without
pre-Raphaelitic servility to any tradition or set mannerism. The pencil
of a reporter, the lens of the photographer, are recalled by his
sketches, and not less life-like, simple and excellent are the
reflections of the business office as shown in its influence in the home
circle. The reader will recall the extraordinary popularity which
certain English romances, setting forth humble unpoetic life, have
enjoyed of late years. We refer to the _Adam Bede_ and _Silas Marner_
school of tales, in which every twig is drawn, every life-lineament set
forth with a sort of DENNER minuteness--truthful, yet constrained,
accurate but petty. In this novel, Mr. KIMBALL, while retaining all the
accuracy of _Adam Bede_, has swept more broadly and forcibly out into
life;--there are strong sorrows, great trials seen from the stand-point
of a man of the world, and a free, bold color which startles us, while
we, at the same time, recognize its reality.
The 'hero' of the work is a merchant, who, like many others after
incurring bankruptcy, takes to Wall Street--to selling notes as an
under-broker for a living. In describing his trials, the author has,
with consummate skill and extraordinary knowledge of both causes and
effects, pointed out the peculiarities, institutions, and good or bad
workings of the American mercantile system, in such a manner as to have
attracted from the soundest authority warm praise of his work, as
embodying practical knowledge of a kind seldom found in 'novels.' From
'broking' to speculating--from that again to the old course--alternately
buoyed up or cast down, through trials and troubles, the bankrupt, at
last, in his darkest hour, lands on that 'luck' which in America comes
sooner or later to every one. It is worth remarking that in all his
characters, as in his scenes, the author is careful to maintain the
balance of truth. He shows us that among the sharks and harpies of Wall
Street there are phases of honor and generosity--that the arrogance or
coldness of a bank-officer may have a rational foundation--that feelings
as intense are awakened in common business pursuits as in the most
dramatic and erratic lives. In this _just_ treatment of character,--this
avoiding of the old saint and angel system of depicting men,--KIMBALL is
truly pre-eminent, and under it even the casual SOL DOWNER strikes us
with an individuality and a force not inferior to that of the hero
himself.
We can not take leave of this truly remarkable book without referring to
the under-current of kindly, humane feelings with which it abounds.
There is a delicate, tremulous sympathy for the sufferings and joys
which he depicts, which reflects the highest credit on the author. There
are, in this book, unaffected touches of pathos, founded on the most
natural events in the world, which have never been surpassed by any
novelist.
We are glad that novelists are leaving romance and going to real life.
One breaking into the harsh industry of the factory and market, another
taking down the joys and sorrows of the humble weaver, another
describing, as in this work, the strange hurrying life of the 'outside
broker' to the sharpest-cut detail,--all giving us truth and observation
in the place of vague imagination;--such are the best results of late
literature; and prominent among these the future historian will place
the Under-currents of Wall Street.
MARGARET HOWTH. A Story of To-Day. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1862.
We know of no other truly American novel into which so many elements
have been forced by the strength of genius into harmony, as in _Margaret
Howth_. One may believe, in reading it, that the author, wearied of the
old cry that the literature of our country is only a continuation of
that of Europe, had resolved to prove, by vigorous effort, that it _is_
possible to set forth, not merely the incidents of our industrial life
in many grades, in its purely idiomatic force, but to make the world
realize that in it vibrate and struggle outward those aspirations, germs
of culture and reforms which we seldom reflect on as forming a part of
the inner-being of our very practical fellow-citizens. The work has two
characteristics,--it breaks, with a strong intellect and fine
descriptive power, into a new field, right into the rough of real life,
bringing out fresher and more varied forms than had been done before,
and in doing this makes us understand, with strange ability, how the
thinkers among our people _think_. We all know how it flows _in_ to
them, from lecture and book, from the _Tribune_ and school--but few,
especially in the Atlantic cities, know what becomes of culture among
men and women who 'work and weave in endless motion' in the
counting-house, or factory, or through daily drudgery and the reverses
from wealth to poverty. Others have treated a single **o [transcriber's
note: illegible word] of life, dramatically and by events, as well as
Miss HARDING, but no one American has dared such intricacies of thought
and character in individuals--has raised them to such a height, and
developed them with such a powerful will, without falling into
conventionalism or improbability. Unlike most novels, its 'plot,' though
excellent, is its least attraction--we can imagine that the superb pride
which gleams out in so many rifts has induced the author to voluntarily
avoid display of that ingeniously spinning romantic talent in which
novelists excel precisely in proportion to their lack of all nobler
gifts. It is a certain rule, as to literary snobs, that in proportion as
the food which they give diminishes in excellence, does the plate on
which it is served increase in value. But let none imagine that
_Margaret Howth_ lacks _interest_--it is replete with burning, vivid,
thrilling interest--it has the attraction which fascinates _all_
readers, based in a depth of knowledge so extraordinary that it can be
truly appreciated by but few. The immense popularity which it has
acquired and the general praise awarded it by the press, proves that it
has gone right to the hearts of the people--whence it came.
Those who accuse _Margaret Howth_ of harshness and a lack of
winsomeness, have neither understood the people whom it describes nor
the degree of stern strength requisite to wrest from life and nature
fresh truth. The pioneers of every great natural school (and every
indication shows that one is now dawning) have quite other than
lute-sounding tasks in hand, however they may hunger and thirst for
beauty, love, and rose-gardens. Under the current of this book runs the
keenest, painfulest craving to give freely to life these very
elements--its intensest inner-spirit is of love and beauty; it throbs
and burns with a sympathy for suffering humanity which is at once fierce
and tearful. As regards the minor artistic defects of _Margaret Howth_,
they are, if we regard it entirely, the shadows inseparable from its
substance, felt by those who remain in them, but in no wise detracting
from the beauty of the edifice when we regard it from the proper point
of view.
ETHICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL INQUIRIES, CHIEFLY RELATIVE TO SUBJECTS OF
POPULAR INTEREST. By A.H. Dana. New York: Charles Scribner, 124 Grand
Street; Boston: Crosby & Nichols. 1862.
A delightful collection of essays of the most valuable character, in
which the agreeable is throughout fully qualified with the useful. The
titles of several of these chapters are of themselves attractive: Races
of Men, Compensations of Life, Authorship, Influence of Great Men,
Lawyers, Hereditary Character, Sensuality, Health, Narcotic Stimulants,
Theology, and The Supernatural,--all of them treated with a clearness
and comprehensiveness which can not fail to earn for the work extensive
popularity.
BAYARD TAYLOR'S WORKS, VOL. III. Caxton Edition. At Home and Abroad.
Second Series. New York: G.P. Putnam.
The third volume of this exquisitely, printed and fully-illustrated
series of the works of BAYARD TAYLOR is, in all respects, fully equal to
its predecessors, both as regards typographic and literary merit.
THOMAS HOOD'S WORKS, VOL. III. 'Aldine Edition.' Edited by Epes Sargent.
New York: G.P. Putnam.
The materials of the present volume, as we are informed by the editor,
have been chiefly drawn from the collections of humorous pieces
published by THOMAS HOOD under the title of _Hood's Own_,
_Whimsicalities_, and _Whims and Oddities_. In connection with the first
volume of this series it completes the reprint of _all_ of HOOD'S poems.
The present volume is, like its predecessors, most exquisitely printed
and bound. It contains a grotesque title-page from the pencil of HOPPIN,
with a fine steel engraving of the author.
A SOUTH CAROLINA PROTEST AGAINST SLAVERY. New York: G.P. Putnam. 1861.
A very interesting letter from HENRY LAURENS, second President of the
Continental Congress, to his son, Col. JOHN LAURENS, dated Charleston,
S.C., Aug. 14, 1776, now first published from the original letter. It
contains a vehement plea for Emancipation, and speaks with bitter
contempt of England for encouraging the slave-trade in America.
THE REBELLION; ITS LATENT CAUSES AND TRUE SIGNIFICANCE. In Letters to a
Friend abroad. By Henry T. Tuckerman. New York: Jas. G. Gregory. 1861.
An excellent work, discussing the social peculiarities of the South with
great ability.
* * * * *
BOOKS RECEIVED
PAMPHLETS ON THE WAR.
Among the many publications on the War which have from time to time
found their way to our table, are the following pamphlets:--
RELATION OF THE AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS TO
SLAVERY. By Charles K. Whipple. Boston: R.F. Wallcut. 1861.
WITHIN FORT SUMTER. By one of the Company. New York: N. Tibbals & Co.
1861.
A LECTURE ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. By Noble Butler.
Louisville, Ky.: John P. Maton. 1862.
THE WAR. Correspondence between the Young Men's Christian Association of
Richmond, Va., and the City of New York. New York: G.P. Putnam. 1861.
SPEECH OF GEN. HIRAM WALBRIDGE, of New York, at Tammany Hall, Aug. 21,
1856, on the Reorganization of our Navy. New York. 1862.
THE REBELLION: OUR RELATIONS AND DUTIES. Speech of Hon. Edward
McPherson, of Pennsylvania, delivered in the House of Representatives,
Feb. 14, 1862. Washington. 1862.
ARE THE SOUTHERN PRIVATEERS PIRATES? Letter to the Hon. Ira Harris,
United States Senator. By Charles P. Daly, LL.D., First Judge of the
Court of Common Pleas of the City of New York. New York: Jas. B. Kirker,
599 Broadway. 1862.
SPECIAL MESSAGE DELIVERED TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE
OF IOWA. By Governor S.J. Kirkwood. Des Moines, Iowa: F.W. Palmer. 1862.
PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE--SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND MILITARY. Written for
_The London Times_, by William Howard Russell, LL.D., Special
Correspondent. New York: Jas. G. Gregory. 1861.
AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT MT. KISCO, Westchester Co., New York, July 4,
1861. By John Jay, Esq. New York: Jas. G. Gregory. 1861.
THE REJECTED STONE; or, INSURRECTION _vs_. RESURRECTION IN AMERICA. By a
Native of Virginia. Boston: Walker, Wise & Co. 1861.
THE INDISSOLUBLE NATURE OF THE AMERICAN UNION, considered in connection
with the assumed Rights of Secession. A Letter to Hon. Peter Cooper, of
New York. By Nahum Capen. Boston: A. Williams & Co. New York: Ross &
Tousey. 1862.
THE UNION. An Address, by the Hon. Daniel S. Dickinson, delivered before
the Literary Societies of Amherst College, July 10, 1861. New York: Jas.
G. Gregory. 1861.
ALLEGHANIA. The Strength of the Union and the Weakness of Slavery in the
High Lands of the South. By JAMES W. TAYLOR. Saint Paul: James
Davenport. 1862.
A pamphlet deserving close study and general circulation.
AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BY HON. GEORGE S. BOUTWELL, in Tremont Temple,
Boston, Dec. 16, 1861.
This address has enjoyed great popularity, and will deservedly take
place among the most characteristic and valuable pamphlets of the war.
AMERICA, THE LAND OF EMANUEL; or, CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERTY A REFUGE FOR
THE GATHERING TO SHILOH. By Lorenzo D. Grosvenor, of Shaker Community,
South Groton, Mass. A. Williams & Co., 100 Washington St., Boston. 1861.
SPEECH DELIVERED BY HON. J.M. ASHLEY, OF OHIO, ON THE REBELLION, ITS
CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES, at the College Hall, in the City of Toledo,
Nov. 26, 1861, Towers & Co., Washington, D.C. 1861.
An excellent pamphlet, which has been extensively and favorably noticed
by the press, and been several times reprinted.
THE AMERICAN CRISIS, its Cause, Significance and Solution. By Americus.
Chicago, Ill.: John R. Walsh. 1861.
A vigorous and able document.
WAR AND EMANCIPATION. A Thanksgiving Sermon preached in the Plymouth
Church, Brooklyn, N.Y., on Thursday, Nov. 21, 1861. By Rev. Henry Ward
Beecher. Philadelphia: W. Peterson & Brothers. 1861.
Concise, spirited, and full of sound ideas.
* * * * *
EDITOR'S TABLE.
On the ninth of March President LINCOLN made the first announcement of
an official endorsement of the great principle of gradual Emancipation,
by transmitting to Congress a message recommending that the United
States ought to cooeperate with any State which may adopt a gradual
emancipation of slavery, by giving to such State pecuniary aid, to be
used at its discretion, to compensate for the inconvenience, public and
private, which may be produced by any such change of system.
Any member of Congress, with the census tables and the treasury
notes before him, can readily see for himself how very soon the
current expenditures of this war would purchase, at a fair
valuation, all the slaves in any named State. Such a position on
the part of the General Government sets up no claim of a right
by federal authority to interfere with slavery within State
limits, referring, as it does, the absolute control of the
subject, in each case, to the State and its people immediately
interested.
It is almost needless to point out to the reader that the views, both
direct and implied, which are urged in this message, are in every
respect identical with those to advance which the CONTINENTAL was
founded, and for which it has strenuously labored from the beginning.
There is nothing in them of the 'Abolitionism' which advocates
'immediate and unconditional' freeing of the blacks; while, on the other
hand, the only persons who can object to them are those who hold that
slavery is a good thing in itself, never to be disturbed. It is, in
short, all that the rational friends of progress can at present
desire--an official recognition of the great truth that slavery ought to
be abolished, but in such a manner as to cause the least possible
trouble.
It is amusing to observe the bewilderment of the pro-slavery Northern
Democratic press, which has so earnestly claimed the Executive as
'conservative,' and on which this message has fallen like a
thunder-clap. They have, of course, at once cried out that, should it
receive the sanction of Congress, it would still amount to nothing,
because no legislature of a slave State will accept it; an argument as
ridiculous as it is trivial. That the South would, for the present,
treat the proposal with scorn, is likely enough. But the edge of the
wedge has been introduced, and emancipation has been at least
_officially_ recognized as desirable. While such a possible means of
securing property exists, there will always be a strong party _forming_
in the South, whether they attain to a majority or not, and this party
will be the germ of disaster to the secessionists. There are men enough,
even in South Carolina, who would gladly be paid for their slaves, and
these men, while maintaining secession views in full bluster, would
readily enough find some indirect means of realizing money on their
chattels. It may work gradually--but it _will_ work. As disaster and
poverty increase in the South, there will increase with them the number
of those who will see no insult or injury in the proposition to buy from
them property which is becoming, with every year, more and more
uncertain in its tenure.
Let it be remembered that this message was based on the most positive
knowledge held by the Executive of the desires of the Union men in the
South, and of their strength. The reader who will reflect for a moment
can not fail to perceive that, unless it had such a foundation, the
views advanced in it would have been reckless and inexplicable indeed.
It was precisely on this basis, and in this manner, that the
CONTINENTAL, in previous numbers, and before it the New York
KNICKERBOCKER Magazine, urged the revival of the old WEBSTER theory of
gradual remunerated emancipation, declaring that the strength of the
Union party in the South was such as to warrant the experiment.[O] We
have also insisted, in our every issue, that, while emancipation should
be borne constantly in view and provided for as something which must
eventually be realized for the sake of the advancing interests of WHITE
labor and its expansion, everything should be effected as gradually _as
possible_, so as to neither interfere with the plans of the war now
waging, nor to stir up needless political strife. We simply asked for
some firmly-based official recognition of the rottenness of the 'slavery
plank in the Southern platform,' and trusted that the _utmost_ caution
and deliberation would be observed in eventually forwarding
emancipation. We were literally alone, as a publication, in these views,
and were misrepresented both by the enemies who were behind us and the
zealous friends who were before us. We have never cried for that
'unconditional and immediate emancipation of slavery' with which the
_Liberator_, with the kindest intentions, but most erroneously, credits
us. We should be glad enough to see it, were it possible; but, knowing
that the immediate-action theory has been delaying the cause for thirty
years, we have invariably suggested the _firm_ but gradual method. That
method has at last been formally advanced by the President, in a manner
which can reasonably give offense to no one. The beginning has been
made: it is for the country to decide whether it--the most important
suggestion of the age--shall be realized.
* * * * *
The news of the capture of Fort Donelson had barely reached us, the roar
of the guns celebrating our rapid successes had not died away, ere that
fragment of the Northern ultra pro-slavery party which had done so much
towards deluding the South into secession, impudently raised its head
and began most inopportunely and impertinently to talk of amnesty and
the rights of the South. There are things which, under certain
limitations, may be right in themselves, but which, when urged at the
wrong time, become wrongs and insults; and these premature cries to
restore the enemy to his old social and political standing are of that
nature. They are insufferable, and would be ridiculous, were it not that
in the present critical aspect of our politics they may become
dangerous. Since this war began, we have heard much of the want of true
loyalty in the ultra abolitionists, who would make the object of the
struggle simply emancipation, without regard to consequences; and we
have not been sparing in our own condemnations of such a limited and
narrow view,--holding, as we do, that emancipation, if adopted, should
be for the sake of the _white man_ and the Union, and not of the negro.
But 'Abolition' of the most one-sided and suicidal description is less
insulting to those who are lavishing blood and treasure on the great
cause of freedom, than is the conduct, at this time, of those men who
are now, through their traitorous organs, urging the cry that the hour
is at hand when we must place slavery firmly on a constitutional basis;
this being, as they assert, the only means whereby the Union can ever be
harmoniously restored.
In view of the facts, it is preposterous to admit that this assumption
is even plausible. He must be ignorant indeed of our political history
during the past twenty years, or strangely blind to its results, who has
not learned that a belief that the North is ever anxious to concede for
the sake of its 'interests' has been the great stimulus to the arrogance
of the South. While the principles of the abolitionists have been the
shallow _pretence_, the craven cowardice of such men as BUCHANAN and
CUSHING has been the _real_ incitement to the South to pour insult and
wrong on the North. Concession has been our bane. It was paltering and
concession that palsied the strong will and ready act which should have
prevented this war; for had it not been for such men as the traitors who
are now crying out for Southern rights, the rebellion would have been
far more limited in its area, and long since crushed out. No cruelties
on our part, no threats to carry all to the bitter end, would so
encourage the South at present, as this offer to shake hands ere the
fight be half over.