Eneas -- Anchises -- General Warren -- Aldie -- General
Pleasanton -- Superior mettle -- Gettysburgh -- Cholera morbus --
Vicksburgh -- Army of heroes -- Apotheosis -- "Not name the
Generals" -- Indian warfare -- Politicians -- Spittoons -- Riots
-- Council of War -- Lords and Lordlings -- Williamsport -- Shame
-- Wadsworth -- "To meet the Empress Eugenie," etc., etc., etc.
_July 1._--It is worth while to ascertain if the Administration is
prepared to run. During last year's invasion of Maryland, at the
foot of C street a swift vessel was, day and night, kept under
steam--(in the greatest secrecy)--to carry away the American gods.
_Eneas-Seward_ was to carry on his shoulders ANCHISES-LINCOLN. I was
told that certain gallant secretaries promised to certain gallant
_ladies_ to take them into the ark.
_July 1._--Meade makes General Warren his chief-of-staff. For the
first time in this war, in-doors and out-doors, a man for the place.
I never saw Warren, but have heard much in his favor. Then he is
young. Then he is not conceited. Then he is no intriguer. Then he
is fighting always and everywhere. Then he speaks not of strategy. A
brighter promise. Genuine science and intelligence dawn on our
muddy, dark, ignorant horizon.
Four weeks ago Meade might have been already in the command of the
army. (See after Chancellorsville.) Perhaps Lee would have been
to-day shut up in Richmond instead of laying waste Pennsylvania.
_July 1._--The people will never know to what extent Mr.
Lincoln-Halleck are stumbling-blocks in all military affairs. If
Lincoln had even a _Carnot_ for Secretary of War, the affairs would
not go better than they go now.
_July 1._--General Meade is the pure, simple result of military
necessity. His choice is not adulterated by any party spirit.
Success may be probable, if Meade is in reality what his colleagues
suppose or assert him to be.
_July 2._--The property of the great patriot THADDEUS STEVENS
destroyed by the rebels. I am as sure as of my existence, that the
rebel hordes were urged by the Copperheads and by Northern traitors,
by the disciples of the _World_, etc.
_July 2._--Copperheads and their organs scream to have McClellan at
the head of the armies. This enthusiasm for McClellan soon will be a
burning shame. For many it is a mental disease, and almost
unparallelled in the history of our race. A man of defeats and of
incapacity to be thus worshipped as a hero! To what extent sound
intellects can become poisoned by lies! O, Democrats! what a kin and
kith you are! The stubborn, undaunted bravery of the people keeps
the country above water, when McClellan and his medley of believers
dragged and drags her down into the abyss. Soon infamy will cover
the names of those who wail for McClellan's glory, the names of
these deliberate betrayers of the people's good faith.
_July 2._--Count Zeppelin was at the cavalry fight at Aldie. In his
appreciation, General Pleasanton is almost the ideal of a general of
cavalry, in the manner in which he fought his forces. The Count says
that our soldiers are by far superior to the rebels, that our
regiments, squadrons, showed the utmost bravery, that in
single-handed _meles_ our soldiers showed a superior mettle, and
that during the whole fight he did not see a single soldier back out
or retire.
Count Zeppelin spent three weeks with Hooker. The Count _never_ saw
Hooker intoxicated, but nevertheless, he does not believe Hooker to
be the man for the command of a large army. The Count, an educated
officer of staff, deplores the utter absence of that special science
in the heads of the staff.
The Count was with the army during its march from Falmouth to
Frederick. He admires the endurance, the good spirit, and the
cohesion shown by the army marching under great difficulties, such
as bad roads, heat, &c.
_July 2._--News of fight at Gettysburgh. It seems that this time a
plan was boldly conceived, and carried out with rapidity and
bravery. It seems that _now a general_ commands, and has at his side
_a chief-of-staff_.
_July 2._--A crystalized section of abolitionists has, it seems,
dispatched to England a Rev. Dr. _Conway_, who put on airs, began a
silly correspondence with Mason the traitor, and has thrown ridicule
on the cause and on the men whom he is supposed to represent.
_July 3._--Some details from Gettysburgh. Most sanguinary and
stubborn fighting. General Reynolds, the flower of our army, killed.
The unblemished patriot, General Wadsworth, fought most splendidly,
and is reported to be wounded. His son was beside Reynolds. Mark
this, you world's offals in the WORLD. Nothing like you can be found
in the purlieus of the most stinking social sewers.
_July 3._--Whoever wishes to know how, in Mr. Seward's mind, right
and law are equipoised, should read the correspondence between the
State Department and the Attorney-General in the case of a criminal
runaway from Saxony. _Astraea-Themis_-BATES is always bold and manly
when right, justice, when individual or general human rights are
questioned. BATES' official, legal opinions will remain as a noble
record of his official activity during this bloody tornado.
_July 3._--Most contradictory news and rumors. To a great extent,
the fortunes of the Union may be decided at Gettysburgh. Copperheads
alias Peace-Democrats more dangerous than the rebels in arms. The
Copperheads poisoned and paralyzed the spirit of the people; the
Pennsylvanians look on, and rise not as a man in the defence of
their invaded state.
_July 4._--General Wallbridge the orator of the day. _O tempora
Lincolniana!_
It is fortunate for the country and for General Meade that no
telegraphic communication exists between Washington and his camp.
_July 8._--July 4th, in the evening, I was struck with _cholera
morbus_. In two hours I was delirious, and the end of the DIARY and
of myself was at hand. Those who may be interested in the DIARY, be
thankful to _fatum_ and to my friend in whose house I was taken
sick. I am up and again on the watch.
_July 8._--However, I have lost the run of events. I have lost the
_piquant_ of observation how the events of Gettysburgh affected the
_big men_ here. I may have lost the echo of some stories told on the
occasion at the White House.
Vicksburgh taken! No words to glorify GRANT, FARRAGUT, PORTER, _and
the army of heroes on land and on the waters_.
I wake up and open a paper. Apotheosis! Yesterday evening Mr. Seward
made a speech and glorified himself into CHRIST. Why not? At the
beginning of this internecine war, Mr. Seward repeatedly played the
inspired, the prophet, and even the SPIRIT, having the polyglotic
gift. _In illo tempore_ Mr. Seward advised the foreign diplomats to
bring to him their respective dispatches received from their
respective governments, and he, Seward, would explain to each
diplomat the meanings of what the dispatches contain. Perhaps the
spirit was an after-dinner spirit!
In the above-mentioned speech Mr. Seward exclaimed, "If I fall!" O,
you will fall, and you will be covered with ... I shall not stain
the paper. Plenty of lickspittles glorifying Lincoln-Seward.
_July 8._--The battles at Gettysburgh will stand almost unparalleled
in history for the courage, tenacity, and martial rage shown on both
sides, by the soldiers, the officers and the generals. This
four-days' struggle may be put above Attila's fight in the plains of
Chalons; it stands above the celebrated battle of giants at Marignan
between the French and the Swiss. No legions, no troops ever did
more, nay, ever did the same. At Waterloo one-third of the French
infantry was not engaged in the previous days of Ligny and of
Quatres-bras, and three-fourths of the Anglo-allied army were fresh,
and not fatigued even by forced marches. I am sure that no other
troops in the world could fight with such a stubborn bravery four
consecutive days; not the English, not even the _iron-muscled_
Russians.
I learn that during the invasion of Pennsylvania, and above all,
during the last days, all the country expected something
extraordinary from the army at Fortress Monroe, under General Dix's
command. But the affair ended in expectations.
A few days ago the President declared in a speech that he dares not
introduce the names of the generals. Not to name the victor at
Gettysburgh, the undaunted captor of Vicksburgh! The people repeat
your names, O heroes! even if the President remains dumb.
Already a back-fire against Meade. I cannot believe that his heart
fainted, and that other generals kept him from breaking before the
enemy. But Meade is the man of their own kith and kin, and they
ought to have known him.
It is now so difficult to disentangle truth from lies, from stories
and from intrigue. It will not do, however, to uphold Hooker--it
will not do. Hooker is a brilliant fighter, but was and always will
be _stunned_ when in command of an army. It is a crime to put up
Hooker as a captain.
Somebody put in the head of the patriotic but mercurial Senator
Wilson that the terrible onslaught of the rebel columns is not the
result of their having adopted European, continental tactics, but
that the rebels are formidable because they have adopted the Indian
mode of warfare. God forgive him who thus confused my friend's
understanding! Indian tactics or warfare for masses of forty, fifty,
or one hundred thousand men!
I learn that Christ-Seward wishes to force the hoary, but brave,
steady, and not at all fogyish Neptune WELLES, to recognize to Spain
or Cuba, or to somebody else and to all the world, an extension of
the maritime league. It is excellent. Such extension is _altogether_
advantageous to the maritime neutrals--all of them, Russia excepted,
our covert or open ill-wishers.
Mr. Seward, as a good, scriptural Christian, minds not an offense,
and is not rancorous. The Imperial _Decembriseur_, and all the
imperialist liveried lackeys, look with contempt on the cause of the
people, side with secessionists, with copperheads, etc., etc., and
Mr. Seward insists on giving a license for the exportation of
tobacco bought in Richmond for French accounts. Again Neptune
defends the country's honor and interests.
In proportion as the presidential electioneering season approaches,
Mr. Seward repeatedly and repeatedly attempts to impress upon the
people's mind that he will not accept from the nation any high
reward for his services. Well, it is not cunning--as by this time
Mr. Seward ought to have found in what estimation he is held by
nine-tenths of the people.
This is all that I caught in one day, after several days'
interruption.
_July 9._--Lee retreats towards the Potomac. If they let him recross
there, our shame is nameless. Will Meade be after Lee _l'epee dans
les reins_.
_Halleckiana, minus._ Nobody in Washington, not even the
head-quarters, has any notion or idea what means Lee has to recross
the Potomac.
_Halleckiana, plus._ I am told that Halleck refused to telegraph to
Meade Mr. Lincoln's strategical conceptions.
_July 9._--Chewing and spitting paramount here, require incalculable
numbers of spittoons. The lickspittles outnumber the spittoons.
_July 10._--The politicians already begin to broadly _play their
game_. I use the sacramental expressions. What a disgusting
monstrosity is a thorough politician! Not even a eunuch! There is
nothing in a politician to be emasculated: no mind, no heart, no
manhood. In what a _galere_ I got--not by personal contact--but by
intellectually observing the worms on the body politic of my--at any
rate heartily adopted--country.
_July 11._--Repeatedly and repeatedly certain newspaper
correspondents announce to the world that Senator Sumner exercises
considerable influence on the supreme power. All things considered,
I wish it may be so, but I see it is not. Sumner's influence ought
to have produced some palpable results. I see none.
The international maritime complications are watched and defeated
by Welles.
_Drapez vous, messieurs, drapez vous_--in the statesman toga,
history and truth will take it off from your shoulders.
_July 12._--Mr. Seward is very ardently at work--Weed marshaling
Seward--to reconstruct slavery and Union, to give a very large if
not a general amnesty to the rebels, to shake hands with them, in
pursuance of the Mercier-Richmond programme, and to be carried into
the White House on the shoulders of the grateful Union-saviours,
Copperheads, and blood-stained traitors. The _Herald_, the _World_,
the _National Intelligencer_ and others of that creed will sing
_gloria in excelsis_ to Seward.
_July 13._--What is _Meade_ doing? It is exciting to know why a blow
is not yet dealt on the head of retreating rebels. Or is it that
though West Point generals--on both sides--tolerably understand how
to fight a battle, they subside when the finishing stroke is to be
dealt. Oh for a general who understands how to manoeuvre against the
enemy!!!
I hear from a very reliable source, that during the excitement
brewing before the day of Gettysburgh, the honorable Post Master
General by a special biped message insinuated to the honorable
governor of New York that the governor may ask the removal of
Stanton for the safety of the country and of patriots of the
Postmaster's and the governor's species.
_July 13._--Besides what _Meade_ has in hand, there must be a
considerable number of troops in Baltimore, in Fortress Monroe and
the volunteer militia. Why not, Lincoln-Halleck! mass them on the
south side of the Potomac under such generals as Heintzelman, Sigel,
etc., and take the enemy between two fires?
_July 14._--Bloody riots in New York. The teaching of the Woods, of
their former hireling, the _World_, and of those who pay that offal
now. Seymour's democracy; mob, pillage, massacre.
_July 14._--Lincoln has nominated so many Major-Generals who are
relieved from duty, so many of them, that the Major-Generals ought
to be formed into a squadron, and, Halleck at the head, McClellan at
the tail, make them charge on Lee's centre. In such a way the
major-generals would be some use.
_July 14._--I meet many who attempt to exculpate Mr. Seward from
_this_ or _that_ untruth which he is accused having told to the
President. Such _Seward's_ men often contradict not the fact, but
attempt to insinuate that somebody else might have told it. To all
this I answer with the Roman Praetor:
_Ille fecit cui prodest_
_July 14._--GRANT has overpowered men, soil--and elements. GRANT,
PORTER, FARRAGUT, and their men overpowered land and waters. They
overpowered _the Mississippi_, hear: the Mississippi's and its
mighty affluents as the Yazoo, the Red River, and others. McClellan
caved in before a brook, as the Chickahominy. McClellan had the
most gigantic resources in men and material ever put in the hands of
a commander, and caved in. O, worshippers of heavy incapacity, take
and digest it if you can.
_July 16._--Lee re-crossed the Potomac! Thundering storms, rising
waters and about one hundred and fifty thousand at his heels! What a
general! And our brave soldiers again baffled, almost dishonored by
domestic, know-nothing generalship. We have lost the occasion to crush
three-fourths of the rebellion. But where is the responsibility? Foul
work somewhere, but, as always, it will be nobody's fault.
_July 15._--Stanton in rage and despair. Riots everywhere. All these
riots must be the result of a skillfully laid mine. They coincide
with the invasion by the rebels. At the best, these riots are
generated by Fourth of July Seymourite speeches and by the long
uninterrupted series of incendiary articles in New York papers, like
World, etc., and in Boston, where emasculated parasites as Hilliard,
a Cain Curtis etc., soothingly tried their hands to disgrace their
city and to mislead the people. All the Lincoln-Seward-Halleck
actions cannot excuse these riots and their matricidal, secret
inciters.
_July 15._--The Administration ought to recall Wool and put Butler
in New York. Butler understands how to deal with riotous traitors.
_July 15._--Good news from Banks. Now he comes out and will recover
the confidence of all good men.
_July 15._--If it is true that _Meade_ convoked a council of war,
and that the generals decided not to attack Lee, then whoever voted
and decided so, ought, at the best, to be sent to the hospital of
mental invalids, and the army put in the hands of fighting men.
Lee's escape will henceforth occupy the cardinal place in the annals
of disgraceful generalships of the Potomac army.
_July 16._--One of the truest men and citizens in this country,
George Forbes, of Milton Hill, returned from England. Forbes says
that aristocracy and the commercial classes (with few exceptions)
are generally against us. But the people at large are on our side.
Oh! that some method may be found to separate the interests of the
good and noble English people, from the interests of the other
classes; then to have intercourse only with the people; and towards
the other English fulfil:
_Vos autem o Tyrii prolem gentemque futuram,_
and that not one of those lords, lordlings, of inborn snobs and
flunkeys, that not one of that English social sham may ever be
allowed to tread the sacred American soil. And if such an Englishman
ever touches these shores, then be he treated as leprous, and as
carrying in him the most contagious plague, and let the house of any
American that shall be opened to such an Englishman, be torn down
and burned, and its ashes scattered to the winds; and the curse of
the people upon any American harboring those snobbish upstarts of
liberty.
_July 16._--The incendiaries and murderers in New York cheered
McClellan and came to his house. Bravo! Can, now, any honest man who
is not an idiot, doubt where are the main springs and the animus of
those New York blood-thirsty miscreants, and who are those of whose
hearts McClellan got hold? What a nice Copperhead combination for
saving the Union. Very likely Seymour, Dictator or President,
McClellan Commander-in-chief, or Secretary of War, some of the Woods
or Duncans or Barlows in the Treasury, their hireling any Marble for
Foreign Affairs, and with them some others from among the favorites
of the New York blood-thirsty incendiaries.
I read in one of the New York poison-dealers, _alias_ Copperhead
newspapers, that McClellanites was ruined by politicians. So-called
honest, but idiotic conservatives sanctimoniously repeat that lie.
It was McClellan, who, inspired by _Barlow_, by the _Herald_ and by
his aristocratic West Point pro-slavery friends, introduced
democratic politics into the army at a time when the army was yet in
an embryo state, already in September and October, 1861. O, impudent
liars! history will nail your names to the gallows, together with
the name of your fetish and of his military tail.
_July 16._--In that fated, cursed council of war which allowed Lee
to escape, my patriot WADSWORTH was the most decided, the most
out-spoken in favor of attacking Lee. Wadsworth never fails where
honor and patriotism are to be sustained. Warren with Wadsworth. So
Humphries, Pleasanton and Howard. Those names ought to coruscate as
the purest light of patriotism for future generations. Meade's vote
is of no account. He, the commander, ought to have acted up to his
vote. If only Meade had imitated _Radetzky_. In 1849 after the
denunciation of the Armistice of Milan, _Radetzky_ called a council
of war to decide whether the _Po_ was to be crossed and Piedmont
invaded. All the best Austrian generals--_Hesse_ with them, voted
against the proposition. Radetzky quietly listened, then rose and
give orders to cross immediately.
The result was the battle of Novara and the temporary humiliation of
the house of Savoy. That was a model for _Meade_. And this General
_French_ who advised to entrench! To entrench in pursuit of a
retreating enemy! This French honors West Point and engineering. The
generals who voted to entrench and not to attack Lee, and Meade with
them, they can never, never retrieve. Whatever be their future or
eventual success it will not heal the wound given to the country by
thus allowing Lee to escape. O, God! O, God!
Such _Frenches_ and others asserted that "Lee will attack before he
crosses." Oh what _Marses!_ _Lee's position at Williamsport was on
heights_, etc., etc., assert those braves.
When a country is hilly and undulating there will always be found
one point or hill commanding the others. I shall risk my head on the
fact, that around Lee's entrenchments at Williamsport, there exist
other elevations which command Williamsport, and are within
artillery distance. _Natura semper sibi consona._ I am sure that
better positions than that selected by Lee could easily have been
occupied by our troops or artillery. The same must have been the
case at Hagerstown. And if the generals were afraid to fight Lee's
whole army they ought to have more vigilantly watched his crossing.
There was a time when a part only of the rebel army was facing us,
and at least this part ought to have been attacked and crippled, if
not destroyed. Sound common sense teaches it. But it seems that no
will to fight Lee, or to impede his safe recrossing, no such will
animated the majority of the council of war. It seems that some of
the West Point nurslings are still awe-struck at the sight of their
slavocratic former companions, as they were at the time of their
studies at West Point.
I was told by an officer coming from the army that the soldiers are
exasperated. The soldiers say that the generals did not wish to
destroy Lee's army and finish the rebellion, because their "stars
were to set down." Who knows how far the soldiers are right?
_July 17._--In New York the _unterrified_ democracy went to arson
and murder, hand in hand with the immense majority of Irishry.
Meagher, Nugent, Corcoran and thousands like you, are exceptions.
The O'Connors, O'Gormans, etc., are the unterrified. For these
bloody saturnalia the wedding was consecrated by the Iro-Roman
priesthood. As the _unterrified_ Democrats pollute the sacred name
of genuine Democracy, so the Irishry stain even the Catholic
confession. The Iro-Roman Church in this country is not even a
Roman-Catholic end. This Iro-Romanism here is a mixture of cunning,
ignorance, brutality and extortion. A European Roman-Catholic at
once finds out the difference in the spirit, and even to a certain
extent, in the form. The incendiaries and murderers in the New York
riots are the nurslings and disciples of the Iro-Roman clergy and
the Iro-hierarchy.
_July 17._--Mr. Lincoln ought to dismiss every general who voted
against fighting; dismiss _Meade_ for not understanding his power as
commander of an army, and give the places to such Howards, Warrens,
Pleasantons, Humphreys, Wadsworths, and all others, generals,
colonels, etc. who clamorously asked an order for attack. If the
army shall depend upon such generals who let Lee escape, then lay
down arms, and drag not the people's children to a slaughter house.
To excuse the generals, it is asserted that at Chancellorsville Lee
has allowed to Hooker to recross the river without annoying us,
which Lee could easily do, and damage us considerably. Well! are our
Generals to carry on a mere war of civilities? If Lee committed a
fault, are you, gentlemen, in duty bound to imitate his mistakes?
Imitation for imitation, then rather imitate Lee's several splendid
manoeuvring and tactics.
_July 17._--I learn that the deep-dyed Copperheads and
slavery-saviours do not consider Seymour of New York safe enough.
They turn now to a certain Seymour in Connecticut. It seems that the
Connecticut Seymour still more hates human rights, self-government,
light and progress, and is a still more ardent lickspittle of
slavocracy, of barbarism, and of the slave-driving whip.
_July 18._--Splendid Chase urged Wadsworth to go to Florida and
organize that country--very likely to prepare votes for Chase's
presidency. It is not such high-toned men as Wadsworth who become
tools of schemers.
Again rumors say that Stanton joined the scheme of Lincoln's
re-election. As far as I can judge, Stanton's cardinal aim is to
crush the rebellion.
_July 18._--The greatest glory for Wadsworth is that the majority
against him in the last November elections is now murdering and
_arsoning_ New York. All of them are unterrified, hard shell
democrats, and cheer McClellan. These murderers are the "friends" of
Seymour--they are the pets of that _World_, itself below the offal
of hell--they are the "gentlemen" incendiaries of H. E. the
Archbishop Hughes. On your head, most eminent Archbishop, is the
whole responsibility. These "gentlemen" are brought up,
Christianized and moralized under your care and direction, and under
that of your tonsured crew. The "gentlemen" murderers are your herd,
O most eminent shepherd! You ought to have and you could have
stopped the rioters. And now your _stola_ is a halter and your
_pallium_ gored with blood, otherwise innocent as is the blood of
the lamb incensed on the altar of Saint Agnes in Rome.
Mr. Seward strongly opposed the appointment of General Butler to New
York. Mr. Seward wished no harm to the "gentlemen" of his dear
friend the Most Eminent Archbishop, and to the select ones who
helped him to defeat Wadsworth.
_July 19._--Difficult will be the task of the historian of these
episodes of riots, as well as of the whole civil war. If gifted with
the sacred spark, the future historian must carefully disentangle
the various agencies and forces in this convulsion. Some such
agencies are--
_a_ The righteousness of the cause of the North, defending
civilization, justice, humanity.
_b_ The devotion, the self-sacrifice of the people.
_c_ The littleness, helplessness, selfishness, cunning,
heartlessness, empty-headedness, narrow-mindedness of the various
leaders.
_d_ The plague of politicians.
_e_ The untiring efforts of the heathen, that is, of the Northern
worshippers of the slavocrat and of his whip, efforts to uphold and
save their idol.
_f_ The fatal influence of the press. The republican or patriot
press neither sufficiently vigilant, nor clear-sighted, nor
intelligent, nor undaunted; not reinvigorated by new, young
agencies; the bad press reckless, unprincipled, without honor and
conscience, but bold, ferocious in its lies, and sacrificing all
that is noble, human and pure to the idol of slavery.
_July 19._--The more details about the shame of Hagerstown and of
Williamsport, the more it rends heart and mind. I saw many soldiers
and officers, sick, wounded and healthy. Their accounts agree, and
cut to the quick. Our army was flushed with victory, craving for
fight, and in a state of enthusiastic exaltation. But our generals
were not therein in communion with the officers, with the rank and
file. Enthusiasm! this highest and most powerful element to secure
victory, and on which rely all the true captains; enthusiasm, that
made invincible the phalanx of Alexander; invincible Caesar's legions
and Napoleon's columns; enthusiasm was of no account for the
generals in council. O _Meade_! better were it for you if your
council was held among, or with the soldiers.
The Rebel army was demoralized, as a retreating army always is; no
doubt exists concerning a partial, at least, disorganization of the
rebels. But Lee and his generals understood how to make a bold show,
and a bold, menacing front, with what was not yet disorganized, and
our generals caved in, in the council.
This July 19th is heavy, dark and gloomy.... I wish it were all
over.
_July 19._--Thurlow Weed puffs Stanton and patronises him. O, God!
It is a terrible blow to Stanton. How, now, can one have confidence
in Stanton's manhood. Are contracts at the bottom of the puff, or is
it only one of _Weed's_ tricks to defile and to ruin _Stanton_?
_July 20._--It is almost humiliating to witness how mongrels and
pigmies attempt to rob the people of their due glory, how they
attempt to absorb to their own credit what the pitiless pressure of
events forced upon them. All of them limped after events as lame
ducks in mud; not one foresaw any thing, not one understood the
_to-day_. Neither emancipation nor the transformation of slave into
free states, are of your special, individual work, O, great men; but
you strut now.
_Mirmidons, race feconde, enfin nous commandons._
Some say that the generals who let Lee off, intended not to
humiliate their former chief and pet McClellan.
_July 20._--Cavalry wanted. Stables and corrals filled with horses,
but no saddles. No saddles in this most industrious country! No
brains in the Quartermasters or in those to whom it belongs. And
perhaps no will, and perhaps no honesty. No saddles! Oh! I am sure
it is nobody's fault; no workmen are to be found, and no leather,
and no men to look after the country's good. That is the rub.
_July 20._--Captain Collins, commanding a United States man-of-war,
captures an English blockade-runner near an isolated shoal somewhere
in the vicinity of Bermuda. England asserts that the shoal is a
shore, and that the maritime league is violated. Mr. Seward at once
yields, Neptune defends as he always does, the rights of the
national _Tritons_, and of the national flag. The supreme power
sides with Seward, and an order is given to reprimand Collins or
something like it: it is done, and the prize-court decides that
Captain Collins has made a lawful capture. I hope Collins will be
consoled, and light his segar with the reprimand.
The future historian will duly ponder and establish Mr. Seward's
claims to the _salvage_ of the country.
_July 20._--From all that I learn, _Meade_ has a better and larger
army than Lee; oh, may only Meade establish that he has the biggest
brains of the two.
_July 20._--From time to time, I read the various statutes issued by
the last Congress, and am strengthened in my opinion that Congress
served the people well. The various statutes are the triumph of
legislation. They are clear, precise, well-worded results of
patriotic, devoted, far-seeing and undaunted minds and brains. All
glory to the majority of the Thirty-seventh Congress!
_July 21._--A manly and patriotic letter from James T. Brady is
published in the papers. Such Democrats, Irishmen and lawyers, like
Brady, honor the party, the nationality, and the profession.
_July 21._--A mystery surrounds the appointment of _Grant_ to the
command of the fated Potomac army. _Yes_ and _no_ say the helmsmen.
The truth seems to be, it was offered to Grant, and he respectfully
refused to accept it. If so, it is an evidence in favor of Grant. To
give up glory and devoted companions in arms, to give all this up
for the sake of running into the unknown, and into the jaws of the
still breathing McClellanism, and into the vicinity of the central
telegraphic station! Grant believes in volunteers; and for this
reason it is to be regretted that he refused to correct the West
Point notions.
_July 21._--The draft occasions much bad blood, and evokes violent
dissatisfaction. The draft is a dire necessity; but it could have
been avoided if time, men, and the people's enthusiasm had not been
so sacrilegiously wasted. The three hundred dollar clause is not a
happy invention, and its omission would have given a better
character to that law.
_July 21._--If the New York traitors succeed in preventing the
draft, then they will riot against taxes; after breaking down the
taxes, they will riot against the greenbacks, against the
emancipation, and finally force the reconstruction of the Union with
the murderous rebel chiefs in the senatorial chairs, according to
the Seward-Mercier-Richmond programme. Any one can see in the
Cain-Copperhead newspapers of New York, of Boston, of Philadelphia,
and in the letters and speeches of those matricides, what are their
aims, and how their plans are laid out.
_July 21._--Again I am most positively assured that some time ago a
friendly offensive and defensive alliance was concluded between W.
H. Seward and Edwin Stanton. The high powers were represented by
Thurlow Weed and Morgan for Seward, and the virtuous, lachrymose,
white-cravated Whiting acted for Stanton. I was told that this
alliance drove Watson, (Assistant Secretary,) from the War Department.
This would be infernal, if true. I know that no _Weed_ whatever could
approach such a man as Watson; but Watson assured me that he returns
back, and I cannot believe that Stanton could consent to be thus sold.
_July 22._--Honorable, virtuous, tear-shedding, jockey-dressing
Whiting wanted to make a trip to Europe. Sharp and acute, the great
expounder found out at once that Mr. Seward is one of the greatest
and noblest patriots of all times. Reward followed. Whiting goes to
Europe on a special mission--to dine, if he is invited, with all the
great and small men to whom Mr. Adams or Mr. Dayton may introduce
him, and to convince everybody in Europe that the Sewards, the
Whitings, &c., are the _creme de la creme_ of the American people.
_Vive la bagatelle._
_July 22._--How putrescent is all around! But it is not the nation,
not the people. And as the sun raises above the darkest and heaviest
vapors, so in America the spirit of mankind, incarnated in and
animating the people, towers above the filth of politicians, of
cabinet-makers, of presidential-peddlers, etc. Look to the masses to
find consolation. How splendidly acts Massachusetts and New
England's sons! And what free State is not New England's son? The
youth of Massachusetts are almost all in the field--the rich and the
poor, those of the best social standing, and of the genuine good
blood and standing; scholars and mechanics, all of them shouldered
the musket.
_July 23._--How strangely and how slowly Meade manoeuvres! It looks
McClellan-like. O, God of battles, warm and inspire Meade!
_July 23._--Only boys in the corps of invalids. It has its good. For
scores of years to come, these invalids will be the living legend of
this treasonable, matricidal rebellion, and of the atrocious
misconduct of our helmsmen. I hope that when returned home, these
invalids will be as many extirpators of all kinds of _Weeds_ in
their respective townships and villages. They will become the lights
of the new era.
_July 23._--Were it not for the murdered, these New York riots could
be considered welcome. The rioting cannibals, and their prompters
and defenders showed their hands. No one in his senses can now doubt
how heartily and devotedly Jeff Davis was served by his hirelings
among the Copperhead leaders and among the New York Copperhead
press. The cannibals cheered for McClellan, and the Administration
has neither enough courage nor self respect to put that fetish on
the retired list.
In the old, flourishing times of Romanism and papacy, such a Most
Eminent Hughes would long ago have been suspended by the Holy See.
The Most Eminent's standing among the continental European
Episcopacy is not eminent at all, whatever be Mr. Seward's opinion.
The Most Eminent is a curious observer of the canons, of the papal
bulls, and of other clerical and episcopal paraphernalia. The spirit
animating the Most Eminent is not the spirit of the Roman Sapienzia.
I well recollect what I heard lectured in that Roman papal
university.
_July 24._--As a dark and ominous cloud, Lee with his army hovers
around Washington, keeps the Shenandoah valley, and may again cross
over to the Cumberland valley. It seems that the generals whose
council-of-war allowed Lee to recross the river unhurt, believed
that Lee with all speed would run to Richmond; and now they hang to
his brow and eye.
The crime of Williamsport bears fruit. Never, never in this or in
the other life, can the perpetrators of the Williamsport crime atone
for it.
It may come that the western armies and generals will bring the
civil war to an end, the Potomac army all the time marching and
countermarching between the Potomac and the Rappahannock. And such a
splendid army, such heroic soldiers and officers, to be sacrificed
to the ignorant stubbornness of sham military science!
_July 25._--I positively learn that Gilmore has scarcely ten
thousand men, infantry, and is to storm the various forts and
defenses around the Charleston harbor. If Gilmore succeeds, then it
is a wonder. But in sound valuation, Gilmore has not men enough to
organize columns of attack so that the one shall follow the other
within a short, very short supporting distance. And the losses will
almost hourly reduce Gilmore's small force. I dread repulse and
heavy losses. Some one at the head-quarters deserves to be quartered
for such a distribution of troops. With the immense resources and
means of transportation, it is so easy to send twenty thousand
troops to Gilmore, attack, make short work of it, and then carry the
troops back to where they belonged. But to concentrate and act in
masses is not the _credo_ of the--not yet quartered--head-quarters.
_July 26._--Old--but not slow--Welles again gives to Seward a lesson
of good-behavior, of sound sense, and of mastery of international
laws. The prize courts side with Welles. Because Neptune has a white
wig and beard, he is considered slow, when in reality he is active,
unflinching, and progressive.
_July 26._--O, could I only exclaim, _Exegi monumentum aere
perennius_, to the noble, the patriotic, and the good, as well as to
the helpless, the selfish, and the counterfeits.
_July 27._--_Philadelphia._ Flags in all the streets, volunteers
parading and drilling. Prosperity, activity and devotion permeate
the country. So at least I am led to believe. All this is so
refreshing, after witnessing in Washington such strenuous efforts
how not to do it.
Bad news. I learn that Gilmore is repulsed. When the _forlorn hope_
entered Fort Wagner, no support promptly came, and the heroes, black
and white, were massacred or expelled. Gilmore ought to have been
more cautious, and not to have undertaken an operation which was on
its outside stamped with impossibility. Perhaps Gilmore obeyed
peremptory orders. Who gave them?
Lee's army escapes through Chester Gap, and thus we have not cut the
rebels from Richmond, and now they are ahead of us. Again
out-manoeuvred! and _nobody's fault_, only the campaign prolonged
_ad infinitum_. Perhaps it is in the programme!
_July 28._--_Philadelphia._ The petty, narrow, school conceit
imbibed in the West Point nursery, is the stumbling-block barring
everywhere the expansion of a healthy and vigorous activity. I
listened to the heaviest absurdities and fogyism on military affairs
_oracularly_ preached by one of the great West Pointers on duty
here.
_July 31._--_Long Branch._ Away from personal contact, even from the
view of politicians, of plotters, of lickspittles. How refreshing,
how invigorating, how soothing!
Mr. Seward, with a due tail, visits Fortress Monroe. What for?
Is it to organize some underground road to reunion on the
Mercier-Seward-Richmond programme?
One well-informed writes me that the last programme of Lincoln,
Halleck and Meade is, that the army of the Potomac is to keep Lee at
bay, but not to attack. If true, how well designed to give time to
Lee to do what he likes, to reorganize, to send away his troops
where he may please, to call them back--in one word to be fully at
his ease on our account. Will this country ever escape the tutorship
of sham science?
_July 31._--_Long Branch._ Seward's concession policy towards France
bears fruit in Mexico. Of course the _Decembriseur_ outwitted the
Weed-Albany-Auburn politician statesman. But it is not the ignorant
foreign policy which strengthened and strengthens the French policy
in Mexico. It is the blunders, the tergiversations, the gropings,
and the crimes of our internal domestic policy, which, protracting
the war, allows the French conspirator to murder the Mexicans.
_July 31. L. B._--So the _Decembriseur_ amuses himself in creating
an Imperial throne in Mexico for some European princely idiot or
intriguer. All right. I have confidence in the Mexicans. The future
Emperor, even if established for some time on the cushion of treason
propped by French bayonets, that manikin before short or long will
be _Iturbidised_. Further: I have confidence in the French people.
The upper crust is pestilential. Bonapartists, lickspittles, lackeys
and incarnations of all imaginary corruptions compose that upper
crust. But I would bet a fortune, had I one, that in the course of
the next five years, the _Decembriseur_ and his _Prince Imperial_
will be visible at Barnum's, and that some shoddy grandee from 5th
Avenue, will issue cards inviting _to meet the Empress Eugenie_.