Stanton -- Twenty Thousand -- Canadians -- Peterhoff -- Coffey --
Initiation -- Electioneering -- Reports -- Grant -- McClellan --
Belligerent Rights -- Menagerie -- Watson -- Jury -- Democrats --
Bristles -- "Where is Stanton?" -- "Fight the monster" --
Chasiana -- Luminaries -- Ballistic -- Political Economy, etc.,
etc., etc.
_August 2. Long Branch._--The organs of all shades and of all
gradations of ill-wishers to the cause of the North, and to that of
Emancipation, the secret friends of Jeff Davis, and the open
supporters of McClellan are untiring in their open, slanderous,
treacherous accusations of _Stanton_; others spread sanctimoniously
perfidious suggestions against the Secretary of War, and so does the
_National Intelligencer_, this foremost Whig-Conservative, double or
treble-faced organ. _Stanton_ is called to account for all mishaps,
mismanagement, disasters and disgraces which befall our armies
between the Rio Grande and the Potomac. Such accusations, to a
certain degree, could be justified if the Secretary of War were
clothed with the same powers, and therefore with the same
responsibilities as is the case in European governments.
But every one knows that here the war machinery is very complicated,
because wheels turn within wheels. The Secretary of War is not alone
to answer and he is not exclusively responsible for the appointment
of good, middling, or wholly bad generals and commanders. Every one
knows it. _Stanton_ may have all the possible shortcomings and
faults with which his enemies so richly clothe him; one thing is
certain, that _Stanton_ advocated and always advocates fighting, and
Stanton furnishes the generals and commanders with all means and
resources at the country's and the department's disposition. If many
respectable men are to be trusted, _Stanton_ never interferes with
intrinsic military operations, never orders or insinuates, or
dictates to the commanders of our armies where and in what way they
are to get at the enemy and to fight him. As far as I know Stanton
keeps aloof from strategy.
Stanton _is insincere and untruthful_, say his enemies. Granted. I
never found a man in power to be otherwise in personal questions or
relations. It is almost impossible for the power-holders to be
sincere and truthful.
Trust in thy sword,
Rather than prince's (president's) word;
Trust in fortuna's sinister,
Rather than prince's minister.
But _Stanton_ is truthful and sincere to the cause, and that is all
that I want from him. Stanton's alleged _malice_ against McClellan
had the noblest and the most patriotic sources, which, of course,
could not be understood or appreciated by Stanton's revilers.
The organs of treason and of infamy refer always to McClellan. _O
race, knitted of the devils excrements mixed with his saliva_, [see
Talleyrand about Thiers] your treason is only equal to your
impudence and ignorance. If in February, 1862, Stanton had not urged
McClellan to move, probably the Potomac Army would have spent all
the year in its tents before Washington. McClellan's henchmen and
minions thrusted and still thrust the grossest lies down the throat
of a certain public, eager to gulp slander as sugar plums.
McClellan's stupidity at Yorktown and in the Chickahominy is
vindicated by his crew with the following counter accusation: that
all disasters have been generated because McDowell with his twenty
thousand men did not join McClellan. If McClellan had in him the
soldiership of a non-commissioned officer, on his knees he ought to
implore his crew not to expose him in this way. When a general has
in hand about one hundred and ten thousand men, as McClellan had on
entering the peninsula, and accomplishes nothing, then it is a proof
that he, the general, is wholly unable and ignorant how to handle
large masses. If McClellan could not manage one hundred thousand
men, still less would he have been able to manage the twenty
thousand more of McDowell's corps.
The stupidity of attempting to invest Richmond is beyond words, and
for such an operation several hundred thousand men would have been
necessary. [Spoke of it in Vol. I.] If twenty thousand men arrive
not at a certain day or hour when a battle is raging, most surely
this failure may occasion a defeat--Grouchy at Waterloo--but in
McClellan's Chickahominy operations, twenty thousand men more would
have served only still more plainly to expose his incapacity, and to
be a prey to fevers and diseases.
The bulk of the rebel army in Richmond was always less numerous than
McClellan's; the rebels always understood to have more troops than
had McClellan when they attacked him. During that whole cursed and
ignominious (for McClellan) Chickahominy campaign, McClellan never
fought at once more of his men than about thirty thousand. It was
not the absence of twenty thousand men that prevented a commander
of one hundred thousand from engaging more of his troops, and for
quickly supporting such corps as were attacked by the enemy.
_August 3: L. B._--The Colonists, that is, the appendixes of
England, as the Canadians, the Nova Scotians, and of any other
colonial dignity and name, together with their great statesmen,
certain Howes and Johnsons, etc. etc. etc. agitate; they are in
trances like little fish out of water. They find it so pleasant to
seize an occasion to look like something great. Poor frogs! trying
to blow themselves into leviathans. Their whelpish snarling at the
North reminds one of little curs snarling at a mastiff. How can
these colonists imagine that a royal prince of England could reside
among something which is as indefinite as are colonists--something
neither fish nor flesh.
_August 3._--The _Evening Post_ contains a letter on the difference
between the behavior of Union men in Missouri during the treasonable
riots in St. Louis in the Spring of 1861, and the conduct of the
Union men in New York during the recent riots. But the Saint Louis
patriot is silent--has forgotten the immortal Lyons who saved that
city and its patriots, who saved Missouri. (General Scott insisted
upon courtmartialing Lyons.)
Also, have you already forgotten the foremost among heroes and
patriots, and whose loss is more telling now than it was in 1861.
Forgotten one of the purest and noblest victims of Washington
blindness, of General Scott's unmilitary policy and conduct.
Forgotten the true son of the people? But O Lyons! thy name will be
venerated by coming generations.
_August 4: L. B._--_The Cliques._
_a_ The worst, and the womb of all evils is the Weed-Seward clique.
Around it group contractors, jobbers, shoddy, and all kinds of other
social impurities.
_b_ The ambitious, intriguing, selfish, narrow-minded West Point
clique.
_c_ The not brave, not patriotic, and freedom-hating, unintelligent
McClellan clique.
_d_ Copperheads of various hues and gradations.
Cliques _a_, _b_, and _c_, generated and fostered Copperheads, and
facilitated their expansion.
_e_ Imbeciles, lickspittles, politicians, etc.
_f_ The Lincolnites, closely intertwined with the _genus e_; the
Blair men, etc.
_g_ The partisans of Chase. This clique is the most variously and
most curiously composed. Honest imbeciles, makers of phrases,
rhetors, heavy and narrow-minded, office-hunters, office expectants,
politicians, contractors, admirers of pompousness and of would-be
radicalism, all who turn round and round, and see not beyond their
noses, etc.
Several minor cliques exist, but deserve not to be mentioned. Behind
these mud-hills rises the true people, as the Himalayas rise above
the plains of Asia.
_August 4._--Why could not Everett, that good and true patriot,
preside over our relations with Europe; or why is that thorough
American statesman, Governor Marcy, dead! How different, how
respected, how truly American would have been the character of our
relations with Europe! No prophecies, no lies would have been told,
no gross ignorance displayed!
_August 4. L. B._--In the columns of the _Times_ a friend of Halleck
tries to make a great man of the General-in-chief. Halleck
repudiates Burnside and Hooker, but claims the victory at
Gettysburgh, because Meade, being a good disciplinarian, executed
Halleck's orders. So from his room in G street Washington, Halleck
directed the repulse of the furiously attacking columns. Bravo! more
bravo as no telegraph connects Washington with Gettysburgh!
Meade being a good disciplinarian, the crime of Williamsport falls
upon Halleck; the commander-in-chief is the more responsible, as the
crime was perpetrated under his nose; about four hours' drive could
have brought him to our army, and then Halleck in person could have
directed the attack upon the enemy.
From all that transpires about Williamsport one must conclude that
Lee must have known that he would not be seriously attacked, and
that he was not much afraid of the combined disciplinarian
generalship.
Further: Halleck claims for himself Grant's success, because Grant
obeyed orders, and Rosecrans did the same. How astonishing,
therefore, that their campaigns ended in victories and not in such
shame as Halleck at Corinth, in 1862. Rosecrans was inspired by
telegraph to change defeat into victory; the indomitable Grant
received by telegraph the fertility of resources shown by him at
Vicksburgh. Oh! Halleck! you cannot succeed in thus belittling the
two heroes, and you may tell your little story to the marines.
_August 4._--The Proclamation on retaliation is a well-written
document; but like all Mr. Lincoln's acts it is done almost too
late, only when the poor President was so cornered by events, that
shifting and escape became impossible. If I am well informed Stanton
long ago demanded such a Proclamation, but Lincoln's familiar demons
prevented it. Nevertheless Lincoln will be credited for what
intrinsically is not his.
_August 5: L. B._--Thomas--not Paul--Lincoln's pet, returns to the
Mississippi to organise Africo-American regiments. For six months
they organize, organize and have not yet fifteen thousand in field.
If Stanton had been left alone, we would have to-day in battle order
at least fifty thousand Africo-Americans.
_August 5: L. B._--All computed together, among all Western
Continental European nations, the Germans, both here and in Germany,
behave the best towards the North. I mean the genuine German people.
Thinkers and rationalists are seldom, if ever, found on the wrong
side. I rejoice to see the Germans behave so nobly.
_August 5._--The Peterhoff condemned, notwithstanding all the
efforts to the contrary of our brilliant, versatile and highly
erudite in international laws Secretary of state. But Mr. Seward
will not understand the lesson. How could he?
_August 5: L. B._--At least for the fiftieth time, Seward insinuates
to the public that we are on the eve of a breach with England--but
Seward will prevent it. Oh, Oh! Yes, O Seward! when backed by the
iron clads and by twenty-two millions of a brave and stubborn
people!
_August 5: L. B._--Poor Stanton, I pity him! After Weed comes the
"little villain," with his puffs. Happily, the _World_ abuses
Stanton, and this alone makes up even for the applause of Weed and
his consorts.
_August 7: L. B._--COFFEY, Assistant Attorney-General, published a
legal, official opinion on maritime, commercial _copperheadism_;
that is, when an American vessel, from an American port, is sent in
ballast to a neutral port to load there, afterwards to run the
blockade, Coffey proves it to be treason and criminality. The
document is clear, logical, precise and not wordy: not in the style
of the State Department logomachy. Why, O why cannot such younger
men be at the head! Emancipation would have been carried out,
slavery destroyed, the Union restored, rebels crushed, and the
French murderers and imperial lackeys would cut very respectful
capers to please a great people.
_August 8: L. B._--I shudder as I pass in review what little is done
at such an enormous expenditure of human limbs and of human life,
not to speak of squandered time, labor and money.
It seems that the prevailing rule is to reach the smallest results
at the greatest possible cost. General Scott, Seward and Lincoln
early laid down that rule. McClellan, that quintessence of all
unsoldierlike capacities, faithfully continued what was already
inaugurated. Halleck almost perfected it; and so it became a chronic
disease of the leading spirits in the Administration, Stanton and
Welles excepted. That sacrilegious, murderous method and rule, at
times was forcibly violated by Grant, by Rosecrans, by Banks, by the
glorious Farragut, by Admiral Porter. The would-be statesmen either
see nothing or do not wish to see what ill-disposed minds could
consider to be an almost premeditated slaughter.
I know too well that every initiation is with sacrifice or blood. It
is a law of progress, absolute, not made by man, but cut out for him
by fate or providence. In a stream of his mother's life-blood man
enters this world; by the blood of the Redeemer the Christian
becomes initiated to another, called a better world. Sacrifice and
blood prevail throughout the eons of the initiation of human
societies and religions. Through sacrifice and blood the Reformation
became a redeemer. Great results are reached at great cost. I am an
atom in a generation which, to assert her deep, earnest
convictions, never caved in before blood and sacrifice; a generation
that has labored and still labors, spreads seed and begins to
harvest; a generation which regrets nothing, and cheerfully takes
the responsibility of its actions. And with all this, the men of
convictions and of undaunted revolutionary courage in Europe,
bestowed and bestow more care upon any unnecessary sacrifice of
human life than I witness here. By heavens! Marat, Saint Just,
Robespierre, could be considered lambs when compared with the
_faiseurs_ here. And Marat, Saint Just, and Robespierre were
fanatics of ideas: here they are _fanaticised_ by selfishness,
intrigue, helplessness and imbecility.
_August 9: L. B._--For the last few months men of sound and
dispassionate judgment tried to convince me that there is somewhere,
in high regions, a settled purpose to prolong the war until the next
presidential election. I always disbelieved such assertions; but
now, considering all this criminal sluggishness, I begin to believe
in the existence of such a criminal purpose.
_August 9: L. B._--All the open and secret Copperhead organs raise a
shrill cry on account of what they pervert into McClellan's general
Report of his unmilitary campaigns. When a commander is in the
field, he is in duty bound, as soon as possible, that is, in the
next few weeks, to send to his superior or to the Government, a
Report of each of his military movements and operations. McClellan
ought to have immediately made a Report to the Government after his
_bloodless victory_ at Centreville and Manassas; a victory crowned
with maple trophies! Then McClellan ought to have sent another
Report after the great success at Yorktown, and so on. Every period
of his campaign ought to have been separately reported. It is done
in all well organized governments and armies, and it is the duty of
the staff of the army to prepare such periodical, successive
Reports. Even if the sovereign himself takes the field, the staff of
the army sends such Reports to the Secretary of War. Nobody stood in
the way of McClellan's doing what it was his imperative duty to do,
and to do immediately.
But it is unheard of that a commander during a year at the head of
an army, should take another year to prepare his Report. No
self-respecting government would allow such an insubordination, or
accept such a tardy Report. If a government should act upon such a
Report, it would be rather by dismissing from service, etc., the
sluggish--if not worse--commander.
The so-called "McClellan's Report," concocted by a board of choice
Copperheads in New York, and of which the _World's_ hireling was an
amanuensis, that production is certainly an elaborate essay on
McClellan's campaigns, is certainly bristling with afterthoughts and
_post facta_, as pedestals for the fetish's altar. It must have on
its face the mark of combination, but not of truth. Such a
Report--not written on the spot, in the atmosphere of activity, not
written by officers of the staff, not by the Chief-of-staff--such a
Report cannot command or inspire any confidence; it has not, and
ought not to have any worth in the Government's archives. McClellan
may publish his memoirs, or essays, or anything else, and therein
may shine this labor of a _dasippus_ assisted by vipers.
_August 11: L. B._--In Washington they seem to insist that Grant
shall take the command of the Potomac Army. If Grant accepts, he
will be a ruined man. Grant ought to have Pope in memory. Grant soon
will see stained his glorious and matchless military record. He will
not withstand the cliques and the underground intrigues of craving,
selfish and unsatisfied ambitions.
If Halleck could only know what in a European army any tyro knows,
Halleck would make Mr. Lincoln understand that such an appointment
must produce confusion, as no regular staffs exist in our army. (I
spoke somewhere about it.)
_August 13: L. B._--Can it be possible that several from among the
Republicans, honest leaders, gravitate towards Lincoln, and already
begin to agitate for Lincoln's re-election? If it is so--if the
people submit to such an imposition--O, then, genius of history, go
in mourning!
_August 13: L. B._--The Board appointed by Stanton to investigate
into the condition of the Africo-Americans, has published its
dissertation--very poor--in the shape of a Report. Stanton intended
to do a good thing by appointing that Board. It did not turn out so
well as Stanton expected. What is the use of expatiating--as do the
three wise men in their Report--on certain psychological qualities
and _non-qualities_ of the Africo-American? The paramount question
is how to organize the emancipated in their condition of freedom.
When Stanton appointed that Board he wished to have elucidated, if
not settled, the way and manner in which to deal with the new
citizens or semi-citizens; but Stanton was the last man to look for
an old psychological re-hash, without any social or moral
signification whatever; a re-hash whose axioms and apothegms are, at
least, a quarter of a century _behind_ the scientific elucidations
on races, on Africans, even on Anglo-Saxons.
_August 15: L. B._--Weeks ago Grant sent his Report, embracing the
various operations connected with the fall of Vicksburgh. Grant did
not want a year to make a school-boy like composition, as did
McClellan with his quill-holders. Every word of Grant's Report
resounds with military spirit and simplicity. Grant has not to put
truth on the rack and throw dust into people's eyes. Three cheers
for McClellan! Grant has confidence in the volunteers; not so
McClellan, who had only confidence in shams. Grant and his army, at
the best, were the second sons of the Administration--not of the
people; to the last day McClellan was the pet, the spoiled child,
and as such he disgraced his parents, tutors, etc., and ruined his
parent's house.
_August 15._--A letter published by the Honorable W. Whiting, (who
is now traveling,) occasions much noise. The letter is pointed and
keen, but the writer knows mighty little about international laws.
Almost _a priori_ he recognizes in the rebels, as he says, "only the
rights of belligerents." Only the rights of belligerents! Such
rights are very ample, and for this reason they belong in their
plenitude exclusively to absolutely independent nations. To
recognize _a priori_ such rights in the rebels, is equivalent to
recognizing them as an independent nation. In pure and absolute
principle of modern (not Roman) _jus gentium_, rebels have not only
no belligerent rights, but not any rights at all. Rebels are _ipso
facto_ outlaws in full. Writers like Abbe Galiano, Vatel, etc., for
the sake of humanity and expediency, recommend to the lawful
sovereign to use mercy, to treat rebels _in parte_ as belligerents,
and not as _a priori_ condemned criminals.
_August 16: L. B._--Seward is to promenade the diplomats over the
country. He is Barnum, the diplomats are the menagerie. Poor Lord
Lyons. Very probably it is Seward's last rocket to draw upon himself
the attention of the people.
_August 16. L. B._--The probabilities of a rupture with France are
upon the public mind. I still misbelieve it. I have not the
slightest doubt that the _Decembriseur_ is full of treachery towards
the North, and that his Imperialist lackeys blow brimstone against
the Northern principles. But are the French people so debased as to
submit? We shall see. Let that crowned conspirator begin a war of
treason against the North. Before long the French people will put an
end to the war and to the Decembriseur.
_August 16. L. B._--I learn that Watson has very gravely injured his
health by labor, that is, by being the most faithful servant of the
country and of its cause. I never, anywhere in my life, met a public
officer so undaunted at his duties, so unassuming, so quiet as
Watson, in his duties of Assistant Secretary of War, which are as
thorny as can be imagined. Watson was, and I hope will be for the
future, the terror of lobbyists, of bad contractors, of jobbers--in
one word, the terror of all the leeches of the people's pocket. And
it honors Stanton to have brought into his Department such a man as
Watson. I heard and hear, and read a great many accusations against
Stanton; but I never found any proofs which could virtually diminish
my confidence. To use a classical, stupid, rhetorical figure:
Stanton is not of antique mould. And who is now? But he is a
sincere, devoted and ardent patriot; he broadly comprehends the task
and the duty to save the country, and he sees clearly and distinctly
the ways and means to reach the sacred aim. Stanton may have, and
very many assert that he has, numerous bristles in his character, in
his deportment. Let it be so. It is the worse for him, but not for
the cause he serves.
_August 16. L. B._--Are the people again to receive a President from
the hand of intriguers, from politicians, or from honest imbeciles?
If the people will stand it, then they deserve to be kept in leading
strings by all that medley.
_August 16. L. B._--Rosecrans wants mounted infantry. The men of the
day, the men who understand and comprehend the exigencies, the
necessities of the war, they pierce through the rotten crust of
fogyism. That is promise and hope. The great organizers of the
army--the McClellans and the Hallecks--could never have found out
that mounted infantry is necessary, and will render good service.
Mounted infantry was not considered a necessity in the West Point
halls, and Jomini mentions it not. How should a Halleck do so?
_August 17. L. B._--A defender of slavery, a Copperhead, and a
traitor, differ so little from each other, that a microscope
magnifying ten thousand times would not disclose the difference. A
proslaveryist, a Copperhead, and a traitor, are the most perfect
_tres in unum_.
_August 18. L. B._--General Meade is absent from the army, and
Humphreys, his chief-of-staff, is temporarily in command. I notice
this fact as a proof that a more rational, intelligent comprehension
prevails in the military service. A chief-of-staff is the only man
to be the _locum-tenens_ of the commander. At Williamsport Humphreys
voted for fight. It would be well if Meade should not return to
again take the command.
_August 18._--A patriotic gentlewoman asked me why I write a diary?
"To give conscientious evidence before the jury appointed by
history."
_August 20._--On the first day of the draft, I had occasion to visit
New York. All was quiet. In Broadway and around the City Hall I saw
less soldiers than I expected. The people are quiet; the true
conspirators are thunderstruck. Before long, the names will be known
of the genuine instigators of arson and of murder in July last. The
tools are in the hands of justice, but the main spirits are hidden.
Smart and keen wretches as are the leading Copperheads, they
successfully screen their names; nevertheless before long their
names will be nailed to the gallows. The _World_--which, for weeks
and weeks, so devotedly, so ardently poisoned the minds, and thus
prepared the way for any riot--the _World_ was and is a tool in the
hands of the hidden traitors. The _World_ is a hireling, and does
the work by order.
_August 21. L. B._--The final destiny of the Potomac Army seems to
be to keep Lee at bay but not to attack him. Oh! the disgraced
soldiers and officers! Chickahominy, Antietam, Fredericksburgh,
Gettysburgh, are the indestructible evidences of the mettle of the
army, and of the poverty or total eclipse of generalship.
_August 21._--Impressionable, excitable, wave-like agitated as are
my dear American countrymen, they altogether forget _the yesterday_,
and shout the last success. Further: the people cannot see clearly
through the stultifying or the dirty dust blown in the peoples'
eyes; 1st, by the politicians of all hues, from the Woods, Weeds,
Forneys, to the Greeleys, by the simon-pures or the lobby-impures;
2d, by the press of all parties and shades of parties. The people
may again make a mistake. Is not Lincoln hailed as the new Moses? as
the man for the times, as the only one God sent to direct the
people, and to grapple with the stern, earnest emergencies and
perils? Emancipation is not Lincoln's, is not Sumner's, is not
anybody's personal special work. The necessities, the emergencies of
the times and of the hour did it. Their current drifted Mr. Lincoln
irresistibly along, and to a shore where he must land or perish.
_August 23. L. B._--From the tone of certain papers, and from
private letters, I perceive that Weed-Seward are hard at work to
pacify, to reunite, to save slavery and to leave unnoticed humanity
and national honor. The unterrified Democrats become Weed's allies,
and the alliance is to carry Seward into the White House. _Nous
verrons._
Chase is to overturn Seward-Weed and to secure the prize. Oh, the
intriguers.
On the authority of the published "DIARY," I am asked, even by
letters, "Where is Stanton?" "I do not know, and I do not care," is
my answer. I would however, like to be sure that Stanton is not in
that dirty path. I am Stanton's man, as they call it; but only as
long as I find him to be _a man_.
_August 24. L. B._--The Democrats are arrogant in asserting their
superior capacity for government, for carrying on the war, and for
other great things. However, I am sure that the so-called Northern
Democrats would have managed the affairs even worse than do now
those sham representatives of the principles of the Republican
party. No faith in a fundamental human, broad principle ever
actuated the hard shell Democrats. McClellan and the immense
majority of generals, have been, or are full-blooded Democrats, and
their warlike prowess dragged the people into deep, deep mire.
Democrats have to thank God for not being in power; in this way
their incapacity to cope with such gigantic events is not exposed.
The other fortunate occurrence for the Democrats is that the
power-holders for the Republican party are--what everybody sees.
_August 24. L. B._--I very strongly and urgently advised Gen.
Wadsworth to resign. No one in the country has fulfilled more nobly
his civic and patriotic duty. I urged upon his mind that when the
war is finished, the cause of right, of justice, the interests of a
genuine self-government will require true men to rescue the people
from the hands of the politicians. Vainly I remonstrated. Wadsworth
prefers to remain in the service, and to fight the monster.
_August 24. L. B._--_Chasiana._ The New York leaders of the Chase
scheme make all possible efforts and platitudes to _conciliate_ Weed
and win him over. What dregs all around!
The immaculate Chase! to look for support to a Weed! To Weed-Seward,
who for twenty-five years fanned the anti-slavery flame! Seward,
whom the anti-slavery wave elevated where he is, and who now kicks
and spits upon the men most ardent in the cause of emancipation! O
dregs! O dregs!
_August 24: L. B._--The question of confiscation drags itself slowly
on, and soon it may resound in the courts of the whole country. If
confiscation is ever stringently executed, it will generate
law-suits _ad libitum_ and _ad infinitum_. From the first day when
the banner of rebellion was unfolded, _each State_ became an
_outlaw_ in its relations with the Union. Such a rebel State has not
a legal existence, and any legal act whatever between individual
members--or rather, politically, sovereigns in and of the
State--such acts are valueless in relation to the lawful sovereign,
as is the Union.
The Confiscation Act is based on a wrong principle--the right to
confiscate the whole rebel property in America. This right is
derived from the public law. A conqueror of a country becomes _ipso
facto_ the proprietor of all that belonged to the conquered
sovereign and what is called public property, as domains, taxes,
revenues, public institutions, etc. The rebels claim to be
sovereigns--that is each freeman in each respective State is a
respective sovereign. The area of such revolted State, with all the
lands, cultivated or uncultivated, with the farms, and all
industrial, mercantile or mining establishments whatever, is the
property of the sovereign, or of the sovereigns. Property of a, or
of many sovereigns, is in its whole nature a public property, and as
such, _ipso facto_, is liable to be confiscated by the conqueror.
_August 24: L. B._--The massacre at Lawrence, Kansas, must
exclusively be credited to those who appointed for that region a
pro-slavery military commander. But the power-holders are not
troubled by more or less blood, by more or less victims of their
incapacity and double-dealing!
_August 25: L. B._--Any future historian must beware not to seek
light in the newspapers of this epoch. The so-called good press
throws no light on events; that press is not in the hands of
statesmen or of thinkers, or of ardent students of human events, or
of men having for their aim any pursuits of science or knowledge.
The luminaries of the press are no beacons for the people during
this bloody and deadly tempest! For the sake of what is called
political capital, the most simple fact often becomes distorted and
upturned by this political, short-sighted, and selfishly envious
press.
_August 26: L. B._--All things considered, the inflation of the
currency and the rise in gold has proved to be beneficial to the
country. The agricultural interest, above all, in the West, was
particularly sustained thereby. Wheat and grain would have fallen to
prices ruinous for the farmers. When the gold fell, the farmer felt
it by the reduction of the price of his produce. The agriculturist,
the backbone and marrow of the country, spends less money for
manufactured products than he netted clear profits by the rise in
gold. If the farmer sold now his wheat for six shillings, without
inflation the price might have been four shillings, and then the
farmer would have been bankrupt, unable to pay the taxes. The
inflation saved the greatest interest in the country. And thus
agriculture and industry flourish, the country is not ruined, is not
bankrupt, as the European wiseacres took great pleasure in
foreboding that it would be. So much for _absolute_ laws of
political economy.
_August 27: L. B._--The New York Republican papers insinuate that a
Mr. Evarts, who was sent to Europe by Mr. Seward, has given
assurances to European governments that slavery will be abolished.
If such declaration was needed, why not make it through the regular
representatives of the country, as are Mr. Adams and Mr. Dayton? Mr.
Seward is incorrigible. I am curious to know where he learned this
original mode of _diplomatizing_. Such unofficial, confidential,
semi-confidential agents confuse European governments. They inspire
very little, if any respect for our statesmanship, and are offensive
to our regularly appointed ministers. What must the crown lawyers in
England have thought of Mr. Evart's great mastery of international
laws?
_August 30._--Our military powers in Washington, led on and inspired
by Halleck, cannot put an end to guerrillas, or rather to those
highwaymen who rob, so to speak, at the military gates of
Washington. Lieber-Halleck-Hitchcock's treatise frightened not the
guerrillas, but most assuredly the gallows will do it. Everywhere
else the like banditti would be summarily treated; and these
would-be guerrillas here are evidences of the uttermost social
dissolution. They are no soldiers, no guerrillas, and deserve no
mercy.
_August 31: L. B._--According to the _Tribune_, Mr. Lincoln deserves
all the credit for General Gilmore's success before Charleston.
There we have it! Mr. Lincoln, outdoing Carnot for military sagacity
and capacity, Mr. Lincoln approved Gilmore's plans. Mr.
Lincoln-Halleck aiding--at once understood the laws of ballistics,
and other _et ceteras_ which underlay the plan of every siege. And
now to doubt that Lincoln, with his Halleck, are military geniuses!
O _Tribune_!
_August 31: L. B._--I learned that Grant most positively refused to
accept the command of the Potomac Army. They cannot ruin Grant--they
will neutralize him.