Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several

RUSSIAN LIFE AND SOCIETY.

[Illustration: Longfellow and Appleton]

RUSSIAN LIFE AND SOCIETY

AS SEEN IN 1866-’67 BY APPLETON AND LONGFELLOW, TWO YOUNG TRAVELLERS

FROM THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WHO HAD BEEN OFFICERS IN THE UNION

ARMY, AND A JOURNEY TO RUSSIA WITH GENERAL BANKS IN 1869.

[Illustration: An ornamental monogram of the letters "NA" enclosed

within a decorative shield-shaped frame.]

WITH SKETCHES OF ALEXANDER II. AND ABRAHAM LINCOLN, AND EMANCIPATION IN

THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA AND THE REPUBLIC OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

PREPARED BY

BREVET CAPTAIN NATHAN APPLETON

AUTHOR OF

“HARVARD COLLEGE DURING THE WAR.”

BOSTON, 1904.

Copyright, 1904

BY NATHAN APPLETON.

(_All Rights Reserved._)

Press of Murray and Emery Company Boston, Massachusetts

TO

PRINCESS J—— G——

IN PLEASANT RECOLLECTION OF SKATING AT MOSCOW. JANUARY, 1867, THIS BOOK

IS DEDICATED BY

THE AUTHOR

BOSTON, 1904.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER FIRST

PAGE

Arrival in Paris and Adieu. The Yacht Alice 9

CHAPTER SECOND

Lincoln and Emancipation 43

CHAPTER THIRD

Brussels, Berlin, Königsburg, Wilna 68

CHAPTER FOURTH

St. Petersburg. Tsar Alexander II., Gortschakoff, Cronstadt 81

CHAPTER FIFTH

Moscow. The City and Environs. Trotting in Russia 100

CHAPTER SIXTH

St. Petersburg. The Neva. Novgorod. Poland 133

CHAPTER SEVENTH

Charles Appleton Longfellow 156

CHAPTER EIGHTH

France. Last Days of the Empire. To Russia with Gen. Banks 160

CHAPTER NINTH

Alexander II. and Emancipation 184

CHAPTER TENTH

Europe and America in 1870. Demetrius Goubareff. Russia and the

United States 207

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Longfellow and Appleton _Frontispiece._

OP. PAGE

Yacht Alice, Cowes, I. W., 1866 18

Captain, Passengers and Crew of the Alice 19

Rue de la Paix, à Paris 24

Gentlemen Riders of the Newport Race 31

Troika 38

Abraham Lincoln 43

Wilna 68

Statue of Kant, Königsburg, 1866 73

Single Sleigh 74

Nevski Prospect, St. Petersburg 81

Hon. Cassius M. Clay, Minister to Russia 82

Bolshaja Morskaja (Great Sea Street) 86

Christmas Shopping in St. Petersburg 87

The Kremlin, Moscow 100

Drinking Tea 105

A Coursier 110

The Staigg Portrait 117

Rosalie 125

The Blessing of the Neva 133

The Midnight Drive 140

Skating in the Yousoupoff Garden 141

Circassian Uniform 142

Sledge Drawn by Reindeer 151

Drosky 153

Charles Appleton Longfellow 156

Hon. Nathaniel P. Banks, Representative from

Massachusetts 160

Ferdinand de Lesseps 179

Alexander II., 1866 184

Odessa, 1899 207

Port Said. Opening of the Suez Canal 225

RUSSIAN LIFE AND SOCIETY

CHAPTER FIRST.

ARRIVAL IN PARIS AND ADIEU. THE YACHT ALICE.

“Our trusty friend, our true ally

Through varied change and chance:

So fill your flashing goblets high,

I give you, vive la France.”

—_Oliver Wendell Holmes._

I sailed from New York early in October, 1866, in the French line

steamer _Ville de Paris_, Captain Surmont. Time about eleven days to

Brest. Cloudy weather, and the last four or five days no observation, so

one morning we found ourselves near the Scilly Islands, and from there

steamed over to Brest, arriving in the afternoon. I had a room with

Frank Burgess of Boston, whom I then knew but slightly, and, as we found

that we liked each other and had the same objects in view at Paris, we

went there and took rooms together at the Hotel de la Paix, since torn

down for the Place du Nouvel Opera, corner Rue de la Paix and the

Boulevard. The month I passed there until going to Russia was one of my

liveliest and pleasantest in Paris.

The voyage across the ocean was the same old story so often and often

described. There was the same queer medley of passengers as always, and

they told the same stories they always do, and passed their time in the

same old way. There was the knowing Yankee buyer, going on his hurried

autumn business tour through Europe, who gave every one to understand

that this was his forty-seventh voyage across the Atlantic, and that he

knew pretty well how to take care of himself. He had been in nearly

every steamship of every line between Europe and America, and gave

advice freely as to their relative merits. He always could tell the

exact position of the ship, in fog or shine, better than the Captain

himself, and was most active in getting up, every day after lunch, pools

on the ship’s run, after which he would rush about making his “book,”

buying and selling tickets to increase his chances of winning.

Then there was the jolly _paterfamilias_, who had been passing the last

four months at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, looking after his investments,

and was now returning, to join his family who were living in Paris, and

who would gladly welcome him and his full purse. He was always around,

and very attentive to and a great favorite with the ladies, young and

old.

There was the same group of Cubans smoking cigarettes and talking

Spanish together with wild gesticulations, but keeping aloof from the

other passengers. And, oh! the pretty French actress, returning for the

winter season in Paris at the Folies Dramatiques or the Palais Royal,

fresh from the applause and bouquets in New York, Chicago and San

Francisco. She was dark, she was petite, she had arched eyebrows and the

slightest touch of paint under her sparkling orbs. She never appeared on

deck until near dinner time and then in a lovely toilette, as if she

were just going to take a drive at the Bois. And how at the concert,

organized a few nights before sighting the coast of _la belle_ France,

she charmed all as she sang some of her opera bouffe songs.

Of course the precocious youth was aboard, going out for the fourth time

to see the Coliseum, and what wonderful information he imparted to such

listeners as he could get. When the wind was aft he assured you that the

boat was making at least fifteen knots, and that we should arrive at

Brest in time to take the eight o’clock train for Paris; then, again,

when the wind was dead ahead he consoled you with the thought that it

made the fires draw well, which was a good thing; but if it struck the

boat on either beam he could conclusively prove that the sails being

well filled the steamer was steady in her movements, which, after all,

was better than rolling about too fast. If it chanced to rain he cheered

the disconsolate passengers by stating that it would help beat down the

waves and make the sea less rough! Every day, too, he seemed to

think,—nor did he keep this sagacious thought to himself,—lightened the

ship of so much coal, and then as for the advantages of fogs or

icebergs, no possible question on the subject could puzzle him.

Pretty girls flitted here and there, or were spread out in their chairs

and looked uncomfortable. “Swells” gloomily lounged around: enthusiastic

young travellers were always on hand at everything which turned up in

the ship’s management, especially the throwing the log and taking the

observations, as if determined at the outset to lose none of their

money’s worth of sight-seeing.

A clever lady from Washington was always posed in a corner of the

saloon, a half read novel in hand, her _flacon_ and fan on either side,

and she herself happy at any time, morning, afternoon or evening, to

enter with you into a long conversation on any subject.

A French priest and a Western parson kept theology well argued as an

appetizer for your meals, while in the smoking room the poker party was

going on all through the voyage with scarcely an intermission.

The bluff old Captain was ever about with a pleasant smile and word for

all, inspiring those of whom he was the ten-day autocrat, with a feeling

of security by his own solid and comfortable appearance.

A system for passing the time on shipboard I found worked very well, and

I am only too glad to recommend it to any who choose to try it for

themselves.

Take your coffee about nine in bed in your state room propped up with

numerous pillows, then go through the operation of being shaved if the

offices of a Figaro are required, who may be one of the ship’s stewards.

After this a couple of hours or so may be passed in reading, and for

this a selection of a dozen books or so you may have had placed on the

shelf over your couch, so that you can choose any one which happens to

suit your mood, or, scratch off your thoughts on a block of paper,

always to be carried on your travels, thus taking down rambling notes

where-ever you go. Rising about half an hour before lunch time, you get

up an appetite by sniffing the sea air and chatting with those who are

about. Next comes lunch itself, an important item in the day, which with

its subsequent cigar or pipe can be made to dispose of nearly two hours.

Then approaches the toughest part of the twenty-four portions into which

day and night are subdivided, the time between lunch and dinner. A hand

at poker or _vingt-et-un_ helps it along, a conversation with some fair

one in that favorite spot behind the wheelhouse is a powerful auxiliary,

and, if nothing else turns up, a lazy novel or a siesta would annihilate

the moments until the first bell ringing gives the welcome intimation

that the time for toilette is at hand.

Dinner, with or without appetite it makes no difference for go through

the form of remaining at table you must, would next take its regular

place in the programme, and that and a cigar well over and digested, you

are ready to sit down to your evening party of whist. Than this there is

no better recreation for passing the hours after dark, and the selection

of a good set of players at an early stage of the voyage is an important

and not to be neglected duty. Is it not probable that the great

Talleyrand, when he advised the young man to learn thoroughly this king

of games at cards out of regard for his declining years, remembered with

pleasure the hours he had thus passed in his journeys by water? So the

evening goes along, the ladies retire, the lights are put out in the

saloon, and the male portion of the community is free to take possession

of the smoking room, there to sit well into the night and to recount

story after story.

It was thus we existed the ten days of our passage, making pleasant

acquaintances in that free offhand way which gives no binding claim for

future continuance. You meet, you take each other for what you are

worth, you separate, it may be to see each other again some time, it may

be never, and intimacies under such circumstances are quickly formed,

and as quickly forgotten.

Before we were well aware of it, so speedily the last days on the ocean

flew by, all the passengers being well and overflowing with good

spirits, the bright coast of France loomed up before our eyes in the

distance, the green fields could almost be scented afar off, and there

was bustle and activity in the _Ville de Paris_. Trunks were being

brought up, and people who did not in the least care for each other were

saying good by a dozen times.

Down goes the anchor with a plunge, the quai at Brest is swarming with

officials and idlers, all chattering like mad, the tug boat sweeps up

before the _douane_, we step ashore, and find ourselves in France.

GAY, GAY PARIS.

How the heart of the American beats with joy whenever he enters Paris,

that queen city of cities, which he regards as almost a second home,

feeling a genuine pride of possession in its beautiful monuments, its

long avenues, its brilliant fêtes, and all its institutions of

instruction and amusement. And cannot a probable reason why the American

takes to it so much more than to any other foreign city,—why the asphalt

of the boulevard is to him almost as dear as the flag-stones of

Broadway,—be found in the fact of the _real democracy_ of the _social

life_ in Paris and France? The government may be a despotism or a

revolution: the annoyances of bureaucracy and red tape are nowhere

greater than there; the petty details of business life amuse and vex

you, but in spite of all, the social life of the people, whether natives

or strangers, is as free as free can be, provided none of the laws of

the land are broken. You come, you go, you do this or you do that, you

can dine at one o’clock on beef and cabbage, or at seven on woodcock

with truffles; you can live in a palace or a _cinquième_; you can go to

the opera in evening dress or blouse; you can study medicine or you can

study pleasure; you can drive in a four-in-hand or in a fiacre; you can

do everything or nothing: whoever you are, or whatever your fortune may

be, no one will interfere; your eccentricities will cause little remark,

you will be unmolested, for all are too much occupied with themselves to

pay much attention to others, and you may be certain that, do your best

to astonish those about you, it will not be easy to offer them a new

sensation.

I had been there before,—this was my third voyage across the

Atlantic,—and had seen the guide-book sights of the city, and

congratulated myself heartily upon the accomplishment, for it was off my

mind and I would be spared from doing it now.

One is not likely to forget the sensations experienced during the long

drive from the railroad station to the hotel when first arriving at

Paris, especially if it be after dark, through the brilliantly lighted

streets, across the great squares, full as they always are of the gayest

hearted people in the world, with apparently nothing to do except treat

life as a continual holiday, and I went through it again with the

freshness of a first visit, as we were taken the distance which

separates the _Gare de l’Ouest_ from the Grand Hotel, at which place we

had decided to camp for the night, and leave hunting up some snug

apartment until the morrow. The clock was just striking nine as the

little omnibus came with a clatter and cracking of whip into the

spacious court-yard, and after supper and a short stroll on the

boulevard, I “turned in,” my imagination picturing in rose-colored

dreams all we would do and see.

A LETTER TO MY MOTHER.

Paris, October 22, 1866.

Dear Mamma:

My last note must, I think, have been rather unsatisfactory, and I

hasten to do amends with a longer one. The fact was that I arrived in

Paris at the Hotel just about half an hour before the French mail for

the Cunard steamer closed, and I had either to drop just one line to

announce my safe arrival or nothing at all. The voyage over was, like

all, very tedious, and we had pretty bad weather on the whole. Not

knowing where we were at length we ran into a light on the English

coast, and from there made our way down south to Brest, where I landed

and ran right up to Paris. I like the steamer better than the Cunard,

she is very fast, and is much more adapted to the comfort of a

gentleman, especially as there is a cozy little smoking room where you

could play whist in the evenings; also a barber’s shop, and the state

rooms are better arranged. I came up to Paris with Frank Burgess and

Maurice Le Ray (one of the Newport jockeys of the past summer, attaché

to the French legation at Washington, who was a passenger on the

steamer), and Burgess and I have taken some very nice rooms.

Yesterday morning Charlie Longfellow (Charles Appleton Longfellow,

late lieutenant in the 1st Mass. Cavalry, wounded at Mt. Hope Church,

Va., Nov. 27, 1863. He was the son of the poet Henry W. Longfellow,

who married my half-sister Frances, so was my half-nephew, a year and

some months younger than I), and Harry Stanfield tumbled in upon us,

as they had that very night come over from London, and they gave us

jolly accounts of the doings of the _Alice_ during the past summer.

Brother Tom (Thomas Gold Appleton) and Arthur Clark (Captain of the

_Alice_) sail for home the last of the month. Charlie likes the idea

of going off to Saint Petersburg by and by, so as to get there in the

height of the winter, which time they say is really the best to see

the place, but he wants to stay here a while to brush up his French.

So I think I shall be quartered in Paris for some little time, perhaps

a month, and pitch right into the study of French, and then start off

with him for the cold regions of Europe.

Tuesday: After writing thus much yesterday I went round to the bank

(Bowles, Drevet & Cie at that time 24 Rue de la Paix) where I found

your letter awaiting me, and I must say that considering you had only

two or three days you have managed to pick up a vast amount of

interesting items. The first Bostonian I met was Hollis Hunnewell. I

have seen my classmates (at Harvard) (Charles C.) Jackson and (Frank

L.) Higginson, and yesterday I called on the Harry Sargents. The

weather is charming now, just right for driving about, and I hope it

will continue so for a month, when we ought to expect the drizzly

rains which will drive me off. There are so many from the “Hub” here

now that Brother Tom’s last _bon mot_ is said to be “All Parisians are

Bostonians.”

Au revoir.

Nate.

THE YACHT ALICE.

The sloop yacht _Alice_ was owned by Thomas Gold Appleton. She was about

fifty feet in length and was built by Townsend at Portsmouth, R. I., in

1866. When last heard from she was a trader off the coast of Maine.

The _Alice_ left Nahant July 12, 1866, arrived at the Needles July 30th,

and Cowes Roads July 31st. It was a remarkable trip and faster than that

of any kind of vessel made across the Atlantic ocean with the then time

allowance.

Captain Arthur H. Clark was in command, and she carried Charles A.

Longfellow, the owner’s nephew, Harry Stanfield, a crew of three men and

a Chinese steward. The owner, then fifty-four years old, crossed in the

Cunarder _China_, and, joining the _Alice_ at Cowes, cruised off the

French coast and the Channel islands, see _A Cruise of the Alice_ in _A

Sheaf of Papers_, by T. G. Appleton, 1875.

One of the first business despatches sent by the cable across the

Atlantic, the _Great Eastern_ having successfully landed the cable at

Newfoundland on July 27, 1866, was the safe arrival of the _Alice_, by

C. A. Longfellow.

The owner thus addresses the beautiful yacht in his collection of poems

called _Faded Leaves_:

[Illustration:

YACHT ALICE.

]

“Away! the cloven waves unite

Behind in murmuring braids of snow,

And seething whispers of delight,

As through the glassy fields we go;

And curtseying with a grace her own

Her bows of beauty in reply,

The white-winged creature moves alone,

Swan-like between the wave and sky.

· · · · ·

Farewell, dear friend, my floating home;

A menacing finger in the sky

Bids us through summer seas to roam

No more, and from harsh winters fly.

Sleep! dreaming of the violet deep,

And think of us and happy hours,

While we through icy nights shall keep

Thoughts of the sails that once were ours.”

[Illustration:

CAPTAIN, PASSENGERS AND CREW OF THE ALICE.

]

The yacht wintered at Cowes and was brought back the next spring.

FROM BROTHER TOM IN LONDON.

Many thanks, my dear Naty, for your letter and the one enclosed. I

would have been sorry to have missed it, as it is from an old friend,

and in peculiar circumstances, and it would not have been well to have

the letter go astray. And thanks for yours, too, though only

announcing your arrival, and a sketch of your plans. You will do well

to take Charlie and Harry if they will go, and in the winter Saint

Petersburg must be fine, though after all not much beyond in cold

splendor dear old Boston. I am reading a new book on Russia, by Henry

Morley, and find much in it interesting. Today is so dark no one is

up, and I am writing alone.... Who should be here but Townsend, my

boat builder. He could not be quiet, hearing so much of the _Alice_.

Tell Charlie he has gone to Cowes. Don’t you wish you loved yachting,

and could have had the nice time we have had? It beats fancy wagons

and top boots, I assure you.

Remember me to Charlie and Harry and bid them take care and be prudent

and get into no scrapes.

Farewell and prosper, and do not leave your whiskers in the snows of

Russia.

Yr. aff. brother, T. G. Appleton.

Charing X Hotel, 25th October.

To my mother I wrote again from Paris, October 26, 1866, Friday:—

I give you a short letter now which will make two for this week,

enough certainly to satisfy the most rapacious of mothers! I have got

pretty well settled into my life here now, of which one very important

object is the study of French. I take a lesson every morning from a

very good teacher, and go to a theatre most every evening, and I think

I shall make rapid progress, in fact, as we ought to know a good deal

before starting for Russia, it is advantageous to stay here a month

and pitch into it. I have got quite a nice little French phaeton, with

which I can rattle about the town, and drive up to the Bois in the

afternoon, and the great difficulty is to find a decent horse to hire;

my own at home being so very superior my taste has been quite ruined.

I saw all the Imperial cortège out yesterday driving, but I think they

all go to Compiègne soon, so that the season won’t begin here for some

time.

General de Trobriand is here, and I handed him his commission, whereat

he was in great doubt whether to go home or no. He wants to accept the

commission of colonel of the 31st Infantry U. S. A. Let me know

anything you would like to have me get you in Paris. I can easily find

time to get it. Exchange is so different from when I was here before

(On leave of absence on account of wound during the war.) that one can

well be extravagant.

Nathan.

GENERAL DE TROBRIAND.

General de Trobriand, author of _Quatre ans de campagnes à l’armée du

Potomac_ (_Four Years in the Army of the Potomac_) 1867, Paris,

Bruxelles, (translated) whose full name is Philippe Regis Denis de

Kerodem, Baron de Trobriand, was born near Tours, France, June 4,

1816. In the United States he was known as Philippe Regis de

Trobriand. From 1849 to 1861, in New York, he was editorially

connected with first the _Revue de Nouveau Monde_, of which he was

publisher, and then the _Courrier des Etats Unis_, as associate

editor. In August, 1861, he was placed in command of the 55th New York

Regiment, U. S. V. of the Third Corps, promoted to Brigadier General

in January, 1864, and from May to June of that year had charge of the

defenses of New York City. He was brevetted Major General U. S. V.

April 9, 1865, and was in command of a Division at Lee’s surrender. In

1867, he was made colonel in the Regular army and placed in command of

the 31st Regt. U. S. Infantry, brevetted Brigadier General in the same

year, commanding the district of Dakota, and in 1869, was transferred

to the district of Montana and the colonelcy of the 13th U. S.

Infantry. Later he was ordered to Green River.

I visited him at Camp Douglas, near Salt Lake City, in October, 1870,

and had a good opportunity of observing western army life and the

institution of Mormonism. The camp was prettily placed on the slope of

a hill, with quarters comfortably arranged. Several of the officers

had their wives with them which made quite a little society. I stayed

in the General’s house and had a horse at my disposal whenever I

wanted to take a ride, and so I explored some of the picturesque and

grand scenery of the neighborhood with the snow capped mountains quite

near. To go into the city we generally took the headquarters wagon and

did the thing in style.

General de Trobriand was the father-in-law of my friend and classmate

Albert Kintzing Post, so naturally our relations were most friendly,

and I have often met him on both sides of the ocean. He was in New

Orleans in 1875, during the reconstruction period, after he retired

from service on account of age, having been stationed there for some

years.

In 1885, during the Cotton Exposition I lunched with him at his house

in New Orleans, and met him and some friends one day at the grounds,

where we strolled about, and had a picnic repast under the trees. In

1887, at Paris I saw him again. It was in the summer, and at my

suggestion he joined the “Franco-American,” known first as the

“Washington,” Club, and he enjoyed dining there at the _table d’hôte_

with agreeable companions.

The General came on to Class Day at Harvard, to hear the poem

delivered by his grandson Waldron Kintzing Post, the son of my old

classmate, when he graduated in June, 1890, to attend the “spread” and

other festivities, and then one evening we had a little family dinner

at the Somerset Club. After passing a few days at the “Masconomo,”

Manchester-by-the-Sea, with his daughter and her family, he went to

the Reunion of the Society of the Army of the Potomac, at Portland,

Maine, July 3d and 4th, where he was enthusiastically received by the

comrades of his old Corps the Third, and elected vice president of the

Society to represent the Third Corps, Army of the Potomac. At that

meeting I was elected a vice president in behalf of the Fifth Corps,

it being the custom to elect every year, in addition to the president,

vice presidents and other officers of the society, a vice president

from each army corps that was in the Army of the Potomac.

My last meeting with General de Trobriand was at the wedding of his

grand daughter Lina Beatrice Post to Hamilton Fish Webster, at the

Long Island summer home of the Posts. This was the autumn of 1891, and

a pretty wedding it was in the little church, and a breakfast later

under a large marquee. Of the grandparents of the young couple present

at the wedding, besides General de Trobriand, there were Mrs. Armand

de Macarty, grandmother of the bride, and the Hon. Hamilton Fish,

grandfather of the groom.

General de Trobriand died at the home of his daughter in Bayport, Long

Island, July 15, 1897.

TO MY MOTHER.

Hotel de la Paix, Paris,

October 31, 1866.

My dear Mamma:

I have been calling on several of our good old Boston citizens, but have

not found many of them at home. I went to the Louvre the other day, and

found that lots of new galleries had been added, with all my friends of

the French school put together, and I reveled in Watteau, Boucher, and

Fragonard. I do not do much sight-seeing, and don’t care to, but

tomorrow I am going out to Versailles with a party of ladies to finish

up the chateau. This afternoon Charlie Longfellow goes with me driving

in the Bois. Yesterday evening Charlie, Stanfield and Burgess and I went

to the “Lyrique” and saw Faust very well put upon the stage. It was the

first time I had ever seen or heard the opera, and I thought it very

fine. Charlie and I shall start off for Russia probably in the course of

a month, as we are not in any hurry and we are to find out about what

will be the best season to be there and then hit it. Charlie is studying

his French very industriously, and oddly enough he has tumbled into the

very same rooms that Erny (His brother Ernest Longfellow.) had a year

ago. I got a letter from brother Tom at London, a few days before he

sailed. He seemed in good spirits over the triumphs of the _Alice_.

Friday Morn: Yesterday I had a very good though somewhat fatiguing day

at Versailles, and I should have enjoyed the pictures very much if I

could see them by degrees; but there are so many millions that one

glance at them was all you could get. Some of those illustrating the

wars of the present emperor in the Crimea, Italy and Algeria, are very

fine. We had a young French “swell” to chaperon us, and of course saw

all the best things, such as the private apartments of the Louis’ and

Marie Antoinette. I visited with Charlie, on Wednesday, Jerome

Napoleon’s Pompeiian villa, which is now a concert room and well repays

a visit. I don’t think the Pompeiian magnates themselves had anything

quite up to it. Charlie and H. Stanfield still keep up their yachting

fever and go to Asniéres on the Seine quite near Paris, and sail in a

small yacht which some French count whom they met at Dieppe, has placed

at their disposition. The de Trobriands leave for Brest in a few days,

to pass the winter there as the General wishes quiet to finish his book

before rejoining the army.

LATER: RESOLVE IN FAVOR OF ST. PETERSBURG.

Here I am at my desk, having finished my French lessons, and having

written a long business letter, to find something to put upon paper in

reply to “No. 3.”

The Boulevard and the Rue de la Paix with the Grand Opera and the Grand

Hotel are just opposite, and below in the streets there is a continual

excitement of passing objects; vehicles and pedestrians, soldiers and

beggars, but principally Americans. There is always so much going on all

around, that our apartment is not, perhaps, the best adapted for the

quiet pursuit of literature. You see I am still in Paris, and perhaps

you wonder whether I mean to leave at all. Know then that Charlie and I

have made a vigorous resolution to pack up and be off the 25th of this

month, stopping at Brussels, Berlin, Königsberg on the Baltic, and

Wilna, to Saint Petersburg, and then Moscow, thus seeing the real winter

life of the Russians. I think it will be a plendid trip. From Moscow we

may go to Odessa, etc., but this is very doubtful, and we shall probably

return viâ Warsaw to Dresden, where we separate—I for Vienna, and he

back to Paris.

[Illustration:

RUE DE LA PAIX À PARIS

]

A REVIEW BY NAPOLEON III.

Thursday Eve: A few days ago, Charlie Jackson drove out with me to

Longchamps, where the Emperor had quite a large review of the troops

around Paris. There were, perhaps, fifteen thousand troops there, and

as it was the first thing of the kind I had seen in Europe, it was

very interesting and imposing, and brought back something of the old

military ardor. The Emperor and Prince were there, but Napoleon looked

rather shakey. He is no longer young.

I saw Mr. T. B. Curtis for a few minutes yesterday and thought he was

seeming quite well after his sickness. He told me particularly to “go

it, while” I was “young,” adding that he “had had his time.” His

advice is certainty good. At the American chapel last Sunday were

crowds and crowds of people, but very, very few whom I recognized. The

same day Robert H. Stevenson and I went to the last races of the

season, and saw a very fair steeple chase, but as it was some ways out

of Paris there were not many there.

A LETTER FROM MY MOTHER.

My mother in Boston wrote me in Paris, Nov. 11, 1866,—... “And Charlie

Longfellow is in Paris! All that is left in Boston will soon find its

way there. I had a very pleasant visit from your brother Tom last

evening, telling me of the _Alice_, and of all his doings. Ristori

(tragedienne) has reigned supreme here for two weeks, and everybody has

cried to their satisfaction. I did not dare to see her for I felt that I

should not sleep for a month after it.”

ADELAIDE RISTORI.

I first saw Adelaide Ristori, mentioned in my mother’s letter, at the

theatre at Havana, in Medea, when I was there in February, 1868, and I

met her and her daughter Bianca at a reception given at the hotel.

Later, in the summer of 1884, at Paris, I was taken to her apartment

by Mr. Henry F. Gillig, president of the American Exchange in Europe,

and saw her and her husband the Marquis Giuliano Capranica del Grillo,

just as they were preparing to leave the city for their trip to

America. I remember that the rooms were encumbered with their baggage,

which was in every stage of packing for their departure. The following

winter 1884–5, when I was living at the Vendome Hotel, Boston, I

called upon them at the Tremont House, and introduced to them Mr. C.

C. Perkins, one of our citizens most prominent in music, art,

literature, etc., who was very desirous of meeting the great

tragedienne. He chatted with her in her native language, as he had

long resided in Italy, and had written several books when there.

LA DIVA, CAFÉ NAPOLITAINE.

TO MY MOTHER FROM PARIS, NOV. 15, 1866.

Charlie dropped in yesterday just before dinner, and we decided to start

on the 24th, 25th, or 26th, for Brussels, and then have a look at

Waterloo; thence to Berlin to buy fur coats, and so to Russia. Went to

the Italian opera last night and heard “Crispino e la Camare” (“The

Cobbler and the Fairy.”) sung by dear little Patti. She has improved

much since I saw her two or three years ago in America, and quite

captivated me. I should make her acquaintance if I was to remain long,

as she prides herself on being American, and goes to Mrs. John Bigelow’s

soirées. At the Café Napolitaine later a crowd of Boston men tumbled in.

It is our favorite resort for smoking our nocturnal cigar,—George Weld,

Ned Johnson, Bob Stevenson, and others. The great talk is the winter

ocean race between three of the New York Club yachts, the _Henrietta_

(owned by James Gordon Bennett, Jr.), _Fleetwing_, and _Vesta_. (The

_Henrietta_ with her owner on board won the race.) In that case the

_Alice_ will have to be put afloat again. Well, adieu for a week, and

then my last from Paris.

Nathan.

Adelina Patti, now (1904) Baroness Cederstrom, was in Boston in 1885,

and I happened to be introduced to her early in that year when I was

living at the Vendome. She was with her second husband, Nicolini.

THE NEW YORK YACHT CLUB.

May 17, 1866, I was notified that at a meeting held that day I was

admitted a member of the New York Yacht Club. The yacht _Henrietta_,

owned by James Gordon Bennett Jr., belonged to the squadron. Bennett’s

colors were a blue diamond and a red crescent on white ribbons.

I once had the pleasure of calling upon Mr. James Gordon Bennett

Senior. It was one Sunday morning, in the spring of 1872, when I was

on a visit to America. I was strolling up Fifth Avenue with Mr.

Leonard W. Jerome. As we came to Mr. Bennett’s house on the corner of

38th street, he proposed that we should go in and pay a visit to the

old gentleman, who was then very infirm and evidently destined not

long to live. I was delighted at the opportunity of seeing him, for

although I had stayed with his son at their fine place at Washington

Heights, and often dined at the city mansion, I had never been able to

be introduced to the father, as he was quite unwell, and generally

confined to his room.

We were shown up stairs to a small study, where Mr. Bennett was seated

in a comfortable easy chair, in a loose dressing gown, with a quantity

of the daily newspapers lying around him. We sat there conversing with

him some time, and I remember his speaking of the proposed plan of

rapid transit for New York, and how he had, years before, advocated

the idea in his paper, the New York _Herald_. He spoke very strongly

of the future growth of the city. It was only a few months after I saw

him that he died.

THE FOUR-IN-HAND CLUB.

Near Mr. Bennett’s place at Washington Heights and the Hudson River

the Four-in Hand Club had a house for several years. I remember

driving there for a ball the autumn of 1870, with Colonel William Jay

and a party of ladies, and then returning through some of the

unfinished roads, nearly upsetting on the way. The Club was started,

as far as I can remember in 1866. I was elected a member January 20th

of that year; the idea of membership being any one who had a

“four-in-hand,” “spike,” or “unicorn,”—three horses, two in the pole

and one on the lead,—“tandem,” i. e. something different from the

ordinary single horse or pair hitch. I had a tandem at the time. The

president was George Griswold Gray, whom I had known at Newport. The

Club came to an end, but I cannot say what year. The Coaching or

Four-in-Hand Club of New York has taken its place.

JAMES GORDON BENNETT, JR.

My first recollection of meeting Mr. James Gordon Bennett Jr., was on

the deck of his yacht _Henrietta_, at the spring meeting of the New

York Yacht Club, June 19, 1866.

I had been the guest, on his yacht, of Commodore McVickar (W. H.

McVickar, one of the incorporators of the New York Yacht Club and its

commodore in 1866. He died in New York, Nov. 25, 1896, aged 78.) when

Mr. William C. Otis was fleet captain, and some time during the

afternoon we paid a call upon the young captain of the _Henrietta_.

This was in the harbor of New York, and a very pretty scene it was.

Later on, i. e. during the summer of 1870, on my return from Europe,

where I had often seen Mr. Bennett in Paris at the Washington Club, he

invited me to join a party on his new yacht the _Dauntless_ at New

London, and make the cruise from there to Newport, which I did.

We were a jolly party,—Lawrence Jerome, Harry Stanfield, A. W.

Knapp and others. With reference to James Gordon Bennett Jr., in a

letter from Newport to the Boston _Globe_ in August 1876, I

remarked:—“Newport certainly owes a great deal this year to the

enterprise of Mr. James Gordon Bennett, in introducing the games

of polo and la crosse, for the afternoon reunions at the polo

grounds have become one of the most delightful features of the

life here this summer, and Mr. Bennett has proved himself to be as

much at home astride of his pony, as he was not many years ago on

the deck of his yacht, when he gallantly offered his services to

the government during the civil war, (He was with the blockading

fleet in his yacht from 1861 to 1865.) or when he pluckily scudded

across the Atlantic in mid-winter for the great ocean race.”

In 1881 and 1882, I remember dining at his house, the old Brooks

greystone mansion on Bellevue Avenue, Newport, where he entertained

with generous hospitality, as also, at his New York home, Fifth Avenue

corner of 38th street. He had a fine, old fashioned family butler, who

seemed to take delight in looking after the comfort of his friends and

guests. The last time I was in the New York house was at lunch with

the Austin Corbins, who had then rented and afterwards purchased it.

This was in 1886. Austin Corbin, financier and philanthropist was

killed by being thrown from his carriage at his country place at

Newport, N. H., in June, 1896, aged 69.

In Paris too, I would occasionally meet Mr. Bennett, and he generally

made some enquiry about the Panama Canal.

POLO AND HORSE-RACING.

What I have seen both of polo and horse-racing has made me consider them

both, if not actually cruel sports for horses, at least those in which a

great deal of unnecessary hard treatment is inflicted upon the poor

animals who try to do their best. In polo they seem to be jerked about

indiscriminately, and whacked over the head and body by the polo

mallets. In running races the use of the whip and spur is often an

abomination. I have seen a horse straining his utmost and at the same

time receiving the cruel blows of the whip in a way which might

naturally discourage him from making his best efforts, but which in

addition to this, by cramping his nerves and muscles, must actually keep

him back instead of leading him on. Often, too, this is done to some

horse so far behind that he can have no chance of winning the race. I

believe horses are frequently demoralized and even made vicious from the

senseless and inhuman treatment they receive. To get the best out of a

horse you have only to encourage, not discourage him. He understands

more than we give him credit for.

My only experience as the owner of a race horse was during the spring of

1866, when I had bought a very pretty and graceful little animal, which

had the name of “Carolina Filly.” She had been secured after the war by

General Joseph J. Bartlett, who sold her to Mr. George W. Weld, from

whom I bought her. She ran under my colors, blue and silver, once at

Clyde Park, now the Country Club, but was not victorious.

RACES ON THE NEWPORT BEACH.

At 4.30 p. m. on the 30th of August, 1866, there was a flat race and

steeple chase at Newport, at which 13 horses were entered, and an

account of which appeared in the local press, as follows:—

[Illustration:

GENTLEMEN RIDERS OF THE NEWPORT RACE

]

Newport has really had another sensation, in fact has been convulsed

to its “head” centre. (Allusion to Fenianism then very rampant.) Yes,

the old town has been startled by the spectacle of no less a modern

invention than a hurdle race!

“Is Saratoga to do all the racing?” muttered the Newport Jockey Club,

“Are there not greener laurels to be gathered in other fields? We have

no track it is true, yet we can make tracks. Our horses have not

received a university education, but what of that? _We_ have. We will

show them how to surmount difficulties. We will be our own jockeys,

and risk our own gentlemanly lives. It shall be neck or nothing.”

So it was settled there should be a race, and for the past week

Fashion has talked itself eloquent over the matter of hurdles. On

Thursday the excitement culminated when Easton’s Beach, where Channing

once drew inspiration, and where since, the lesser mortals have “drawn

their slow length along” in the moist costume of the sea, found itself

transformed into a race course, and its classic sands desecrated by

the presence of hurdles!

One great charm of the affair was to be its selectness. Only you and I

and our dear five hundred friends were to know anything about it. It

was to be a _bonne bouche_ for our private eating. Yet, strange to

say, five hundred people never can keep a secret, and the little

family party turned out to be the largest concourse of bipeds and

quadrupeds that Newport has seen for many a day. Fashion glittered and

shone, respectable elderly parties fairly thrilled with excitement.

Newport rich and Newport poor, stood side by side in every species of

vehicle, from barouche to butcher’s wagon. (There were about 7000

spectators and 500 carriages.) The way in which most of the horses

shied around the hurdles, bolted and did everything but go over them,

was delectable. Yet, let not the Jockey Club be disparaged.

Considering the circumstances its gallant members covered themselves

with glory,—a few of them were additionally covered with something of

a more clinging nature. One daring rider (Nathan Appleton) landed on

his head, another (Prince Ourousoff) mingled himself with the sands of

the sea, but all lived to tell the short but moving tale, and the

winner (Baron de Mesnil of Belgium) lived to receive a silver cup from

the hands of the lady (Mrs. Paran Stevens) who had been most actively

interested in the day’s sport. Thus does beauty reward the brave. In

honor of the _fait accompli_ the Jockey Club will give a fête the

beginning of next week. (Captain Harry Russell of Narragansett Avenue

was declared winner of the second race, which was a steeple chase, the

first one having been over a flat course of beach.) Pursuant to this

announcement cards were issued by the Gentlemen Riders of the Newport

Race, inviting their friends to the Jockeys’ Ball on Monday, September

3d, 1866, at the Academy of Music.

TEN YEARS LATER. A RETROSPECT.

Speaking of horse races in a letter from Newport to the Boston _Globe_,

under date of August 26, 1876, I called to mind the events of ten years

previous:—

“We have only to look up the records of ten years ago, and we will

find that then at least, perhaps even long before, they had taken

place. Ah! It was a brilliant season, that of 1866. We were a jolly

crowd, representing the _jeunesse dorée_ of many nations. There was a

young Russian Prince, several Frenchmen,—one representative of the old

_noblesse_ and another of the Napoleonic regime,—a sturdy Belgian, and

plenty of Americans, some fresh from the excitement of the war a year

before. And we had races on the beach when many were the mishaps that

befell the riders. One of them, needless to say who, had a

hard-mouthed horse which he could not control, and so, near the

finish, rushing up among the assembled crowd of carriages he

distinguished himself by leaping clear over a pony-phaeton, in which

were two young ladies, and then depositing himself half-stunned in the

sand. The account of this may be found in the old files of the Newport

_News_ but a better souvenir of it still remains for those who took

part, in the shape of a colored print now in the Country Club in

Brookline, which was published by one of the riders, an Irish

nobleman, Viscount Southwell, from his own sketch, in which he gives a

fanciful representation of the great race for a cup presented by Mrs.

Paran Stevens, the lady who then, as now (1876) presided so graciously

over many of Newport’s hospitalities and festivities, and whose

charming villa could tell many a tale of ‘vanished summer glory.’”

THE RACE AT NEWPORT.

The colored print of the race in the Country Club, by Viscount

Southwell, represents the race as if it was on the turf instead of the

sands of the beach, as was actually the case, but this was to make it

more natural, as it was the only kind of race to which he was

accustomed. In fact racing on the beach was a new departure, and I have

heard it stated that this was the first one with “gentlemen riders”

which had ever occurred, in the Northern States at least. He brought in

on the slope of the hill leading down to the beach, the coach and

four-in-hand of Hon. August Belmont, who had at that time the most

correct equipages to be found in our country. Mr. Belmont in those days

drove occasionally “en daumont,” i.e. four horses attached to an open

barouche with _postillons_ dressed for summer in jackets, top boots and

tall white hats, as you see them in Europe.

Mr. G. G. Gray would at times bring out his open break with five horses,

three at the wheel, then two, and one on the lead, a very fanciful and

effective rig. I must not forget that at the Country Club there is also

a satin programme of the race, with the names of the horses, their

owners and riders, contributed by some other person. It makes the affair

complete, and it is a valuable relic of those old days of gayety.

In the summer of 1882, Mr. Ely Goddard had some marvellous turnouts. He

had a fancy for horses of bay and white, like those you see in the

circus, and often call “wishing horses,” and managed to drive them

four-in-hand, unicorn, three abreast, tandem, a pair, or even one alone.

It was really remarkable how he could find so many of these variegated

animals to serve his purpose.

THE WASHINGTON CLUB.

As far as I can remember, the Washington Club in Paris, to which I refer

in my recollections of James Gordon Bennett Jr., was started in the

winter of 1868 and ’69, the idea being to have it a purely American

club, on the same principles as those in the United States. I was not

one of the incorporators, but joined it shortly after it was organized,

and May 8, 1869, was elected one of the board of direction.

I hardly know what to say of the Washington Club, so many souvenirs does

it now recall. Mr. Willett, always known as “Bronnie” Willett, was the

first secretary, and I succeeded him in the first year, 1869, and

continued until 1872. Mr. W. Pembroke Fetridge and I were the two most

active persons in bringing Americans there, and having them join as

temporary or permanent members.

While I held the position of secretary I kept the records very

carefully, and one of the notes regarding membership I have now in my

scrapbook from the pen of Mr. A. J. Drexel, of the banking house of

Drexel, Harjes & Co.:—

3 Rue Scribe, Paris.

January 4, 1869

My dear Sir.

I am in receipt of the notification of my election to the “Washington

Club.”

After authorizing Mr. Bowles to propose my name, upon reflecting that

my stay here would be so short that it would be of no use to me to

join, I concluded to ask him when I saw him again, not to do so, and

therefore prefer declining to become a member, altho’ the Club has my

hearty sympathy.

Wishing, however, that one of our firm should become a member, I beg

of you to propose the name of our Mr. Eugene Winthrop in my place.

Hoping this substitution will be satisfactory to you

I remain very truly yours,

A. J. Drexel.

N. Appleton, Esq.

The first apartment the Washington Club occupied was a good suite of

rooms, well adapted to its uses at that time, belonging to Dr. Thomas W.

Evans in the Rue Auber, which he offered to the Club free of rent. They

were, however, too high up, on the third floor, and not quite large

enough, and during the summer of 1869, it was decided to take an

apartment at the corner of the old Rue de la Paix, by the opening, or

rather the beginning of the Avenue de l’Opera, diagonally across from

the Grand Hotel, the first floor over the _entresol_.

When I returned from Egypt and the opening of the Suez Canal, I wrote my

sister in Boston, December 19th, 1869, “We Americans have just got into

our new club rooms on the corner of the Boulevard, what was formerly the

Rue de la Paix (Now Place de l’Opera), and a new street cut through to

the Bourse. It is the finest situation in Paris, and we are in a most

prosperous state, and begin to wonder how we ever got on without a club

before.”

It soon became popular in the American colony, and a rendezvous for the

transient travellers.

Mr. Lorillard Spencer was the president, and Mr. J. F. Loubat the

treasurer. I have preserved the receipt of my payment of 500 francs for

membership. It is number 7, dated May 28, 1869, and signed by J. F.

Loubat, who at the present time (1904) is le Duc de Loubat, a title he

received from the Pope.

In New York, on September 28, 1873, he presented to me his book entitled

“Narrative of the Mission to Russia in 1866, of the Hon. Gustavus Vasa

Fox, Assistant Secretary of the Navy. From the Journal and Notes of J.

F. Loubat.”

Mr. Wm. Pembroke Fetridge, Mr. Alfred Lockwood, Mr. de la Chaise, Dr.

“Tom” Pratt, Mr. Sheppard, Armand Voisin, the Lorillards, George and

Louis, Elisha Riggs, John Garcia and Augustus Samanos, both Cubans,

Lloyd Phœnix, James Gordon Bennett, and others, were active members of

the Club. Indeed the membership included many noted and rich Americans,

with the Minister, Consul General, and other officials of the U. S.

Government, as honorary members.

At that time there was no restaurant, but reading and card rooms, a

billiard table and bar, and plenty of American newspapers.

The rooms extended around the corner of the Boulevard des Italiens. When

I returned to Paris about a week or ten days after the collapse of the

Commune, in May, 1871, I was one of the first to look in upon the old

club, and it was in many respects a scene of desolation.

The Versailles troops who came down the Rue Auber, found it right in

their line of shooting, as they attacked the Communists, and many were

the broken windows and glasses in the different rooms.

I picked up a lot of bullets, or found them in the walls, and, knowing

how soon they would be lost or disappear, had them neatly arranged in a

case under glass, to preserve them, an interesting relic of the Commune.

Several of us members of the club met there one afternoon, and were

endeavoring in various ways to be reasonably gay under the

circumstances, when one who was by his family partly related to France

appeared, and thought it was all wrong for us to be so light-hearted in

the day of France’s trouble. We said, on the contrary, that we thought

we ought all to make the best of the situation, and so help retrieve the

sadness of the past, and so we did.

The club still exists, and we old members have been given the privilege

of life membership, so that we can avail ourselves of its rooms whenever

we may happen to be in Paris. This adds much to the comfort of a sojourn

there, as the table d’hôte breakfast at twelve, and dinner at seven,

were as good as any to be had in Paris, while the view from the balcony

is a perpetual delight.

I have often been there since, but the club name has been changed to

that of “Le Cercle Franco-Américain,” so as to admit persons of various

nationalities.

An interesting album of portraits of the prominent members, painted by

Mr. Armand Dumaresq, was one of its attractions when I was there in

1887. Mine was very good, and under my name I had written “le Champion

de Panama.”

The autumn of 1894, part of September, all of October, and part of

November, I passed in Paris, to find out what the new Panama Canal

Company proposed to do, and also to place the bronze marker of the

Society of the Sons of the American Revolution by the grave of Lafayette

in Picpus Cemetery, Paris. While there I noticed the apartment of the

Franco-American Club was closed, and was told how it happened to be so,

but that the members could go to the “Cercle des Capucines” nearly

opposite, on the other side of the boulevard of that name. I went there

one afternoon, and sent up my card, and was cordially received by my old

friend, William Pembroke Fetridge, Lynch, Davis, and others, and

Fetridge invited me to dine with some of them which I did.

FROM MY MOTHER IN BOSTON, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1866.

“I have received this last week your nice letter of October 30. I read

it to Longfellow, and he was pleased to hear so much of Charlie. He

says, ‘Do caution the boys to guard their ears and noses in going to

Russia. They are frozen before one is aware of it, and once thoroughly

chilled you never recover from the effects.’

Monday evening: I have been to Cambridge again today. Your ‘Brother

Henry’ (Longfellow) has seen a Russian gentleman who tells him November

is too early in the season to go there.”

TO MY MOTHER FROM PARIS, NOVEMBER 21, 1866.

[Illustration:

TROIKA.

]

This is my last from Paris for some time. I tear myself from the

distractions and gayeties, from the Bois and the dance, to meet the

frantic embrace of the Russian bear. I am quite crazy about the St.

Petersburg trip, my anticipations are so high, and we long so to be off,

and every night I fall asleep dreaming of driving troikas with three

horses about the streets of St. Petersburg and Moscow, skating the

American touch on the Neva, endless flirtations with Russian Princesses

and Polish Countesses in the salons and boudoirs of St. Petersburg. All

this, too, is a _terra incognita_, and our life is not all cut and dried

for us, as in Rome or Paris. My plan is this,—to pass the winter just

where it will be agreeable, St. P., Moscow, or Vienna, or perhaps a trip

to Greece and Constantinople, with the Carnival in Venice, but

_certainly_ return to Paris in April for the Exposition, and London for

the season, and then to America early in the summer. However, if you

want me to come, if you feel nervous or unwell, don’t hesitate a moment

to write me, and I can easily and without regret turn about. On

Saturday, at five, I leave Burgess alone, much to his regret, and

Charlie and self go to Brussels, where we arrive just exactly in time

for the “revelry by night,” a peep at Waterloo, if not too cold, and

then on to Berlin to congratulate Bismarck on the state of Europe,

through Poland to Russia, a journey of a few days only. You will be

pleased to know that I have not yet lost your little package for Eliza

Carnatz, and I doubt not that it will reach her in safety. On Friday I

dine at the T. B. Curtis’s, and on Wednesday with Weld and a lot of men

at “Philippe’s.” Have you ever heard about my horses, if they are well?

I trust they will do the winter comfortably. Don’t you want me to bring

you home a nice little French “Victoria” this summer, instead of the old

family ark? (The old family carriage imported by my uncle Samuel

Appleton and after his death, in 1853, taken by my father.) As to the

Bois, I can safely say that if I had my Boston turnout here complete

there would not be a prettier one in Paris.

Thursday: I am reading now with my French teacher, Théophile Gautier’s

_Voyage en Russie_, and find it most entertaining and instructive,

particularly as he gives a _couleur de rose_ account of the winter

amusements.... I take up my pen for the third time to finish this, but

you know there is never the least opportunity of doing anything in

Paris, or even of finishing what is begun, and except my weekly letters

to you I have scarcely written at all. My groom has just been amusing

himself with packing up some of my traps, as I have one good sized trunk

to leave in Paris full of summer clothes, which I don’t think I shall

want, and odds and ends I have picked up here.

Received an invitation yesterday from the Bishop of Pennsylvania, to

confer with him on matters of importance for the church in Paris.

ADIEU TO PARIS.

Today is dull and dreary out, but except for the Bois it makes little

difference in P.

I leave my phaeton, etc., at the Bank. I am going to try to find William

Hunt, the artist, today. Well, I close and take this to the mail. Adieu

to Paris and _mes beaux jours—en route_!—Russia and the North! Love to

all.

Nate.

WILLIAM MORRIS HUNT.

While he lived I regarded William M. Hunt as the first American artist,

certainly in the line of portrait painting. I wanted for a long time to

possess one of his pictures, and I would have liked to have had him

paint my own portrait, but I never had the opportunity of doing so.

One day in 1866, just before he was to sail for Europe, I went to his

studio, and after some talk with him, he said he would let me have the

head of Lincoln, which he had painted as a study for the full length

portrait now in Faneuil Hall, for eight hundred dollars, currency. I

agreed to purchase it and the bargain was made. He told me that he

wanted to take it with him to Paris, that he might exhibit it at the

great Exhibition of 1867, and I was pleased at this, and readily acceded

to it, as I thought the portrait would have an additional interest and

value from having been there. It was understood that I should not pay

for the picture until it was delivered to me, and a bill of sale was

made out to this effect. I afterwards saw the portrait both at Mr.

Hunt’s studio at Paris, and also in the American department of the

Exhibition, where it attracted considerable attention, and I gave myself

no concern as to when I should own it.

It so happened that the painting never came into my possession before my

financial troubles in 1872, and after that, of course, I no longer

thought of having it.

After his death by drowning (He was found dead in the water.) at

Appledore, Isles of Shoals, N. H., Sept. 8, 1879, his widow, the late

Mrs. Louisa D. Hunt, was very disinclined to part with it, and so I

never pressed my claim. According to a provision in her will a large

number of his paintings and charcoal drawings were sold at public

auction and the Lincoln portrait was reserved at the sale in February,

1898, at the request of the Government. Mr. Hunt was a curious man,

brilliant, full of eccentricities, and very fascinating in certain

moods. His age was only fifty-five when he died.

Regarding the portrait I received the following note, dated May 5,

1866:—

My dear Appleton,

If you would like my portrait of President Lincoln you will please let

me know or Mr. Jere. Abbott. My price for it is $800. I should like

the privilege of taking it to England with me, and will return it to

you in a few months in case you desire it.

Yours truly,

Wm. M. Hunt,

16 Summer St.

In care of Abbott & Howard, Kilby St., Boston.

There was at the time I refer to, 1865–1866 (It was on the list at the

sale.), a beautiful landscape of the Forest of Fontainebleau I ought to

have bought, but did not. I once had in my collection of paintings one

which had belonged to my brother, T. G. A., a small picture, with a

church in the background, and in the foreground several sheaves of

wheat, and peasants returning to their houses from the field, with the

light of a setting sun. It had the touch and the glow of the master.

[Illustration:

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

]

CHAPTER SECOND

LINCOLN AND EMANCIPATION

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

“All merit comes

From braving the unequal:

All glory comes from daring to begin:

Fame loves the state

That, reckless of the sequel,

Fights long and well, whether it lose or win.”

—_Eugene F. Ware_

I have always regretted that I never had the privilege of making the

acquaintance of President Lincoln. I remember having met him one summer

at Washington during the war, as he was driving to the Soldiers’ Home,—a

few miles out of the city where he passed the hot season,—in an open

carriage with an escort of cavalry, which was a rare sight for a

President of the United States, until the requirements of war and the

treasonable elements which pervaded society in Washington seemed to make

such a precaution advisable. This was civil war with its unseen dangers

in the nation’s capital. I can just remember his sad face, which

appeared full of the responsibilities of the situation, as he drove

along.

LINCOLN AND EMANCIPATION.

The antislavery movement in the United States, began in the mountains of

the South by Benjamin Lundy, of Wheeling, West Virginia. He published a

paper called “The Genius of Universal Emancipation,” first at Mount

Pleasant, Ohio, afterwards at Jonesville, East Tennessee, and in 1824,

he removed it to Baltimore, Md.

In 1825, Miss Frances Wright, a youthful and enthusiastic

philanthropist, established ten miles east of Memphis, Tenn., a manual

training school, in which each negro was to be freed as soon as he

proved himself capable of self support. She was a friend of Lafayette,

who was keenly interested in the plan, but it failed, and she took her

slaves to Hayti, where she settled them on land granted by the Haitian

government, freed them, and left them there.

All this was before the organization of the New England Antislavery

Society, which was formed in 1832, by William Lloyd Garrison, returning

from Baltimore where he had been associated with Lundy.

On December 6, 1847, Abraham Lincoln took his seat in the Thirtieth

Congress as a member from the state of Illinois. He was thirty-eight

years of age, and six feet four inches in height. His character and

principles are thus briefly and truthfully described by J. G. Holland,

in reviewing his public career:—

“He introduced them to a new national life. He has given them a

statesman without a statesman’s craftiness, a politician without a

politician’s meannesses, a great man without a great man’s vices, a

philanthropist without a philanthropist’s impracticable dreams, a

Christian without pretensions, a ruler without the pride of place and

power, an ambitious man without selfishness, and a successful man

without vanity.”

His position in the Thirtieth Congress on all the principal points at

issue were of the Whig party, and in the second session he began his

work for the abolishment of slavery in the District of Columbia in which

the national capital is situated, by introducing on the 16th of January,

1849, a measure which he intended as a substitute for a resolution

introduced by Mr. Gott of New York, instructing the Committee of the

District of Columbia to report a bill prohibiting the slave trade in the

District. Mr. Lincoln’s substitute provided that no person not within

the District, and no person thereafter born within the District should

be held to slavery within the District, or held to slavery without its

limits, while it provided that those holding slaves in the slave states

might bring them in and take them out again when visiting the District

on public business. It also provided for the emancipation of all the

slaves legally held within the District, at the will of their masters,

who could claim their full value at the hands of the Government, and

that the act itself should be subject to the approval of the voters of

the District. It had also a proviso to restore to their owners all

fugitive slaves escaping into the District.

Mr. Lincoln regarded slavery as property under the Constitution. Legally

he believed slavery to be right, morally he believed it to be wrong.

On the presentation of this bill Mr. Lincoln had a considerable number

of influential supporters in the District, but they subsequently

withdrew, and the subject was given up, to be revived again, under

circumstances impossible to be foretold, thirteen years after.

Speaking in 1859, on the slave power, he said:—“Broken by it, I, too,

may be, bow to it I never will. The probability that we may fail in the

struggle, ought not to deter us from the support of a cause which I deem

to be just, and it shall not deter me. If ever I feel the soul within me

elevate and expand to those dimensions not wholly unworthy of its

Almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my country,

deserted by all the world besides, and I, standing up boldly and alone,

and hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors. Here, without

contemplating consequences, before high Heaven, and in the face of the

world, I swear eternal fidelity to the just cause, as I deem it, of the

land of my life, my liberty, and my love.”

On March 4th, 1861, Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated President of the United

States, and several of the slaveholding states rebelled against the

authority of the National Government, passed ordinances of secession,

and with other states joined to them attempted to gain possession of the

national capital, thereby bringing on the great war of 1861, which

lasted four years, and ended in the preservation of the Union and the

re-establishment of the national authority over every state and

territory.

In the effort to reclaim the recalcitrant states and restore peace to

the country, every expedient was used, and when, by proclamation of

President Lincoln, Congress assembled in extra session on the Fourth of

July, 1861, Mr. Trumbull of Illinois introduced a bill in the Senate to

emancipate all the slaves in the rebel states.

At that time one-eighth of the whole population of the United States

were colored slaves, located in the southern portion. They had been held

in slavery two hundred and fifty years, having originally, and as

required thereafter, been brought to this country in slave ships

principally from the coast of Africa and the brisk and remunerative

traffic still continued. The extra session closed on August 6, 1861,

having lasted but little more than a month. In the meantime Major

General John C. Fremont having been placed in command of the Department

of the West, with headquarters at St. Louis, on the 25th of July, 1861,

contemplating the restoration of order in Missouri, and the reclaiming

of the control of the Mississippi River, proclaimed martial law,

declared the property of all those who should take up arms against the

United States confiscated to the public use, and their slaves, if they

had any, were declared free men. In other words, he proclaimed freedom

to the slaves of rebels, but, fearing that this would alarm Unionists in

the South, Mr. Lincoln desired General Fremont, as of his own motion, so

to modify his proclamation as to make this freedom apply only to such

slaves as were engaged in the rebel service.

General Fremont had taken this step without consultation or notice. The

President wished him to conform to a confiscation act passed by

Congress, but Fremont wished the President to order the change desired,

as, if he should do it of his own motion, it would imply that he thought

himself wrong, stating the difficulties under which he labored, with the

communication with the government so difficult and the development of

perplexing events so rapid in the department under his command. This the

President did in a despatch under date of September 11, 1861, in these

words:—

“It is therefore ordered, that the said clause of said proclamation be

so modified, held and construed, as to conform to, and not to

transcend the provisions on the same subject contained in the Act of

Congress entitled ‘An Act to Confiscate Property’ ... approved August

6, 1861, and that such act be published at length with this order.”

Before this order had been received, or on the day following its date,

General Fremont, though acquainted with the President’s wishes,

manumitted two slaves of Thomas L. Snead of St. Louis, in accordance

with the terms of his proclamation.

Lincoln believed that the time had not come for the liberating the

slaves of rebels by proclamation, if he had, the Act of Congress would

not have stood in the way. The Act was the embodiment of his own policy

at that time. He had undertaken to preserve the Union and the rights of

all the states. A record was to be kept of the slaves of loyal masters,

and for their repayment for them Congress would provide. Slavery could

only be interfered with as a military necessity, an essential means of

saving the Union. He was assailed on the one side for being too slow,

and on the other for being too precipitate.

In March, 1862, the following resolution recommended by President

Lincoln passed both houses of Congress, only a few members of the border

states voting for it:—

“Resolved, That the United States ought to coöperate with any state

which may gradually adopt abolishment of slavery, giving to such state

pecuniary aid, to be used by such state in its discretion, to

compensate for inconveniences, public and private, produced by such

change of system.”

Before the close of the session the President invited the senators and

representatives of the slaveholding states not in rebellion, to a

conference at the White House, at which he admonished them that if they

had all voted for the resolution the war would then have been

substantially ended.

“If the war,” said he, “continues long, as it must if the object be not

sooner attained (i. e. the restoration of the Union without disturbance

of the institution of slavery) the institution in your states will be

extinguished by mere friction and abrasion—by the mere incidents of the

war. It will be gone, and you will have nothing in lieu of it. Much of

its value is gone already. How much better for you and for your people

to take the step which at once shortens the war, and secures substantial

compensation for that which is sure to be wholly lost in any other

event.... I do not speak of emancipation at once, but of a decision at

once, to emancipate gradually. Room in South America for colonization

can be obtained cheaply, and in abundance, and when numbers shall be

large enough to be company and encouragement for one another, the freed

people will not be so reluctant to go.”

The time for the voluntary abolishment of the slave system was at any

date previous to 1900.

In this session slavery was abolished in the District of Columbia,

completing the work begun in 1849, and recognizing the two principles of

colonization and compensation. This session also passed the confiscation

act by which the traitor to the general government forfeited his slaves,

as well as any other property, and Congress decided in advance, that the

slaves thus confiscated and held by the government should be declared

free.

Then the public at the north, these measures having been enacted,

demanded a sweeping proclamation of emancipation. The antislavery

element clamored for swifter and more radical recognition, aroused and

sustained by the eloquence of the spoken and written word.

These were the clarion notes of Whittier’s “Voices of Freedom”:—

“If we have whispered truth

Whisper no longer:

Speak as the tempest does,

Sterner and stronger.

Still be the tones of truth

Louder and firmer:

Startling the haughty South

With the deep murmur.”

To which the President made reply:—

“What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it

helps to save this Union, and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not

believe it could help to save the Union.... I intend no modification of

my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.”

He understood that his oath of office stood in the way of the present

accomplishment of that wish, but that for the preservation of the

Constitution and the Union measures otherwise unconstitutional might

become lawful. That to preserve slavery he could not permit the wreck of

government, country and constitution all together. He objected to

General Fremont’s order of emancipation because he did not then consider

it a necessity. He objected to the arming of the blacks, as suggested by

the Secretary of War, Simon Cameron, for the same reason; also to an

attempt by General David A. Hunter for a military emancipation,

believing as he did in compensated emancipation. But the border states,

toward whom he had fulfilled his whole duty, turned a deaf ear to his

expostulations, and by this attitude relieved him of further

responsibility toward them.

COLONIZATION.

Congress placed at the President’s disposal a sum of money to be used

for experiments with the colonization of the blacks, his choice of

location being the Spanish American republics of Central and South

America. In August, 1862, he invited a representative company of negroes

to visit the White House and address him on the subject; the President

asserting his conviction that both the whites and negroes would suffer

by living in association with each other. He offered them the benefit of

the fund intrusted to him for the purposes of colonization. But the

Spanish American republics protested against black colonies in their

midst. Liberia and Hayti only would receive them, and the blacks were

not disposed to emigrate to those countries, and so that project faded

as all such projects have failed in relation to sending the colored

population out of the country. The President’s plan was one of

benevolent solicitude for a race which he hoped to make self-reliant and

independent.

And it came to pass, that in the midsummer of 1862, President Lincoln

called a meeting of his Cabinet and laid before them a draft of a

proclamation of emancipation, which involved the freedom of all human

beings held in slavery in the United States, amounting to four millions

then living, and affecting untold millions then unborn, and

revolutionizing the social status of more than a third part of the

nation, but the Secretary of State, William H. Seward, while approving

of the proclamation, opposed its issue at that time, immediately after

so many reverses, and advised its postponement until it should have some

military success to support it, that it should not have the appearance

of an appeal for help. So the proclamation waited until the invasion of

Maryland brought on the battle of Antietam resulting in the victory won

by McClellan, when Mr. Lincoln brought forward his second draft of the

instrument,—even then a preliminary proclamation,—which was issued on

the 22d of September, 1862, the battle having been fought on the 17th;

Mr. Lincoln being reported as saying that he made a resolve that when

McClellan should drive Lee over the river he would send the proclamation

after him.

This proclamation declared free the slaves of those states, and those

sections of states, which should be in rebellion on the 1st of January,

1863, thus affording an opportunity for all rebel states which wished to

preserve their ownership of slaves, to do so by returning to their

allegiance to the Federal Government.

September 24, 1862, the President issued a proclamation suspending the

writ of _habeas corpus_, as the ordinary processes of law were not

sufficient to restrain disloyal persons from hindering the execution of

a draft of militia, which had been ordered, and from giving aid and

comfort to the insurrection. This suspension lasted for two months, or

until the 22d of November, 1862, and persons held in military custody

were released on parole.

On the 1st of January, 1863, the final proclamation of emancipation was

issued. It was as follows:—

PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION.

Whereas, on the twenty-second of September, in the year of our Lord

one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by

the President of the United States, containing, among other things,

the following, to wit:

“That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one

thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves

within any state, or designated part of a state, the people whereof

shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then,

thenceforward and forever free, and the executive government of the

United States, including the military and naval authority thereof,

will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do

no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts

they may make for their actual freedom. That the Executive will, on

the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the

states and parts of states, if any, in which the people thereof

respectively shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and

the fact that any state or the people thereof shall on that day be in

good faith represented in the Congress of the United States by members

chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters

of such state shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong

countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such

state, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the

United States.”

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by

virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and

Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against

the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and

necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this

first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight

hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do,

publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the

day first above mentioned, order and designate, as the states and

parts of states wherein the people thereof respectively are this day

in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard,

Plaquemine, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension,

Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Marie, St. Martin and Orleans,

including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida,

Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the

forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the

counties of Berkely, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York,

Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and

Portsmouth, and which excepted parts are for the present left

precisely as if this proclamation were not issued).

And, by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order

and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated

states and parts of states, are, and henceforward shall be free, and

that the Executive Government of the United States, including the

military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain

the freedom of said persons.

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free, to abstain

from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence, and I recommend

to them that in all cases, when allowed, they labor faithfully for

reasonable wages.

And I further declare and make known that such persons of suitable

condition will be received into the armed service of the United States

to garrison forts, positions, stations and other places, and to man

vessels of all sorts in said service. And upon this act, sincerely

believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon

military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and

the gracious favor of Almighty God.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my name, and caused the seal

of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year

of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three and of the

[L. S.] Independence of the United States the

eighty-seventh,

Abraham Lincoln.

By the President.

William H. Seward, _Secretary of State_.

In the cabinet meeting to which the preliminary proclamation was

submitted, by request of Mr. Seward the words “and maintain” were

inserted after “recognize” in the third paragraph of that document in

the second paragraph of the final proclamation, the President in his

wisdom, having omitted the words, as it was not his way to promise more

than he was sure he could perform, and he was not prepared to say that

he thought he was able to maintain this. Thus the story is told on the

best authority.

Another paragraph is said to have been written by the Secretary of the

Treasury, Salmon P. Chase, who had prepared a proclamation from which

the President only selected the sentence beginning “And upon this Act,”

and ending with “Almighty God,” with the exception of the word

“sincerely” and the phrase “upon military necessity” which are the

President’s own. It is said that Mr. Lincoln voluntarily revealed the

authorship of the words attributed to Seward and Chase.

SLAVES STILL HELD IN LOYAL STATES.

By this proclamation of emancipation the loyal slave states were allowed

to retain the institution of slavery, which was secured to them by the

Constitution, and in order to reach them certain articles of amendment

to the Constitution of the United States must be acted upon by the

legislatures of the several states, three-fourths of the number of which

would make the articles valid. No servile insurrection or tendency to

violence marked the execution of the provisions of the proclamation

relative to the arming of the negroes.

At the session of Congress beginning in December, 1863, the Fugitive

Slave Law was repealed.

At the national Republican convention which met at Baltimore, June 8,

1864, and nominated Lincoln for re-election, one of the resolutions

advocated a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery. Another

declared that the government owed protection to all its soldiers,

without distinction of color, and at the session of congress which

opened the following December, an amendment to the Constitution was

passed abolishing slavery in all the states. It needed now to be adopted

by the vote of the states, and the necessity was pressing, for in order

to place in their hands a weapon of self-defence against re-enslavement

the negroes must be given the right to vote.

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT.

Article XIV. Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United

States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the

United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall

make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or

immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state

deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process

of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal

protection of the laws.

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several

states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole

number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when

the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for

president and vice-president of the United States, representatives in

Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the

members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male

inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens

of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation

in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall

be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens

shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of

age in such state.