Barbers’ shops--Place-hunting--The Navy Yard--Dinner at Lord
Lyons’--Estimate of Washington among his countrymen--Washington’s
house and tomb--The Southern Commissioners--Dinner with the
Southern Commissioners--Feeling towards England among the
Southerners--Animosity between North and South.
_March 30th._--Descended into the barber’s shop off the hall of
the hotel; all the operators, men of colour, mostly mulattoes,
or yellow lads, good-looking, dressed in clean white jackets and
aprons, were smart, quick, and attentive. Some seven or eight
shaving chairs were occupied by gentlemen intent on early morning
calls. Shaving is carried in all its accessories to a high degree
of publicity, if not of perfection, in America; and as the poorest,
or as I may call them without offence, the lowest orders in England
have their easy shaving for a penny, so the highest, if there be
any in America, submit themselves in public to the inexpensive
operations of the negro barber. It must be admitted that the
chairs are easy and well-arranged, the fingers nimble, sure, and
light; but the affectation of French names, and the corruption of
foreign languages, in which the hairdressers and barbers delight,
are exceedingly amusing. On my way down a small street near the
Capitol, I observed in a shop window, “Rowland’s make easier
paste,” which I attribute to an imperfect view of the etymology
of the great “Macassar;” on another occasion, I was asked to try
Somebody’s “Curious Elison,” which I am afraid was an attempt to
adapt to a shaving paste, an address not at all suited to profane
uses. It appears that the trade of barber is almost the birthright
of the free negro or coloured man in the United States. There is a
striking exemplification of natural equality in the use of brushes,
and the senator flops down in the seat, and has his noble nose
seized by the same fingers which the moment before were occupied by
the person and chin of an unmistakeable rowdy.
In the midst of the divine calm produced by hard hand rubbing of
my head, I was aroused by a stout gentleman who sat in a chair
directly opposite. Through the door which opened into the hall
of the hotel, one could see the great crowd passing to and fro,
thronging the passage as though it had been the entrance to the
Forum, or the “Salle de pas perdus.” I had observed my friend’s eye
gazing fixedly through the opening on the outer world. Suddenly,
with his face half-covered with lather, and a bib tucked under
his chin, he got up from his seat exclaiming, “Senator! Senator!
hallo!” and made a dive into the passage--whether he received a
stern rebuke, or became aware of his impropriety, I know not, but
in an instant he came back again, and submitted quietly, till the
work of the barber was completed.
The great employment of four-fifths of the people at Willard’s at
present seems to be to hunt senators and congressmen through the
lobbies. Every man is heavy with documents--those which he cannot
carry in his pockets and hat, occupy his hands, or are thrust
under his arms. In the hall are advertisements announcing that
certificates, and letters of testimonial, and such documents, are
printed with expedition and neatness. From paper collars, and
cards of address to carriages, and new suites of clothes, and long
hotel bills, nothing is left untried or uninvigorated. The whole
city is placarded with announcements of facilities for assaulting
the powers that be, among which must not be forgotten the claims
of the “excelsior card-writer,” at Willard’s, who prepares names,
addresses, styles, and titles in superior penmanship. The men who
have got places, having been elected by the people, must submit
to the people, who think they have established a claim on them by
their favours. The majority confer power, but they seem to forget
that it is only the minority who can enjoy the first fruits of
success. It is as if the whole constituency of Marylebone insisted
on getting some office under the Crown the moment a member was
returned to Parliament. There are men at Willard’s who have come
literally thousands of miles to seek for places which can only be
theirs for four years, and who with true American facility have
abandoned the calling and pursuits of a lifetime for this doubtful
canvas; and I was told of one gentleman, who having been informed
that he could not get a judgeship, condescended to seek a place in
the Post Office, and finally applied to Mr. Chase to be appointed
keeper of a “lighthouse,” he was not particular where. In the
forenoon I drove to the Washington Navy Yard, in company with
Lieutenant Nelson and two friends. It is about two miles outside
the city, situated on a fork of land projecting between a creek and
the Potomac river, which is here three-quarters of a mile broad. If
the French had a Navy Yard at Paris it could scarcely be contended
that English, Russians, or Austrians would not have been justified
in destroying it in case they got possession of the city by force
of arms, after a pitched battle fought outside its gates. I confess
I would not give much for Deptford and Woolwich if an American
fleet succeeded in forcing its way up the Thames; but our American
cousins,--a little more than kin and less than kind, who speak with
pride of Paul Jones and of their exploits on the Lakes,--affect
to regard the burning of the Washington Navy Yard by us, in the
last war, as an unpardonable outrage on the law of nations, and
an atrocious exercise of power. For all the good it did, for my
own part, I think it were as well had it never happened, but no
jurisconsult will for a moment deny that it was a legitimate, even
if extreme, exercise of a belligerent right in the case of an
enemy who did not seek terms from the conqueror; and who, after
battle lost, fled and abandoned the property of their state,
which might be useful to them in war, to the power of the victor.
Notwithstanding all the unreasonableness of the American people in
reference to their relations with foreign powers, it is deplorable
such scenes should ever have been enacted between members of the
human family so closely allied by all that shall make them of the
same household.
The Navy Yard is surrounded by high brick walls; in the gateway
stood two sentries in dark blue tunics, yellow facings, with
eagle buttons, brightly polished arms, and white Berlin gloves,
wearing a cap something like a French kepi, all very clean and
creditable. Inside are some few trophies of guns taken from us
at York Town, and from the Mexicans in the land of Cortez. The
interior inclosure is surrounded by red brick houses, and stores
and magazines, picked out with white stone; and two or three green
grass-plots, fenced in by pillars and chains and bordered by
trees, give an air of agreeable freshness to the place. Close to
the river are the workshops: of course there is smoke and noise
of steam and machinery. In a modest office, surrounded by books,
papers, drawings, and models, as well as by shell and shot and
racks of arms of different descriptions, we found Capt. Dahlgren,
the acting superintendent of the yard, and the inventor of the
famous gun which bears his name, and is the favourite armament of
the American navy. By our own sailors they are irreverently termed
“soda-water bottles,” owing to their shape. Capt. Dahlgren contends
that guns capable of throwing the heaviest shot may be constructed
of cast-iron, carefully prepared and moulded so that the greatest
thickness of metal may be placed at the points of resistance, at
the base of the gun, the muzzle and forward portions being of very
moderate thickness.
All inventors, or even adapters of systems, must be earnest
self-reliant persons, full of confidence, and, above all,
impressive, or they will make little way in the conservative,
_status-quo_-loving world. Captain Dahlgren has certainly most
of these characteristics, but he has to fight with his navy
department, with the army, with boards and with commissioners,--in
fact, with all sorts of obstructors. When I was going over the
yard, he deplored the parsimony of the department, which refused to
yield to his urgent entreaties for additional furnaces to cast guns.
No large guns are cast at Washington. The foundries are only
capable of turning out brass field-pieces and boat-guns. Capt.
Dahlgren obligingly got one of the latter out to practice for us--a
12-pounder howitzer, which can be carried in a boat, run on land
on its carriage, which is provided with wheels, and is so light
that the gun can be drawn readily about by the crew. He made some
good practice with shrapnel at a target 1200 yards distant, firing
so rapidly as to keep three shells in the air at the same time.
Compared with our establishments, this dockyard is a mere toy, and
but few hands are employed in it. One steam sloop, the “Pawnee,”
was under the shears, nearly ready for sea: the frame of another
was under the building-shed. There are no facilities for making
iron ships, or putting on plate-armour here. Everything was shown
to us with the utmost frankness. The fuse of the Dahlgren shell is
constructed on the _vis inertiæ_ principle, and is not unlike that
of the Armstrong.
On returning to the hotel, I found a magnificent bouquet of
flowers, with a card attached to them, with Mrs. Lincoln’s
compliments, and another card announcing that she had a “reception”
at 3 o’clock. It was rather late before I could get to the White
House, and there were only two or three ladies in the drawing-room
when I arrived. I was informed afterwards that the attendance was
very scanty. The Washington ladies have not yet made up their minds
that Mrs. Lincoln is the fashion. They miss their Southern friends,
and constantly draw comparisons between them and the vulgar Yankee
women and men who are now in power. I do not know enough to say
whether the affectation of superiority be justified; but assuredly
if New York be Yankee, there is nothing in which it does not far
surpass this preposterous capital. The impression of homeliness
produced by Mrs. Lincoln on first sight, is not diminished by
closer acquaintance. Few women not to the manner born there are,
whose heads would not be disordered, and circulation disturbed,
by a rapid transition, almost instantaneous, from a condition of
obscurity in a country town to be mistress of the White House. Her
smiles and her frowns become a matter of consequence to the whole
American world. As the wife of the country lawyer, or even of the
congress man, her movements were of no consequence. The journals
of Springfield would not have wasted a line upon them. Now, if
she but drive down Pennsylvania Avenue, the electric wire thrills
the news to every hamlet in the Union which has a newspaper; and
fortunate is the correspondent who, in a special despatch, can give
authentic particulars of her destination and of her dress. The lady
is surrounded by flatterers and intriguers, seeking for influence
or such places as she can give. As Selden says, “Those who wish to
set a house on fire begin with the thatch.”
_March 31st, Easter Sunday._--I dined with Lord Lyons and the
members of the Legation; the only stranger present being Senator
Sumner. Politics were of course eschewed, for Mr. Sumner is
Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate, and
Lord Lyons is a very discreet Minister; but still there crept in
a word of Pickens and Sumter, and that was all. Mr. Fox, formerly
of the United States’ Navy, and since that a master of a steamer
in the commercial marine, who is related to Mr. Blair, has been
sent on some mission to Fort Sumter, and has been allowed to
visit Major Anderson by the authorities at Charleston; but it is
not known what was the object of his mission. Everywhere there
is Secession resignation, in a military sense of the word. The
Southern Commissioners declare they will soon retire to Montgomery,
and that any attempt to reinforce or supply the forts will be a
_casus belli_. There is the utmost anxiety to know what Virginia
will do. General Scott belongs to the State, and it is feared he
may be shaken if the State goes out. Already the authorities of
Richmond have intimated they will not allow the foundry to furnish
guns to the seaboard forts, such as Munroe and Norfolk in Virginia.
This concession of an autonomy is really a recognition of States’
Rights. For if a State can vote itself in or out of the Union, why
can it not make war or peace, and accept or refuse the Federal
Government? In fact, the Federal system is radically defective
against internal convulsion, however excellent it is or may be for
purposes of external polity. I walked home with Mr. Sumner to his
rooms, and heard some of his views, which were not so sanguine as
those of Mr. Seward, and I thought I detected a desire to let the
Southern States go out with their slavery if they so desired it.
Mr. Chase, by the way, expressed sentiments of the same kind more
decidedly the other day.
_April 1st._--On Easter Monday, after breakfast with Mr. Olmsted,
I drove over to visit Senator Douglas. Originally engaged in
some mechanical avocation, by his ability and eloquence he has
raised himself to the highest position in the State short of the
Presidency, which might have been his but for the extraordinary
success of his opponent in a fortuitous suffrage scramble. He is
called the Little Giant, being _modo bipedali staturâ_, but his
head entitles him to some recognition of intellectual height. His
sketch of the causes which have led to the present disruption of
parties, and the hazard of civil war, was most vivid and able;
and for more than an hour he spoke with a vigour of thought and
terseness of phrase which, even on such dreary and uninviting
themes as squatter sovereignty and the Kansas-Nebraska question,
interested a foreigner in the man and the subject. Although his
sympathies seemed to go with the South on the question of slavery
and territorial extension, he condemned altogether the attempt to
destroy the Union.
_April 2nd._--The following day I started early, and performed my
pilgrimage to “the shrine of St. Washington,” at Mount Vernon,
as a foreigner on board called the place. Mr. Bancroft has in
his possession a letter of the General’s mother, in which she
expresses her gratification at his leaving the British army in
a manner which implies that he had been either extravagant, in
his expenses or wild in his manner of living. But if he had any
human frailties in after life, they neither offended the morality
of his age, or shocked the susceptibility of his countrymen; and
from the time that the much maligned and unfortunate Braddock gave
scope to his ability, down to his retirement into private life,
after a career of singular trials and extraordinary successes,
his character acquired each day greater altitude, strength, and
lustre. Had his work failed, had the Republic broken up into small
anarchical states, we should hear now little of Washington. But the
principles of liberty founded in the original Constitution of the
colonies themselves, and in no degree derived from or dependent
on the revolution, combined with the sufferings of the Old and
the bounty of nature in the New World to carry to an unprecedented
degree the material prosperity, which Americans have mistaken for
good government, and the physical comforts which have made some
States in the Union the nearest approach to Utopia. The Federal
Government hitherto “let the people alone,” and they went on their
way singing and praising their Washington as the author of so much
greatness and happiness. To doubt his superiority to any man of
woman born, is to insult the American people. They are not content
with his being great--or even greater than the great: he must be
greatest of all;--“first in peace, and first in war.” The rest of
the world cannot find fault with the assertion, that he is “first
in the hearts of his countrymen.” But he was not possessed of the
highest military qualities, if we are to judge from most of the
regular actions, in which the British had the best of it; and the
final blow, when Cornwallis surrendered at York Town, was struck
by the arm of France, by Rochambeau and the French fleet, rather
than by Washington and his Americans. He had all the qualities for
the work for which he was designed, and is fairly entitled to the
position his countrymen have given him as the immortal czar of the
United States. His pictures are visible everywhere--in the humblest
inn, in the Minister’s bureau, in the millionaire’s gallery. There
are far more engravings of Washington in America than there are of
Napoleon in France, and that is saying a good deal.
What have we here? The steamer, which has been paddling down the
gentle current of the Potomac, here a mile and more in breadth,
banked in by forest, through which can be seen homesteads
and white farm-houses, in the midst of large clearings and
corn-fields--has moved in towards a high bluff, covered with
trees, on the summit of which is visible the trace of some sort
of building--a ruined summer-house, rustic temple--whatever it
may be; and the bell on deck begins to toll solemnly, and some
of the pilgrims uncover their heads for a moment. The boat stops
at a rotten, tumble-down little pier, which leads to a waste of
mud, and a path rudely cut through the wilderness of briars on
the hill-side. The pilgrims, of whom there are some thirty or
forty, of both sexes, mostly belonging to the lower classes of
citizens, and comprising a few foreigners like myself, proceed to
climb this steep, which seemed in a state of nature covered with
primæval forest, and tangled weeds and briars, till the plateau,
on which stands the house of Washington and the domestic offices
around it, is reached. It is an oblong wooden house, of two stories
in height, with a colonnade towards the river face, and a small
balcony on the top and on the level of the roof, over which rises
a little paltry gazebo. There are two windows, a glass door at
one end of the oblong, and a wooden alcove extending towards the
slave quarters, which are very small sentry-box huts, that have
been recently painted, and stand at right angles to the end of the
house, with dog-houses and poultry-hutches attached to them. There
is no attempt at neatness or order about the place; though the
exterior of the house is undergoing repair, the grass is unkempt,
the shrubs untrimmed,--neglect, squalor, and chicken feathers
have marked the lawn for their own. The house is in keeping, and
threatens to fall to ruin. I entered the door, and found myself
in a small hall, stained with tobacco juice. An iron railing ran
across the entrance to the stairs. Here stood a man at a gate,
who presented a book to the visitors, and pointed out the notice
therein, that “no person is permitted to inscribe his name in this
book who does not contribute to the Washington Fund, and that any
name put down without money would be erased.” Notwithstanding the
warning, some patriots succeeded in recording their names without
any pecuniary mulct, and others did so at a most reasonable rate.
When I had contributed in a manner which must have represented an
immense amount of Washingtoniolatry, estimated by the standard of
the day, I was informed I could not go up-stairs as the rooms above
were closed to the public, and thus the most interesting portion of
the house was shut from the strangers. The lower rooms presented
nothing worthy of notice--some lumbering, dusty, decayed furniture;
a broken harpsichord, dust, cobwebs--no remnant of the man himself.
But over the door of one room hung the key of the Bastille.[1]
The gardens, too, were tabooed; but through the gate I could see
a wilderness of neglected trees and shrubs, not unmingled with a
suspicion of a present kitchen-ground. Let us pass to the Tomb,
which is some distance from the house, beneath the shade of some
fine trees. It is a plain brick mausoleum, with a pointed arch,
barred by an iron grating, through which the light penetrates a
chamber or small room containing two sarcophagi of stone. Over the
arch, on a slab let into the brick, are the words: “Within this
enclosure rest the remains of Gen. George Washington.” The fallen
leaves which had drifted into the chamber rested thickly on the
floor, and were piled up on the sarcophagi, and it was difficult to
determine which was the hero’s grave without the aid of an expert,
but there was neither guide nor guardian on the spot. Some four or
five gravestones, of various members of the family, stand in the
ground outside the little mausoleum. The place was most depressing.
One felt angry with a people whose lip service was accompanied by
so little of actual respect. The owner of this property, inherited
from the “Pater Patriæ,” has been abused in good set terms because
he asked its value from the country which has been so very mindful
of the services of his ancestor, and which is now erecting by slow
stages the overgrown Cleopatra’s needle that is to be a Washington
monument when it is finished. Mr. Everett has been lecturing, the
Ladies’ Mount Vernon Association has been working, and every one
has been adjuring everybody else to give liberally; but the result
so lately achieved is by no means worthy of the object. Perhaps
the Americans think it is enough to say--“_Si monumentum quæris,
circumspice_.” But, at all events, there is a St. Paul’s round
those words.
On the return of the steamer I visited Fort Washington, which is
situated on the left bank of the Potomac. I found everything in a
state of neglect--gun carriages rotten, shot piles rusty, furnaces
tumbling to pieces. The place might be made strong enough on the
river front, but the rear is weak, though there is low marshy land
at the back. A company of regulars were on duty. The sentries took
no precautions against surprise. Twenty determined men, armed
with revolvers, could have taken the whole work; and, for all the
authorities knew, we might have had that number of Virginians and
the famous Ben McCullough himself on board. Afterwards, when I
ventured to make a remark to General Scott as to the carelessness
of the garrison, he said: “A few weeks ago it might have been
taken by a bottle of whisky. The whole garrison consisted of an
old Irish pensioner.” Now at this very moment Washington is full
of rumours of desperate descents on the capital, and an attack on
the President and his Cabinet. The long bridge across the Potomac
into Virginia is guarded, and the militia and volunteers of the
District of Columbia are to be called out to resist McCullough and
his Richmond desperadoes.
_April 3rd._--I had an interview with the Southern Commissioners
to-day, at their hotel. For more than an hour I heard, from men
of position and of different sections in the South, expressions
which satisfied me the Union could never be restored, if they truly
represented the feelings and opinions of their fellow-citizens.
They have the idea they are ministers of a foreign power treating
with Yankeedom, and their indignation is moved by the refusal of
Government to negotiate with them, armed as they are with full
authority to arrange all questions arising out of an amicable
separation--such as the adjustment of Federal claims for property,
forts, stores, public works, debts, land purchases, and the like.
One of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, Mr.
Campbell, is their intermediary, and of course it is not known
what hopes Mr. Seward has held out to him; but there is some
imputation of Punic faith against the Government on account of
recent acts, and there is no doubt the Commissioners hear, as I
do, that there are preparations at the Navy Yard and at New York
to relieve Sumter, at any rate, with provisions, and that Pickens
has actually been reinforced by sea. In the evening I dined at
the British Legation, and went over to the house of the Russian
Minister, M. de Stoeckl, in the evening. The diplomatic body in
Washington constitute a small and very agreeable society of their
own, in which few Americans mingle except at the receptions and
large evening assemblies. As the people now in power are _novi
homines_, the wives and daughters of ministers and attachés
are deprived of their friends who belonged to the old society
in Washington, and who have either gone off to Secession, or
sympathise so deeply with the Southern States that it is scarcely
becoming to hold very intimate relations with them in the face of
Government. From the house of M. de Stoeckl I went to a party at
the residence of M. Tassara, the Spanish Minister, where there was
a crowd of diplomats, young and old. Diplomatists seldom or never
talk politics, and so Pickens and Sumter were unheard of; but it
is stated nevertheless that Virginia is on the eve of secession,
and will certainly go if the President attempts to use force in
relieving and strengthening the Federal forts.
_April 4th._--I had a long interview with Mr. Seward to-day at
the State Department. He set forth at great length the helpless
condition in which the President and the cabinet found themselves
when they began the conduct of public affairs at Washington. The
last cabinet had tampered with treason, and had contained traitors;
a miserable imbecility had encouraged the leaders of the South
to mature their plans, and had furnished them with the means of
carrying out their design. One Minister had purposely sent away
the navy of the United States to distant and scattered stations;
another had purposely placed the arms, ordnance, and munitions of
war in undue proportions in the Southern States, and had weakened
the Federal Government so that they might easily fall into the
hands of the traitors and enable them to secure the war _matériel_
of the Union; a Minister had stolen the public funds for traitorous
purposes--in every port, in every department of the State, at home
and abroad, on sea and by land, men were placed who were engaged
in this deep conspiracy--and when the voice of the people declared
Mr. Lincoln President of the United States, they set to work as
one man to destroy the Union under the most flimsy pretexts. The
President’s duty was clearly defined by the Constitution. He had to
guard what he had, and to regain, if possible, what he had lost.
He would not consent to any dismemberment of the Union nor to the
abandonment of one iota of Federal property--nor could he do so if
he desired.
These and many more topics were presented to me to show that the
Cabinet was not accountable for the temporising policy of inaction,
which was forced upon them by circumstances, and that they would
deal vigorously with the Secession movement--as vigorously as
Jackson did with nullification in South Carolina, if they had the
means. But what could they do when such men as Twiggs surrendered
his trust and sacrificed the troops to a crowd of Texans; or when
naval and military officers resigned _en masse_, that they might
accept service in the rebel forces? All this excitement would come
right in a very short time--it was a brief madness, which would
pass away when the people had opportunity for reflection. Meantime
the danger was that foreign powers would be led to imagine the
Federal Government was too weak to defend its rights, and that the
attempt to destroy the Union and to set up a Southern Confederacy
was successful. In other words, again, Mr. Seward fears that, in
this transition state between their forced inaction and the _coup_
by which they intend to strike down Secession, Great Britain may
recognise the Government established at Montgomery, and is ready,
if needs be, to threaten Great Britain with war as the consequence
of such recognition. But he certainly assumed the existence of
strong Union sentiments in many of the seceded States, as a basis
for his remarks, and admitted that it would not become the spirit
of the American Government, or of the Federal system, to use
armed force in subjugating the Southern States against the will
of the majority of the people. Therefore if the majority desire
Secession, Mr. Seward would let them have it--but he cannot believe
in anything so monstrous, for to him the Federal Government and
Constitution, as interpreted by his party, are divine, heaven-born.
He is fond of repeating that the Federal Government never yet
sacrificed any man’s life on account of his political opinions,
but if this struggle goes on it will sacrifice thousands--tens of
thousands, to the idea of a Federal Union. “Any attempt against
us,” he said, “would revolt the good men of the South, and arm all
men in the North to defend their Government.”
But I had seen that day an assemblage of men doing a goose-step
march forth dressed in blue tunics and grey trowsers, shakoes and
cross-belts, armed with musket and bayonet, cheering and hurrahing
in the square before the War Department, who were, I am told, the
District of Columbia volunteers and militia. They had indeed been
visible in various forms parading, marching, and trumpeting about
the town with a poor imitation of French _pas_ and _élan_, but they
did not, to the eye of a soldier, give any appearance of military
efficiency, or to the eye of the anxious statesman any indication
of the _animus pugnandi_. Starved, washed-out creatures most of
them, interpolated with Irish and flat-footed, stumpy Germans. It
was matter for wonderment that the Foreign Minister of a nation
which was in such imminent danger in its very capital, and which,
with its chief and his cabinet, was almost at the mercy of the
enemy, should hold the language I was aware he had transmitted
to the most powerful nations of Europe. Was it consciousness of
the strength of a great people, who would be united by the first
apprehension of foreign interference, or was it the peculiar
emptiness of a bombast which is called Buncombe? In all sincerity I
think Mr. Seward meant it as it was written.
When I arrived at the hotel, I found our young artist waiting for
me, to entreat I would permit him to accompany me to the South.
I had been annoyed by a paragraph which had appeared in several
papers, to the effect that “The talented young artist, our gifted
countryman, Mr. Deodore F. Moses, was about to accompany Mr. &c.
&c., in his tour through the South.” I had informed the young
gentleman that I could not sanction such an announcement, whereupon
he assured me he had not in any way authorised it, but having
mentioned incidentally to a person connected with the press that
he was going to travel southwards with me, the injudicious zeal of
his friend had led him to think he would do a service to the youth
by making the most of the very trifling circumstance.
I dined with Senator Douglas, where there was a large party,
among whom were Mr. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury; Mr. Smith,
Secretary of the Interior; Mr. Forsyth, Southern Commissioner;
and several members of the Senate and Congress. Mrs. Douglas did
the honours of her house with grace and charming good nature. I
observe a great tendency to abstract speculation and theorising
among Americans, and their after-dinner conversation is apt to
become didactic and sententious. Few men speak better than Senator
Douglas: his words are well chosen, the flow of his ideas even
and constant, his intellect vigorous, and thoughts well cut,
precise, and vigorous--he seems a man of great ambition, and he
told me he is engaged in preparing a sort of Zollverein scheme for
the North American continent, including Canada, which will fix
public attention everywhere, and may lead to a settlement of the
Northern and Southern controversies. For his mind, as for that
of many Americans, the aristocratic idea embodied in Russia is
very seductive; and he dwelt with pleasure on the courtesies he
had received at the court of the Czar, implying that he had been
treated differently in England, and perhaps France. And yet, had
Mr. Douglas become President of the United States, his goodwill
towards Great Britain might have been invaluable, and surely it
had been cheaply purchased by a little civility and attention to a
distinguished citizen and statesman of the Republic. Our Galleos
very often care for none of these things.
_April 5th._--Dined with the Southern Commissioners and a small
party at Gautier’s, a French restaurateur in Pennsylvania Avenue.
The gentlemen present were, I need not say, all of one way of
thinking; but as these leaves will see the light before the civil
war is at an end, it is advisable not to give their names, for
it would expose persons resident in Washington, who may not be
suspected by the Government, to those marks of attention which they
have not yet ceased to pay to their political enemies. Although
I confess that in my judgment too much stress has been laid in
England on the severity with which the Federal authorities have
acted towards their political enemies, who were seeking their
destruction, it may be candidly admitted, that they have forfeited
all claim to the lofty position they once occupied as a Government
existing by moral force, and by the consent of the governed, to
which Bastilles and _lettres de cachêt_, arbitrary arrests, and
doubtful, illegal, if not altogether unconstitutional, suspension
of _habeas corpus_ and of trial by jury were unknown.
As Col. Pickett and Mr. Banks are notorious Secessionists, and
Mr. Phillips has since gone South, after the arrest of his wife
on account of her anti-federal tendencies, it may be permitted to
mention that they were among the guests. I had pleasure in making
the acquaintance of Governor Roman. Mr. Crawford, his brother
commissioner, is a much younger man, of considerably greater
energy and determination, but probably of less judgment. The third
commissioner, Mr. Forsyth, is fanatical in his opposition to any
suggestions of compromise or reconstruction; but, indeed, upon
that point, there is little difference of opinion amongst any of
the real adherents of the South. Mr. Lincoln they spoke of with
contempt; Mr. Seward they evidently regarded as the ablest and most
unscrupulous of their enemies; but the tone in which they alluded
to the whole of the Northern people indicated the clear conviction
that trade, commerce, the pursuit of gain, manufacture, and the
base mechanical arts, had so degraded the whole race, they would
never attempt to strike a blow in fair fight for what they prized
so highly in theory and in words. Whether it be in consequence of
some secret influence which slavery has upon the minds of men, or
that the aggression of the North upon their institutions has been
of a nature to excite the deepest animosity and most vindictive
hate, certain it is there is a degree of something like ferocity
in the Southern mind towards New England which exceeds belief. I
am persuaded that these feelings of contempt are extended towards
England. They believe that we, too, have had the canker of peace
upon us. One evidence of this, according to Southern men, is the
abolition of duelling. This practice, according to them, is highly
wholesome and meritorious; and, indeed, it may be admitted that in
the state of society which is reported to exist in the Southern
States, it is a useful check on such men as it restrained in our
own islands in the last century. In the course of conversation,
one gentleman remarked, that he considered it disgraceful for any
man to take money for the dishonour of his wife or his daughter.
“With us,” he said, “there is but one mode of dealing known. The
man who dares tamper with the honour of a white woman, knows what
he has to expect. We shoot him down like a dog, and no jury in the
South will ever find any man guilty of murder for punishing such a
scoundrel.” An argument which can scarcely be alluded to was used
by them, to show that these offences in slave States had not the
excuse which might be adduced to diminish their gravity when they
occurred in States where all the population were white. Indeed, in
this, as in some other matters of a similar character, slavery is
their _summum bonum_ of morality, physical excellence, and social
purity. I was inclined to question the correctness of the standard
which they had set up, and to inquire whether the virtue which
needed this murderous use of the pistol and the dagger to defend
it, was not open to some doubt; but I found there was very little
sympathy with my views among the company.
The gentlemen at table asserted that the white men in the slave
States are physically superior to the men of the free States; and
indulged in curious theories in morals and physics to which I
was a stranger. Disbelief of anything a Northern man--that is, a
Republican--can say, is a fixed principle in their minds. I could
not help remarking, when the conversation turned on the duplicity
of Mr. Seward, and the wickedness of the Federal Government in
refusing to give the assurance Sumter would not be relieved by
force of arms, that it must be of very little consequence what
promises Mr. Seward made, as, according to them, not the least
reliance was to be placed on his word. The notion that the Northern
men are cowards is justified by instances in which Congressmen have
been insulted by Southern men without calling them out, and Mr.
Sumner’s case was quoted as the type of the affairs of the kind
between the two sides.
I happened to say that I always understood Mr. Sumner had been
attacked suddenly and unexpectedly, and struck down before he could
rise from his desk to defend himself; whereupon a warm refutation
of that version of the story was given, and I was assured that Mr.
Brooks, who was a very slight man, and much inferior in height to
Mr. Sumner, struck him a slight blow at first, and only inflicted
the heavier strokes when irritated by the Senator’s cowardly
demeanor. In reference to some remark made about the cavaliers and
their connection with the South, I reminded the gentlemen that,
after all, the descendants of the Puritans were not to be despised
in battle: and that the best gentry in England were worsted at last
by the train-bands of London, and the “rabbledom” of Cromwell’s
Independents.
Mr., or Colonel, Pickett, is a tall good-looking man, of pleasant
manners, and well educated. But this gentleman was a professed
buccaneer, a friend of Walker, the grey-eyed man of destiny--his
comrade in his most dangerous razzie. He was a newspaper writer,
a soldier, a filibuster; and he now threw himself into the cause
of the South with vehemence; it was not difficult to imagine he
saw in that cause the realisation of the dreams of empire in the
south of the Gulf, and of conquest in the islands of the sea, which
have such a fascinating influence over the imagination of a large
portion of the American people. He referred to Walker’s fate with
much bitterness, and insinuated he was betrayed by the British
officer who ought to have protected him.
The acts of Mr. Floyd and Mr. Howell Cobb, which must be esteemed
of doubtful morality, are here justified by the States’ Rights
doctrine. If the States had a right to go out, they were quite
right in obtaining their quota of the national property which would
not have been given to them by the Lincolnites. Therefore, their
friends were not to be censured because they had sent arms and
money to the South.
Altogether the evening, notwithstanding the occasional warmth of
the controversy, was exceedingly instructive; one could understand
from the vehemence and force of the speakers the full meaning of
the phrase of “firing the Southern heart,” so often quoted as an
illustration of the peculiar force of political passion to be
brought to bear against the Republicans in the Secession contest.
Mr. Forsyth, struck me as being the most astute, and perhaps most
capable, of the gentlemen whose mission to Washington seems likely
to be so abortive. His name is historical in America--his father
filled high office, and his son has also exercised diplomatic
function. Despotisms and Republics of the American model approach
each other closely. In Turkey the Pasha unemployed sinks into
insignificance, and the son of the Pasha deceased is literally
nobody. Mr. Forsyth was not selected as Southern Commissioner
on account of the political status acquired by his father; but
the position gained by his own ability, as editor of “The Mobile
Register,” induced the Confederate authorities to select him for
the post. It is quite possible to have made a mistake in such
matters, but I am almost certain that the coloured waiters who
attended us at table looked as sour and discontented as could be,
and seemed to give their service with a sort of protest. I am told
that the tradespeople of Washington are strongly inclined to
favour the southern side.
_April 6th._--To-day I paid a second visit to General Scott, who
received me very kindly, and made many inquiries respecting the
events in the Crimea and the Indian mutiny and rebellion. He
professed to have no apprehension for the safety of the capital;
but in reality there are only some 700 or 800 regulars to protect
it and the Navy Yard, and two field-batteries, commanded by an
officer of very doubtful attachment to the Union. The head of the
Navy Yard is openly accused of treasonable sympathies.
Mr. Seward has definitively refused to hold any intercourse
whatever with the Southern Commissioners, and they will retire
almost immediately from the capital. As matters look very
threatening, I must go South and see with my own eyes how affairs
stand there, before the two sections come to open rupture. Mr.
Seward, the other day, in talking of the South, described them
as being in every respect behind the age, with fashions, habits,
level of thought, and modes of life, belonging to the worst part
of the last century. But still he never has been there himself!
The Southern men come up to the Northern cities and springs, but
the Northerner rarely travels southwards. Indeed, I am informed,
that if he were a well-known Abolitionist, it would not be safe for
him to appear in a Southern city. I quite agree with my thoughtful
and earnest friend, Olmsted, that the United States can never be
considered as a free country till a man can speak as freely in
Charleston as he can in New York or Boston.
I dined with Mr. Riggs, the banker, who had an agreeable party to
meet me. Mr. Corcoran, his former partner, who was present, erected
at his own cost, and presented to the city, a fine building, to
be used as an art gallery and museum; but as yet the arts which
are to be found in Washington are political and feminine only.
Mr. Corcoran has a private gallery of pictures, and a collection,
in which is the much-praised Greek Slave of Hiram Powers. The
gentry of Columbia are thoroughly Virginian in sentiment, and look
rather south than north of the Potomac for political results. The
President, I hear this evening, is alarmed lest Virginia should
become hostile, and his policy, if he has any, is temporising and
timid. It is perfectly wonderful to hear people using the word
“Government” at all, as applied to the President and his cabinet--a
body which has no power “according to the constitution” to save
the country governed or itself from destruction. In fact, from
the circumstances under which the constitution was framed, it
was natural that the principle point kept in view should be the
exhibition of a strong front to foreign powers, combined with the
least possible amount of constriction on the internal relations of
the different States.
In the hotel the roar of office-seekers is unabated. Train after
train adds to their numbers. They cumber the passages. The hall is
crowded to such a degree that suffocation might describe the degree
to which the pressure reaches, were it not that tobacco-smoke
invigorates and sustains the constitution. As to the condition of
the floor it is beyond description.