Jeff Davis — Incubuerunt — O, Youth! — Lucubrations — Genuine Europe — It is forgotten — Fremont — Prof. Draper — New Yorkers — Senator Sumner's Gauntlet — Prince Gortschakoff — Governor Andrew — New Englanders — Re-elections — Loyalty — Cruizers — Matamoras — Hurrah for Lincoln — Rosecrans — Strategy — Sabine Pass, etc., etc., etc.
September 1: L. B.—Jeff Davis is to emancipate eight hundred thousand slaves—calls them to arms, and promises fifty acres of land to each. Prodigious, marvellous, wonderful—if true. Jeff Davis will become immortal! With eight hundred thousand Africo-Americans in arms, Secession becomes consolidated—and Emancipation a fixed fact, as the eight hundred thousand armed will emancipate themselves and their kindred. Lincoln emancipates by tenths of an inch, Jeff Davis by the wholesale. But it is impossible, as—after all—such a step of the rebel chiefs is as much or even more, a death-warrant of their political existence, as the eventual and definitive victory of the Union armies would be. If the above news has any foundation in truth, then the sacredness of the principle of right and of liberty is victoriously asserted in such away as never before was any great principle. The most criminal and ignominious enterprise recorded in history, the attempt to make human bondage the corner-stone of an independent polity, this attempt ending in breaking the corner-stone to atoms, and by the hands of the architects and builders themselves. Satan's revolt was virtuous, when compared with that of the Southern slavers, and Satan's revolt ended not in transforming Hell into an Eden, as will be the South for the slaves when their emancipation is accomplished. Emancipation,n'importe par qui, must end in the reconstruction of the Union.
September 2: L. B.—Garibaldi to Lincoln. The letter, if genuine, is well-intentioned trash. I am afraid that this prolific letter-writing will use up Garibaldi. It seems that in letter-writing Garibaldi intends to rival Lincoln or Seward.
September 3: L. B.—More and more manifestations in favor of Lincoln's re-election. All the New York Republican papers begin to be lined with Lincoln. And thus politicians in and out of the press will—
Incubuerunt mare (people) totumque a sedibus imis.
September 3: L. B.—In the great Barnum diplomatic tour, Seward killed under him nearly all the diplomats, and returned to Washington in company with one. Poor Europe, and its representatives, to be used up in such a way! But it is only the official Europe, the crowned privileged stratum patched upwith rotten relics of massacre (December 2d,) of official, regal heartlessness and of servile cunning. That crust presses down the genuine Europe, the marrow of mankind. The genuine Europe is ardent, noble, progressive and coruscant; and from Cadiz to the White Sea, that genuine Europe is on the side of freedom, on the side of the North.
September 3: L. B.—Lincoln to Grant, July 13. This letter shows how the President dabbles in military operations. It clearly establishes Mr. Lincoln's right to be considered at least a Carnot, if not a Napoleon,videthe Republican newspapers.
September 3: L. B.—State Conventions, and the old party-hacks under arms. Will not the younger generation rise in its might, break the chains of this intellectual subserviency, scatter the hacks to the winds, take the lead, enlighten the masses, find out new, not used-up men, brains and hearts, for the sacred duty of serving the people. To witness so much intelligence, knowledge, ardor, elasticity, clear-sightedness as animate the American youth, to witness all this subdued, curbed by the hacks!—O, youth, awake!
It is the most sacred duty of the younger generation, to rescue the country from the hands of the old politicians of every kind; to call to political paramount activity the better and purer agencies. It is a task as emphatically, nay, even more, urgent and meritorious than emancipation of the Africo-Americans.
September 4: L. B.—In their official or unofficial quality, numerous Americans amorously dabble in International questions and laws. How much therights of war, etc., have been discussed; how many letters, signed, anonymous, official and unofficial, have been published—and very little, if any light thrown on these questions. What a cruel fate of a future historian, who, if conscientious, will be obliged to read all these darkness-spreading lucubrations!
September 5: L. B.—Mr. Lincoln's letter to the Illinois Convention stirs up the whole country. It is a very,verygood manifesto,—had it not a terribleYESTERDAY. It is a heavy bid for re-election and may secure it. The Americans forget theyesterday, and Mr. Lincoln'syesterday!... is full of shiftings, hesitations, mistakes which draw out the people's life-blood. The people will forget that a man of energy and of firm purpose in the White House, such a man would have at once clearly seen his way, and then a year ago rebellion and slavery would have been crushed.
A man of energy would not have had for his familiar demons, the Scotts, the Sewards, the Blairs, the border-state politicians, the Weeds, etc.
September 5: L. B.—The siege of Charlestontire en longueur; it has cost thousand of lives and millions upon millions, and will still cost more. And it is already forgotten that when nearly two years ago Sherman and Dupont took Port Royal, Charleston and Savannah were defenceless; it is forgotten that Shermanasked for orders to siege the two cities,but such were not givenfrom Washington, because Mr. Lincoln-Seward (literally) was afraid to get possession of the focuses of rebellion, and General McClellan, with one hundred and fifty thousand men in Washington, could not bear the idea that the rebels should be disturbed either in Centerville or in theirchivalrichomes in South Carolina. It is forgotten that civil and military leaders and chiefs then and there refused to deal a death blow to the rebellion.
And as I amen trainto recall to memory what is already forgotten, and what the Illinois letter intends to wholly erase from the people's memory; I go on.
In the first days and months after the explosion of the rebellion, Mr. Lincoln was as innocent of any wish to emancipate the slaves, as could be a Seward, or a Yancey, or McClellan, or a Magruder or a Wise or a Halleck. All this is forgotten. It is forgotten that General Butler is the earliest initiator of emancipation, and that to him exclusively belongs the word and the fact of an emancipatedcontraband. It is forgotten that when Butler began to emancipate the contrabands, thebig menin the Administration, Lincoln, General Scott, and Seward, became almost frantic against Butler for thus introducing the "nigger" into the struggle. The fate of Fremont is forgotten. Fremont was ahead of the times. Fremont emancipated when Lincoln-Seward-Scott-Blair, etc., heartily wished to save and preserve slavery. Down went Fremont.
Early in the summer of 1861 General Fremont wished to do what was now accomplished by the, until yet,sans pareilGrant—that is, to clear the Mississippi at a time when neither Island No. 10, nor Vicksburgh, nor Port Hudson nor any other port was fortified. But the plan displeased and frightened the powers in Washington. Fremont was never to be pardoned for having shown farsightedness whenthe great mendeliberately blindfolded themselves. Fremont might not be a Napoleon, not a captain; Fremont committed military mistakes,—other generals commit military crimes.
The angel of justice very easily will white-wash Fremont from military responsibility for the unnecessary waste of human life; and with all his various faults Fremont's aspirations are patriotic and lofty, and he is by far a better and nobler man than all his revilers put together. But all this seems to be forgotten.
It is, or will be forgotten, what a bloody trail over the North is left, and has been imprinted by the half measures, the indecisions, and the vascillations of the Administration.
The medley composed of politicians, jobbers, contractors, and newspapers, already scream "Hosanna," and attempt to spatter with lies and dust the road to the White House, and thus to prepare the way. And the medley already shakes hands, and enemies kiss each other, because if theirelectsucceeds, there willbe peace over, and pickings for all the world. But the justice of history will overtake them all, and the better, younger generation will crush them to atoms.
September 6. L. B.—Wilkes'Spirit of the Timesmaintains its paramount, independent position in the American press. I cannot detect any shadow of a politician in its columns. It is all over independent and patriotic. TheSpiritfights the miscreants.
"Principles not men," is an axiom, but the axiom must be well understood and applied, and it has its limitations. Are bad, worthless, insincere, selfish men to be the agencies and the factors of great and lofty principles? Is such a thing possible? Is the example of Judas forgotten? O, you Bible-reading people, can Judases and rotten consciences carry out good principles? The press that teaches and preachesprinciples not men, that never dares to attack bad men in its own ranks, such a press betrays the confidence of the people, and degrades below expression the elevated and noble position which the press ought to occupy in the development of the progress of human society.
September 6.—Computing together and comparing the mental and intellectual characteristics, the manifestations and utterances of passions in the Africo American and in the Irish of the Iro-Roman nursery, the anthropologist, the psychologist and the philosopher must give the palm to the Africo-American. And nevertheless Doctors of Divinity and many truly religious men plead in favor of slavery, that is, ofbrute force. I ask all such to meditate the words of Professor J. W.Draper, in his great and profoundHistory of the Intellectual Development of Europe: That brute force must give way to intellect, and that even the meanest human being has rights in the sight of God.
September 10: New York.—Head-quarters of all kinds of politicians, of schemers, of perpetrators of treasonable attempts, of falsifiers, of poisoners of the people's mind. The rendezvous of those who devour the vitals of the country—who, as contractors, jobbers, brokers, stock and gold speculators,agioteurs, etc. are the most ardent patriots, and wish that the war may be indefinitely continued. In the columns of theHeraldthe future historian will find the best information concerning all that—not-blessed race. The race deserves to be recorded andscavengedin theHerald.
And nevertheless New York contains the most pure and the most devoted patriots. New York and New Yorkers have been foremost in coming to the rescue when the matricide rebels dealt their first blow. From New York came the best and the most energetic urgings on the gasping and vascillating Administration.
The New Yorkers originated the Sanitary Commission, for which I can find no words of sufficiently warm praise. New York contains many young, fresh, elevated and noble minds and intellects. Why, O why do some of them disappear in the muddy part of thegreat city, and others are overawed and overleaped by the hacks and by the politicians, or the so-called wire-pullers.
September 10. New York.—It is the place to ascertain the manœuvres of political schemers. Those who know, most emphatically assure me of the existence of the followingSewardiana.
1. Seward has given up in despair all dreams of finding people to back him for the next Presidency.
2. Seward hesitated between McClellan and Banks,
3. And finally settled on Lincoln;
4. And although afraid of being finally shelved by Lincoln, he advocates Lincoln's re-election—
5. As being the paramount means to politically murder Chase.
Oh American people! Oh American people! how those foul political pilferers dice for thy blood and thy destinies!
Years ago, I justified the existence and asserted the necessity of politicians in the political public life of America. I considered them an unavoidable and harmless result of free democratic institutions. [See "America and Europe."] At that time I observed the politician from a distance, and reasoned on him altogether metaphysically, after the so-called German fashion. Since 1861 I have come into personal contact with the genus politician—and oh! what a monstrous breed they are!
September 10. New York.—Senator Sumner on our foreign relations. The Senator enumerates all theviolations of good comity, of international duties, of the obligations of neutrals, violations so deliberately and so maliciously perpetrated by England and by France. But why has the Senator forgotten to ascend to one of the paramount causes? Previous to England or France, the State Department in Washington and Mr. Lincoln recognized in the rebelsthe condition of belligerents. It was done by the Proclamation instituting the blockade. TheBlue Bookfully proves that already months before Mr. Lincoln's inauguration the English Government had a perfect knowledge of the vascillating policy which was to be inaugurated after March 1, 1861. At the same time, the English Government knew well that already previous to March 4, the rebel conspirators were fully decided on carrying out their treacherous aim across streams of blood. A long war was imminent, and a recognition of the rebels asin partebelligerents, could not have been avoided. A part of the English nation, a part of the English Cabinet, was and is overflowing with the most malicious ill will, and such ones crave for an occasion to satisfy their hatred. But our domestic and foreign policy singularly served our English ill-wishers.
I deeply regret that the Senator preferred the halls of the Cooper Institute to the hall of the United States Senate; that he threw the gauntlet to Europe as a lecturer, when for days and months he could have done it so authoritatively as a Senator of the United States; could have done it from his senatorial chair,and in the fulfilment of the most sacred public and patriotic duty. How could the Senator thus belittle one of the most elevated political positions in the world, that of a Senator of the United States?
Not so happy is the part of the lecture concerningIntervention. It is rather sentimental than statesmanlike.Interventionis, and will remain, an act of physical, material force, and history largely teaches thatIntervention, even for higher moral purposes, was always exercised by the strong against the weak, the strong always invoking "higher motives." Thus did the Romans; and about a century ago, the Powers which partitioned Poland began by anIntervention, justified on "higher moral, etc. grounds."
September 11: New York.—Prince Gortschakoff's answer to the demonstration of lying, hypocritical, official diplomatic sympathies made in favor of the Poles by the cabinets of France, of England, and of Austria. The Gortschakoff notes are masterpieces for their clear, quiet, but bold and decided exposition and argument, and in the records of diplomacy those notes will occupy the most prominent place. O, why cannot Mr. Seward learn from Gortschakoff how not to put gas in such weighty documents? Could Seward learn how to be earnest, precise and clear, without spread-eagleism? The greater and stronger a nation, the less empty phraseology is needed when one speaks in the nation's name.
September 15.—Returned to Washington. Fromwhat I see and hear, Mr. Lincoln is earnestly and hard at work to secure his re-election. I hope that Mr. Lincoln is as earnest in his efforts to destroy Lee's army and to put an end to the guerrillas who rob to the right and to the left, and under the nose of the supreme military authorities.
Governor Andrew, of Massachusetts, always the same—active, intelligent, clear and far-sighted. Andrew is the man to act for, and in the name of the most intelligent community on the globe, which the State of Massachusetts undoubtedly is. As I have observed several times, Andrew is among the leading (Americanize, tip-top,) men of the younger generation, is no politician, and never was one. If a civilian is to be elected to the Presidency, Andrew ought to be the choice of the people, if the people will be emancipated from the politicians.
I learn that that monster, the politician, has almost wholly disappeared from New England, above all from Massachusetts. The New England people are too earnest and too intelligent to be the prey of the monster. Sound reason throttled the politician. All hail to this result of the bloody storm! I hope the other States will soon follow the example of Massachusetts.
The State of Massachusetts and the city of Boston noiselessly spend millions for their coast and harbor defences. Governor Andrew has the confidence of the people, and is untiring in procuring the best war material.He sent an agent to England to buy heavy guns.
If the English government take in sail, if it come to its senses and cease to be the rebels' army and navy arsenal, then all this will be due to such quiet and decisive active demonstrations as that above mentioned in Boston, in Massachusetts, and the similar activity of the New Yorkers, and not at all to any persuasive arguments of Mr. Seward's dispatches.
September 16.—Mr. Seward is slightly mending his ways. His last circular for the foreign market is considerably sobered, and almost barren of prophecy. Almost no spread-eagleism, no perversion, although geography and history, of course, are a little maltreated.
And so, Mr. Prophet, you at least recognize the utility of arming the Africo-Americans. And who is it that openly and by secret advice and influence in the cabinet and out of it, who, during more than a year, did his utmost to counteract all the efforts to emancipate and to arm the oppressed?
September 16.—The draft is seriously complained of, and the drafted desert in all directions. To tell the truth, drafting is odious to every nation, whatever be its government. But it is a dire necessity, and it is impossible to avoid or to turn it. The draft became here imperatively necessary by the long uninterrupted chain of helplessness and mismanagement of events, the sacrifice of blood and of time. But for the advice of the Scotts, of the Sewards, of the Blairs, but for themilitary prowess of McClellan and hisminions, but for the high military science of a Halleck, Mr. Lincoln would not have been obliged to draft.
In the West, everything is action, operation and victory. Grant, Rosecrans, Banks, their officers and soldiers honor the American name; even good Burnside acts and succeeds;—but here the Army of the Potomac is observing and watching Lee's brow! McClellan's spirit seems still to permeate these blessed generals, and then Halleckiana, and then God knows what. The fear of losing won laurels probably palsies the brains of the commanders; at any rate it is certain that the inactivity of the Potomac army throws unsurpassed splendor on the annals of this war. O, the brave, brave soldiers and officers! how they are maltreated!
September 16.—Matamoras will fall into the hands of theDecembriseur'sfreebooters, and then Texas will be almost lost. Matamoras ought long ago to have been seized by us, or at least very closely blockaded and surrounded; then all the war-contraband to Texas would have had an end.
In 1861, when microscopical specks began to loom over Mexico's destinies, when theDecembriseurbegan to feel the pulse of Spain and of England, I most respectfully suggested to Mr. Seward to blockade Matamoras. No foreign country or government could call us to account for such a step, if the Mexican government would not protest. And it was so easy to satisfyand hush the Mexican liberals. Besides, a paragraph in the treaty of Mexico expressly stipulates that any violation of the respective territory will not be considered as acasus belli, but the case will be peacefully investigated, etc., etc. Surely the Mexican government would have preferred to see Matamoras in our hands, than in those of that bloody Forey's bands.
September 17.—"Loyalty," "loyalty," resounds from all sides. Loyalty to principles? Why, no. Loyalty to Mr. Lincoln and to his official crew. If such maxims mark not the downfall of manhood, then I am at loss to find what does. Such a construction of loyalty brings many otherwise honest and intelligent men to foster Mr. Lincoln's re-election.
September 17.—At the beginning of the war, Lord John Russell issued orders for the regulation of the English ports in cases of belligerents. Our great Doctor of International Law in the State Department mistook such municipal, English regulations; he considers them to be absolute international rules and principles, and concocts instructions for our cruisers, instructions which smell as if written under Lord Lyons' dictation. As always, Neptune stands up for the national interests and for the interests of his tars, because the instructions concocted by the Doctor make it impossible for our cruisers to fulfill their duties. As always, Mr. Lincoln bends rather towards the Doctor, who in his world-embracinghumanitarianismdefends the interests of all the neutrals at the cost of the interests of the countryand of our brave navy. The Doctor was right when, some time ago, he compared himself to Christ.
September 17.—The border-State politicians establish that the revolted States are not out of the Union. The States are no abstractions, no metaphysical notions, but geographical and political entities. They are States because they are peopled with individuals, free, intelligent, and who, to give a legality to their rebellion, claim to be sovereigns. It is not the soil constituting a State that represents a sovereignty, but the soil or State acquires political signification through the population dwelling in or on it. When the population revolted, the State revolted. From Jeff Davis to the lowest "clay-eater," each rebel who took up arms claims to have done this in the exercise of his sovereign will and choice. The revolt quashed all privileges conceded by the Union to a State, and the Union reconquers its property in reconquering the former States.
September 18.—Hurrah for Lincoln! He sends an expedition to Texas, say his admirers. He forgets nothing. Well, why has Lincoln forgotten Texas all this time? Notwithstanding all the prayers of the Texans and of the northern patriots, I am not sure that at this moment it is expedient to break up our armies into smaller expeditions instead of concentrating them in Tennessee, Georgia, and here. Strike on the head or at the heart if you wish to kill the monster, but not at its extremities. But perhaps the Government and Halleck have men enough to do the one and the other.But why not put at the head of the Texan expedition a noble, high-minded, devoted patriot, such as General Hamilton, instead of putting a Franklin, unknown to the Texans, who can inspire no confidence, and of whom the best that can be said is, that he never succeeded in anything, and disorganized everything. See Pope in Virginia, Burnside at Fredericksburgh.
If Hamilton, the Texan, is to participate in this expedition, not Lincoln and his advisers put Hamilton there—the pressure exercised by the combined efforts of the governors of New England States did the work.
Hurrah for Lincoln and for his crew.
September 19.—Governor Andrew's activity and initiative are admirable. More than any body in the country, Andrew has done to clear up, and to firmly establish the condition of Africo-Americans as soldiers, and to push them up to the level with other men.
September 19.—Hurrah for Lincoln, who hurries the organization of Africo-American regiments! Oh yes! he hurries them;festina lente. And how many regiments have been organized in Norfolk, which ought to have been established asthecentral point to attract and to organize contrabands? Is not Virginia the first in the slave States for the number of slaves? In the hands of a clear-sighted man, Norfolk ought to have been used as a glue to which the slaves would have wandered from all parts of Virginia, and even from North Carolina. Norfolk ought to have to-day an army of fifty thousand Africo-Americans born inVirginia, and not a few regiments of them raised in the North. An Africo-American army in Norfolk doubtless would have more impressed Jeff Davis and Lee, than they are impressed by the marches of the commanders of the Potomac army. And what is done? Oh, hurrah for Lincoln! A General Naglee, or of some other name, appointed by Halleck, sustained by Lincoln, and by, who knows whom—commands in Norfolk. This general so appointed, and so sustained is the most devoted worshipper of slavery. This favored general hob-nobs with the slave-making, slave-breeding and slave-selling aristocracy of Norfolk and of the vicinity, looks down upon theniggerwith all the haughtiness of a plantation whip, and haughtily snubs off the not slave-breeding Union men in Norfolk, the mechanics, and the small farmers. Mr. Lincoln knows this all and keeps the general. Rhetors roar, Hurrah for Lincoln.
September 19.—Massachusetts and New England men and women! you true apostles! your names are unknown but they are recorded by the genius of humanity. These men and women feel what is the true apostolate. They follow our armies, take care of the contrabands, take care of poor whites, establish schools for the children and for the grown up of both hues, and thus they reorganize society. O sneer at them you fashionables, you flirts, you ...; but such men and women, and not you, make one believe in the highest destinies of our race.
September 20.—Grant is the only general who accomplished an object, showed high, soldier-like qualities, organized and commanded an excellent army. But scarcely hadGranttaken Vicksburgh, when his army was broken up and scattered in all directions, he himself was neutralized and reduced to inactivity. It could be considered a crime against the people's cause—but—hurrah for Lincoln.
After the shame of Corinth, 1862, the Western army disappeared in the same way. But it was nobody's fault, oh no! So it is nobody's fault that Grant is shelved. Will a man start up in the next Congress and call the malefactors to account?
September 20.—This day, General Meade has about eighty thousand men. General Meade himself estimates the enemy's forces in front of him at no more than forty thousand men, and General Meade does nothing beyond feeling his way. O, cunctator!
September 20.—The partisans of Mr. Lincoln admit that he came slowlyto the mark, but he came to it. Of course, better late than never, but in Mr. Lincoln's case, the people's honor and the people's blood paid for Mr. Lincoln's experimental ways. Mr. Lincoln may now be serious in a great many matters, but if he could have been serious a year ago—how much money would have been economized?
Hurrah for Lincoln!
September 21.—Rosecrans worsted. Burnside joined him not. They say that Burnside disobeyedorders. I doubt it, and would wish to see what orders have been given. Meade or Halleck quietly allow a third of Lee's army to go and help to crush Rosecrans.
September 21.—General Franklin was, in his own way, successful at the Sabine Pass, as every where. But how could the government entrust him with this expedition? He graduatedfirstat West Point. Washingtonians and tip-top West Pointers speak highly of Franklin. Enough!—
September 22.—The rebels concentrated every available and fighting man on Chattanooga; we scattered our forces to all winds. The rebels march on concentrating lines, we select radii running out in the infinite, or in opposite directions. That is the head quarters paramount strategy.
Rosecrans is worsted. Hurrah for Lincoln, who believes in Halleck!
And to know, as I know, that our army and country has young men who could carry on the war better in darkness than Lincoln-Halleck do in broad daylight!
September 22.—By depleting the banks by means of loans, by establishing the so-called National Bank, by creating an army of officials, by taking into his hands the traffic in the great staple of the rebel States, by providing the South with the various Northern products, by holding all the money in his hand, Mr. Chase concentrated into his hand a patronage never held by any secretary, nay, scarcely if ever, held bya president. Mr. Chase has more patronage than even any constitutional king. It is to be seen how all this will end.
September 22.—On all sides I hear the question put, Who is Gilmore? It seems to me that Gilmore is one of the men generated by new events and not by Washington or West Point estimation. It seems to me that Gilmore may be one of the representative men of the better generation, so luxuriant here, and whose advent to power would save the country; a generation who alone can give the last solution, and whose advent I expect as the Jews expected the Messiah, and I shall hail it as did Anna, Elizabeth, Simeon, etc. put together.
September 23.—As a result of the Meade-Halleck combined military wisdom, a part of Lee's army fought Rosecrans at Chattanooga, and may in a very short time be again in Virginia, and it is nobody's fault. O strategy! thy name is imbecility!
September 23.—Better news from Rosecrans. The stubbornness of the troops, the stubbornness of General Thomas saved the day. Reinforcements join Rosecrans now. But why not previous to the battle? If Rosecrans had had men enough on the 19th and 20th, then Bragg would have been broken, and the rebels almost on their last legs. But perhaps such glory and victory are not needed! Hurrah for Lincoln!
September 24.—Many of Mr. Lincoln's partisans admit that at the most favorable calculation, the resultsobtained up to to-day by the war and by emancipation, could easily have been obtained by a smaller expenditure of life, blood, money and time, if any will, and foresight, and energy presided at the helm. And, nevertheless, hurrah for Lincoln! And the highest destinies of the principle of self-government to again be trusted in such hands!
September 24.—How could Meade let Lee send troops to Bragg, and why Meade attacked or attacks not? Those rebel generals show but little consideration for our commanders, and it would be curious to know what Lee and his companions think of our Marses. It seems that a conception of a plan of campaign or of a military operation is altogether beyond the reach of Meade'scerebellum. As commander of a division, of a corps, Meade haddash in him—he lost all when elevated above the level.
I am sure that Stanton urges or urged Meade to do something, without telling him how or where. Had Lincoln, had Halleck meddled? If so, Meade ought to tell it. The best to do for a commander of the Army of the Potomac is to keep his secrets to himself and have in his confidence only his chief-of-staff—not to tell them to any one in the camp, and still less to any one in Washington. But it seems that Meade had no plan whatever in view, and had no secrets to keep or to tell.
September 25.—It is to-day exactly a week since Rosecrans was attacked. At the head-quarters theyought to have known Rosecrans' force, and the imperative, the paramount necessity of reinforcing him in time, as theyoughtto have known that Lee sent to Bragg a part of his army. But probably the precious head of the head-quarters is confused by some translation, or by reading proof-sheets instead of reports. By simply looking on the map, the head-quarters—perhaps headless—ought to have found out that Chattanooga and Atlanta are the keys of the black country, and that the rebels—who neither write silly books nor translate—will concentrate all available forces to stop Rosecrans's advance, and eventually to crush him. Weeks ago the head-quarters ought to have reinforced Rosecrans; it is done to-day, a week after the defeat. Hurrah for Lincoln, who sustains a Halleck!
One of the most cautious men that I met in life, and who is in a position to be well informed, in the most cautious and distant manner suggested to me that Rosecrans is obnoxious to the head-quarters, and that in G street, Washington, they may have wished to see Rosecrans worsted.
Hurrah for Lincoln! Halleck is his true prophet!
Shake an apple tree, and the foul fruit falls down; and so it is with Halleck's western military combinations. All the army of Grant running dispersed on centrifugal radii, Burnside sent in a direction opposite to Rosecrans. Bravo, Halleck! You outdo McClellan!
September 25.—It seems that with a little, a verylittle dash, we could go in the rear of Lee, who is weakened by sending troops to crush Rosecrans. But we have given Lee time to fortify his position, and of course we will wait until Lee is again strong, either by position or by numbers. Then we march a few miles onwards, more miles backwards, and what not? What splendid combinations coruscate from the head-quarters here, or in the army! Cæsar, Napoleon, Frederick, bow your heads in dust before our great captains!
September 26.—It seems that at Chattanooga the rebels massed their infantry in columnsperbattalion, and Crittenden's and McCook's troops could not withstand the attack. It was not at West Point that the rebel generals learned the like continental tactics. It seems that the rebels like to learn.
September 27.—In defence of theFranklinadeat the Sabine Pass, it is alleged that the expedition had bad old vessels, and was poorly fitted out. Then why make it? It is a crime in this country to complain of any want of material and of bad vessels—provided no one steals thereby. In America, not to have an adequate material? What an infamous slander on the most industrious people! Not material, but brains, or something else are not adequate. But, of course, it is nobody's fault, and nobody will be taken to account.
September 29.—Hooker is to have a command, and to supersede Burnside. Probably again a separate command. If generals refuse to serve under each other, under the plea of seniority, at once expel suchrecalcitrantgenerals from the service; better and younger men will be found. The French Convention beheaded such generals, not on paper, but physiologically. The French Directory was not a master of honesty or energy, but it had sufficient energy to select Napoleon, twenty-six years old, over the heads of older generals, and put him in command of the Army of the Alps, which in his hands became the Army of Italy. And as long as the world shall stand, the consequences of that violation of the rule of seniority will not be forgotten.
September 29.—General Thomas ought to have the command, if Rosecrans failed, but not Hooker or Butterfield.
Halleck'sofficinaof military incongruities and to unmilitary combinations ought to be shut up, and the occupants sent about the world. The War Department and the President would get better advice from the young Colonels in the Department, and around Stanton, than it gets from all that concern in G street.
September 29.—The papers say that all over Europe and the rest of the world Sewardex officioscatters Sumner's Cooper Institute oration. Well may Seward do it. Sumner suppressed true events, not to hurt Seward.
Now Sumner will find Seward an admirable statesman.
September 30.—The suspension of thehabeas corpusmakes great noise. It was emphatically necessary. But it would not have been emphatically, indeed notin the least necessary, if the domestic and war policy were different. Then the people would not have been disheartened. If the people's holy enthusiasm—so dreaded in Washington—were not so sacrilegiously misused and squandered, volunteers would be forthcoming.
September 30.—If Lincoln-Halleck could create a military department on the moon, they would instantly send thither some troops and a major-general, so strong is their passion to break up the armies into fragmentary bodies.
September 30.—If this war has already devoured or destroyed three hundred thousand men in dead, crippled, and disabled in various ways, then the responsibility is to be divided as follows:
a100,000 lost by the policy initiated by Lincoln, Seward, Scott.
b100,000 to be credited to McClellan and Halleck's military combinations; Halleck by half with Lincoln.
c100,000 to be credited to the war itself.
September 30.—England mends her ways, and stops the arming of vessels for the rebels. TheDecembriseurmore and more treacherous—as a matter of course.
September 30.—I understand now, what I never could understand in Europe. I understand how an all polluting power can force into alliance men of strong convictions, but of the most deadly opposite social and political extremes. Such extremes meet in the wish to put an end to a power whom they hate and despise.
Aghast — Firing — Supported — Russian Fleet — Opposition — Amor scelerated — Cautious — Mastiffs —Grande guerre— Manœuvring — Tambour battant — Warning, etc., etc., etc.
October 1.—Rosecrans, Bragg, Lee, Meade, Gilmore, Dahlgren and the iron-clads keep the nation breathless aghast. A terrible and painful lull. The politicians furiously continue their mole-like work; election, re-election is inscribed on the mole hills.
October 2.—Chase men fire into Blair's men, and Blair's men are supposed to be Lincoln's men. The skirmishing, the scouting before the battle. But the day of battle is yet far off, and the proverb, "many a slip," etc., may yet save the nation from becoming a prey of politicians.
October 3.—News arrives that reinforcements sent from here reached Rosecrans. For the first time the troops have been forwarded with such rapidity. The War Department has brought almost to perfection the system of transportation of large bodies. The head-quarters, who combine, decide and direct themovements, the distribution, and the scattering of troops all over the country could have therefore ordered the troops to Rosecrans, and the War Department would have rapidly forwarded them there. And if Grant's army was not broken, and he himself virtually shelved or neutralized—if he had marched towards Georgia, Secession would have been compressed to two or three States; Bragg crushed, Alabama and Georgia rescued! Hurrah for Lincoln-Halleck.
October 4.—The Russian fleet evokes an unparalleled enthusiasm in New York, and all over the country.Attrappeztreacherous England and France! The Russian Emperor, the Russian Statesman Gortschakoff, and the whole Russian people held steadfast and nobly to the North, to the cause of right and of freedom. Diplomatic bickerings here could not destroy the genuine sympathy between the two nations.
October 4.—The probable majority in the next Congress is the great object of present calculation and speculation. The Administration seems to be of the opinion, that a small republican majority will do as well, because it will be more compact and more easily to be played upon. God save the country from a majoritytwistableby the Administration! If the majority is small, then it may be unable to drag such dead-weight as was the Administration directed by its master spirit.
The Administration ought to be dusted and pruned. This Administration especially needs to be shaken and kept always on thequi viveby an honest and a patriotic opposition. The opposition made by Copperheads is neither honest nor patriotic. Opposition is a vital element of parliamentary government; and as by a curse, the opposition here is made not to acts of the Administration—the Copperheads wish to throttle the principle which inspires the best part of the people. If it was possible to have an opposition strong enough to control the misdeeds of the Administration, to serve for the Administration as a telescope to penetrate space, and as a microscope to find out the vermin: if such an opposition could be built up, it would have forced the Administration to act vigorously and decidedly, it could have preserved the Administration from repeated violations of the rules of common sense, and in certain Administrative brains the opposition could have kindled sagacity and farsightedness:—such counterpoise would have spared thousands and thousands of lives, and thousands of millions of money.
October 6.—Meade will retreat or already retreats. The choice of the army, Meade, has not yet greatly justified itself. And Meade, too, builds up in the army a clique of generals, and therein Meade begins to imitate McClellan. Likewise McClellan seems to have been Meade's model at Williamsport, and, McClellan-like, Meade has wasted precious time.
And thus the month of October sees us on the defensive on the whole line, from the Potomac to the Rio Grande. After two and a half years of military misdirection, of rivers of blood, of mines of money—there we are.
Hurrah for Lincoln and for his apostles!
October 6.—How the world's history is handled, twisted, andbungled. Wiseacres put history on the rack to evidence their own ignorance. The one invokes England's example during Wellington's expedition to Spain, as if that war in the Peninsula had been a civil war, and England's integrity, national independence, and political institutions had been endangered. And another compares this war to the civil wars of Rome, and censures the impatience of those who wish for more energy in the Administration. Do the wiseacres wish for an
Altera jam teritur bellis civilibus ætas.
Others point to Cæsar, and forget that Cæsar fought almost in person everywhere, in Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Great commanders-in-chief point out to their subordinates the example of Napoleon and of Frederick visiting their pickets. Yes, great military scholars! Frederick and Napoleon visited the pickets when their armies faced—nay, when they almost touched the lines of the enemy. But Frederick and Napoleon were with the armies—they were in the tents, anddirected not the movements of armies from a well warmed and cosy room or office.
October 6.—Blair, a member of the Cabinet, in a public speech delivered in Maryland, most bitterly attacks the emancipationists and emancipation. Blair is perfectly true to himself. That speech would honor a Yancey. Blair peddles for Mr. Lincoln's re-election. Blair thus semi-officially spoke for the President, and for the Cabinet. Such at least is the construction put in England on an out-door speech made by a member of the Cabinet, or else another member takes another occasion to refute the former. Mr. Splendid Chase is a member of the Cabinet, and claims to represent there the aspirations, the tendencies, and the aims of the radicals and of the emancipationists. Such a conflict between two members of the Cabinet shakes the shaky situation. What will Chase do? Nothing, or very little.
October 7.—Months, weeks and days of the most splendid weather, and Meade, the choice of the West Point clique in the army, Meade did nothing. If Meade had not, or has not troops enough, why is not Foster ordered here with all he has? Keep Fortress Monroe well garrisoned, and for a time abandon the few points in North Carolina. Destroy Lee, and then a squad of invalids will reconquer North Carolina, or that State may then reconquer itself. This, or some other combination ought to be made. I am told that more than seven hundred thousand men are now onthe Paymasters' rolls. Where are they? Is it forgery or stealing? Where, oh where are the paid men? On paper or in the grave? If the half, three hundred and fifty thousand men, were well kept in hand, Lee and Bragg ought to be annihilated.
Hurrah for Lincoln and Halleck!
October 8.—From various sides I am assured that Stanton passed into the camp of Lincoln, with horse, foot and artillery. I doubt it, but—all is possible in this good-natured world. Stanton, like others, may be stimulated by theamor sceleratusof power.
October 8.—Lee's Report, containing the operations after the battle of Chancellorsville, the invasion of Pennsylvania, and his recrossing of the Potomac at Williamsport, is published now. But Lee, a true soldier, made his report in the last days of July, therefore almost instantly after the campaign was finished. Sympathizers with McClellan's essays on military or on other matters! there is another example for you, how and when such things ought to be done. Meade has not yet made his Report.
October 9.—The cautiousness of Meade and his fidelity to McClellan-like warfare are above admiration. General Buford, brave and daring, weeks ago offered to make with his cavalry a raid in the rear of Lee and destroy the railroads to the south-west—those main arteries for Virginia. The offer was vetoed by the commander of the Potomac army. Had Lee evervetoed Stewart's raids? Lee rather stimulated and directed them.
October 10.—And the power-holders let loose their mastiffs. And the mastiffs ran at my heels and tried to tear my inexpressibles and all. And they did not, because they could not. Because my friends (J. H. Bradley,) stood by me. And the people's justice stepped in between the mastiffs and me, and I exclaim with the miller of Potsdam, "There are judges in Washington."
October 11.—I most positively learn that even Thurlow Weed urged upon the President the immediate removal of Halleck, and even Thurlow Weed could not prevail. Many and many sins be forgiven to the Prince of the Lobby, to the man who understood how to fish out a fortune in these national troubles.
October 12.—Cæsar morituri te salutant, say our brave soldiers to Lincoln.
The Meades and the McClellans, like most of the greatnesses of the West Point clique, have no impulse, no sense for attack, because what is calledla grande guerre, that is the offensive war, was not among the special objects of the military education in West Point. This is evident by the pre-eminence given to engineering, and to the engineers who represent the defensive war; and therefore the contrast to thegrande guerre. Some of our generals, as Grant, Rosecrans, Reno, Reynolds, and others, and as I hear likewise of Warren, made and make up in enthusiasm for the deficiency ofthe West Point education. But the majority of theeducatedPotomac commanders and generals were not, and are not much troubled by enthusiasm.
October 12.—In his answer to the Missouri patriotic deputation, Mr. Lincoln, with one eye at least to the re-election, proves to the observer that he, Lincoln, has not yet found out which party will be the stronger when the election shall be at the door. Mr. Lincoln has not yet made his choice between the radical, immediate emancipationists and those who wish a slow, do-nothing, successive,pro rataemancipation. Not having yet found it out, Mr. Lincoln has not yet fully decided which direction finally he has to take; and therefore he shifts a little to the right, a little to the left, and tries to hush up both parties. Our so characteristic military operations are closely connected with the vascillating policy and with the hesitation to cut the knot.
October 13.—Unparalleled in the world's history is the manner in which the war is conducted here, from May, 1861, to this day. The annals of the Asiatic, ancient, and of modern Tartar warfare, the annals of Greece, of Macedon, of Rome, the annals of all wars fought in Europe since the overthrow of the Romans down to the day of Solferino, all have nothing similar to what is done here. This new method henceforth will constitute an epoch in militaryun-science.
October 13.—General Meade in full and quick retreat. The most contradictory rumors and explicationsof this retreat; some of the explications having even the flavor of official authority. One thing is certain, that when a general who confronted an enemy at once begins to manœuvre backwards, without having fought or lost a battle, such a general is out-manœuvred by his enemy. O for a young man with enthusiasm, and with inspiration! Suggested to Stanton to shun the men of Williamsport, or to look for enthusiasts such as Warren.
Chaos everywhere; chaos in the direction of affairs, and a disgraceful chaos in the military operations. But as always, so this time, it is nobody's fault.
Fetish McClellan finally and distinctly showed his hand, and joined the Copperheads in the Pennsylvania election. McClellan is now ripe for the dictatorship of the Copperheads. Will Mr. Lincoln have courage to dismiss McClellan from the army? A self-respecting Government ought to do it. Let McClellan be taken care of by theWorld.Par nobile fratrum.
October 14.—
Nox erat et cœlo fulgebat luna sereno,
and the virtuous city of Washington enjoyed the sleep of innocence: the genius of the country was watchful. Halleck slept not. Orderlies, patrols, generals, officers, cavalry, infantry, all were on their legs. Halleck took the command in person. What a running! First in the rooms, then in the streets and on the roads, and on the bridges whose planks were taken off. And thus about the cock's crow the nightmare vanished, and Halleck,satisfied to have fulfilled his duty towards the country and towards the innocent Washingtonians, Halleck went to bed.
October 15.—Our head-quarters at Fairfax Court House. It is not a retreat. O no! It is only splendid backward manœuvring!
As far as the Virginia campaign is concerned, the situation to-day is below that previous to the first Bull Run. Lee menacing, going we know not where; guerrillas in the rear of our army, at the gates—literally and geographically at the gates of Alexandria and of Washington. Previous to the first Bull Run, the country bled not; to-day the people is minus thousands and thousands of its children, and to see Lee twenty to thirty miles from Washington! What will be the manœuvring to-morrow?
Warren fought well, but if Sykes was within supporting distance, why did they not annihilate the rebel corps? Two corps ought not to have been afraid to be cut off from the rest of the army distant only a few miles. Or perhaps orders exist not to bring about a general engagement? All is now possible and probable.Our great plans may not yet be ripe.
When the smoke and dust of the manœuvring will be over, I heartily wish that our losses in the retreat may prove innocent and as insignificant as they are reported to be.
On the outside, Lee's movement appears as brilliant as it is desperate. Has not this time Lee overshotthe mark? Cunctator Meade may have some lucid moment, and punish Lee for his impertinence. And every and any thing can be done with our brave boys, provided they are commanded and generaled.
In military sciences and history, it would be said that Lee hasramené tambour battantMeade under the defences of Washington. Such a result obtained without a battle, counts among the most splendid military accomplishments, and reveals true generalship.
October 17.—Meade was decided to retreat, even before Lee began to move, say the knowing ones, say the military authorities. If Meade wanted not to go to Culpepper Court-house, or to march towards the enemy, or to occupy the head waters of those rivers, then why was our army promenaded in that direction? To amuse the people? to increase losses in men and in material? Was it done without any plan? I supposed, and the country supposed, that Meade marched south to fight Lee where he would have found him; but it turns out that it was done in order to bring Lee towards Washington and towards the Potomac. What a snare!
October 17.—The electoral victory in Pennsylvania marks a new evolution in the internalpolityof the country. It is the victory of the younger and better men as represented by Curtin, by Coffey, etc., over the old hacks, old sepulchres, old tricposters and over men who sucked the treasury and the people's pocket; they did it scientifically, thoroughly, and with a coolnessof masters. Oh! could other States therein imitate Pennsylvania, then, the salvation of the country is certain.
October 17: Evening.—The knowing ones promise a battle for to-morrow. Yes, if Lee will. But if not, will Meade attack Lee? who I am sure will continue his movement and operation whatever these may be. We are atguessing.
Repeatedly and repeatedly it is half-officially trumpeted to the country, that this or that general selected his ground and awaits a battle. It reminds one of the wars in Italy during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. And if the general who forced backwards his antagonist, if he prefers not to attack, but continues to manœuvre, what becomes of the select, own ground? Who ever read that Alexander, or Cesar, or Frederic, or Napoleon, or even captains of lesser fame, selected their ground? All of them fought the enemy where they found him, or by skillful manœuvring hemmed the enemy or forced him to abandon his select position. Cases where a general can really force the antagonist to attacksuch a select, own ground, such cases are special, and very rare.
And so for the second time in this year, Lee shakes and disturbs our quiet in Washington. Oh why is Lee engaged on the bad and damnable side?
October 18.—A newwhereascalling for three hundred thousand volunteers. The people will volunteer.Oh this great people is ready for every sacrifice. But you, O you! who so recklessly waste all the people's sacrifices, will you volunteer more brains and less selfishness?
October 18.—And when all the efforts of great men converged to the re-election and election, Lee converged towards Washington. Be the people on their guard and warned!
Note.—The publication of this book has occurred at a culminating period of annoyances and inconveniences which may possibly have left traces in the volume now finished. The Author's residence in Washington—unprecedented delays of the mails—scarcity of compositors—and beyond all, the confusion from unavoidable duplication of proofs, have so annoyed the Author, that it is but just to make this brief explanation and apology.
Footnote 1:The men who, in the great French revolution, and under the leadership of Danton and of the municipality of Paris, massacred the political prisoners in September, 1792, are recorded in history under the name ofSeptembriseurs. Louis Napoleon may no less justly be called theDecembriseur, from that frightful massacre on the 2nd of December, from which he dates his despotism.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 2:I must here record that Mr. Carlisle, the eminent lawyer in Washington, although in every respect opposed to my political and social views, behaved, in this affair, as a thorough man of honor. I am sorry that on a similar former occasion, not in Washington, my political friends showed themselves not Carlisles.[Back to Main Text]