Part 54 (1/2)
For the editor, Delane, and for wise Southern sympathizers the fall of Savannah was a much harder blow than the mere loss of prestige to the _Times_[1259]. Courage failed and confidence in the South waned--momentarily almost vanished. Nearly two weeks pa.s.sed before the _Times_ ventured to lift again the banner of hope, and even then but half-heartedly.
”The capture of the city completes the history of Sherman's march, and stamps it as one of the ablest, certainly one of the most singular military achievements of the war.
”... The advantage gained for the Federal cause by the possession of Savannah is yet to be shown. To Sherman and his army 'the change of base' is indisputably a change for the better. a.s.suming that his position at Atlanta was as desperate as shortness of supplies and an interrupted line of retreat could make it, the command of a point near the sea-coast and free communication with the fleet is obviously an improvement. At the least the army secures full means of subsistence, and a point from which further operations may be commenced. On the other hand, the blow, as far as the Confederate Government is concerned, is mitigated by the fact that Savannah has been little used as a seaport since the capture of Fort Pulaski by the Federals at an early stage of the war.
”... But the fall of the city is a patent fact, and it would be absurd to deny that it has produced an impression unfavourable to the _prestige_ of the Confederacy[1260].”
Far more emphatic of ultimate Northern victory was the picture presented, though in sarcasm, by the _Times_ New York correspondent, printed in this same issue:
”No disappointments, however fast they may follow on the heels of each other, can becloud the bright suns.h.i.+ne of conceit and self-wors.h.i.+p that glows in the heart of the Yankee. His country is the first in the world, and he is the first man in it. Knock him down, and he will get up again, and brush the dirt from his knees, not a bit the worse for the fall. If he do not win this time, he is bound to win the next. His motto is 'Never say die.' His manifest destiny is to go on--prospering and to prosper--conquering and to conquer.”
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1197: Dodd, _Jefferson Davis_, p. 233.]
[Footnote 1198: See _ante_, p. 192.]
[Footnote 1199: Mason Papers. Spence to Mason, Jan. 22, 1864.]
[Footnote 1200: _The Index_, Feb. 18, 1864, p. 105.]
[Footnote 1201: _The Index_, March 24, 1864, p. 189, quoting the _Reader_ for March 19.]
[Footnote 1202: The first Southern meeting in England I have found record of was one reported in the _Spectator_, Nov. 16, 1861, to honour Yancey on his arrival. It was held by the _Fishmongers of London_.
Yancey was warmly received and appealed to his hosts on the ground that the South was the best buyer of English goods.]
[Footnote 1203: The 134 meetings here listed represent by no means all held, for Goldwin Smith estimated at least 500 after the beginning of 1862. (_The Civil War in America_, London, 1866.) The list may be regarded as an a.n.a.lysis of the more important, attracting the attention of _The Liberator_ and of Adams.]
[Footnote 1204: At a banquet given to Thompson in 1863 he was declared by Bright to have been the ”real liberator of the slaves in the English colonies,” and by P.A. Taylor as, by his courage ”when social obloquy and personal danger had to be incurred for the truth's sake,” having rendered great services ”to the cause of Abolition in America.”]
[Footnote 1205: _The Liberator_, Jan. 15, 1864. Letter to James Buffum, of Lynn, Dec. 10, 1863.]
[Footnote 1206: Goldwin Smith's pamphlet: ”The Civil War in America: An Address read at the last meeting of the Manchester Union and Emanc.i.p.ation Society” (held on January 26, 1866), pays especial tribute to Thomas Bayley Potter, M.P., stating ”you boldly allied yourself with the working-men in forming this a.s.sociation.” Smith gives a five-page list of other leading members, among whom, in addition to some Northern friends already named, are to be noted Thomas Hughes, Duncan McLaren, John Stuart Mill. There are eleven noted ”Professors,” among them Cairnes, Thorold Rogers, and Fawcett. The publicity committee of this society during three years had issued and circulated ”upwards of four hundred thousand books, pamphlets, and tracts.” Here, as previously, the activities of Americans in England are not included. Thus George Francis Train, correspondent of the _New York Herald_, made twenty-three speeches between January, 1861, and March, 1862. (”Union Speeches in England.”)]
[Footnote 1207: For text of Lincoln's pardon see Trevelyan, _Bright_, p.
296. Lincoln gave the pardon ”especially as a public mark of the esteem held by the United States of America for the high character and steady friends.h.i.+p of the said John Bright....” The names of leading friends of the South have been given in Chapter XV.]
[Footnote 1208: This was a commonplace of American writing at the time and long after. A Rev. C.B. Boynton published a book devoted to the thesis that England and France had united in a ”policy” of repressing the development of America and Russia (_English and French Neutrality and the Anglo-French Alliance in their relations to the United States and Russia_, Cincinnati, C.F. Vest & Co., 1864). Boynton wrote: ”You have not come to the bottom of the conduct of Great Britain, until you have touched that delicate and real foundation cause--we are too large and strong a nation” (Preface, p. 3). The work has no historical importance except that it was thought worth publication in 1864.]
[Footnote 1209: Lyons Papers. July 16, 1864. Copy.]
[Footnote 1210: Russell Papers. Lyons to Russell, Aug. 23, 1864.]
[Footnote 1211: June 3, 1864.]
[Footnote 1212: The _Times_, August 4, 1864. Letters dated June 27 and July 5, 1864.]
[Footnote 1213: _A Cycle of Adams' Letters_, II, p. 126. Henry Adams to his brother, May 13, 1864. ”The current is dead against us, and the atmosphere so uncongenial that the idea of the possibility of our success is not admitted.”]
[Footnote 1214: _Ibid._, p. 136. Henry Adams to his brother, June 3, 1864.]