Part 11 (1/2)
April 26.-Whoever will dispa.s.sionately read the various statutes published by the 37th Congress; will speak of its labors as I do, and the future historian will find in those statutes the best light by which to comprehend and to appreciate the prevailing temper of the people.
April 27.-Rhetors and some abolitionists of the small church-not Wendell Phillips-still are satisfied with mistakes and disasters, because otherwise slavery would not have been destroyed. If they have a heart, it is a clump of ice, and their brains are common jelly. With men at the head who would have had faith and a lofty consciousness of their task, the rebellion and slavery could have been both crushed in the year 1861, or any time in 1862. Any one but an idiot ought to have seen at the start, that as the rebels fight to maintain slavery, in striking slavery you strike at the rebels. The blood spilt because of the narrow-mindedness of the leaders, that blood will cry to heaven, whatever be the absolution granted by the rhetors and by the small church.
April 27.-Mr. Seward went on a visit to the army, dragging with him some diplomats. The army was not to forget the existence of the Secretary of State, this foremost Union-saviour, and the candidate for the next Presidency. Others say that Seward ran away to dodge the Peterhoff case.
April 27.-How the politicians of the Times and of the Chronicle l.u.s.tily attack-NOW-McClellan. If I am well informed, it was the editor of the Chronicle, himself a leading politician, and influential in both Houses, who instigated Lovejoy, Member of Congress, to move resolutions in favor of McClellan for the battle at Williamsburgh, where McClellan did what he could to have his own army destroyed.
April 28.-Mr. Seward elaborated for the President a paper in the Peterhoff case-and, horribile dictu, as I am told-even the President found the argument, or whatever else it was, very, very light. The President sent for the chief clerk to explain to him the unintelligible doc.u.ment-and more darkness prevailed. Bravo, Mr. Seward! your name and your place in the history of the times are firmly nailed!
April 28.-The time will come, and even I may yet witness it, when these deep wounds struck by the rebellion will be healed; when even the scars of blows dealt to the people by such Lincolns, Sewards, McClellans, Hallecks, the other minor gens, will be invisible-and this great people, steeled by events, will be more powerful than it ever was. Then the Monroe doctrine will be applied in all its sternness and rigor, and from pole to pole no European power will defile this continent. The so-called Americo-Hispano-Latin races humbugged by Europe, will have found how cursed is any whatever European influence. The main land and the Isles must be purified therefrom. Will any European government, power, or statesman permit the United States to acquire even the most barren rock on the European continent? The American continent is equal, if not more to Europe, and the degrading stigma of European colonies and possessions must be blotted from this American soil.
April 29.-The President appoints a day of fasting and prayer. Well! it is not for the people to fast and to pray, but for the evil-doers. Lead on, Mr. Lincoln, attended by Seward and Halleck-all in sackcloth and ashes.
April 29.-The President's and General Martindale's proclamations officially recognize the existence of G.o.d. It is consoling, and knocks down the far-famed Deo erexit Voltaire.
April 29.-To the right and to the left I hear praise of Mr. Chase as the great financier. Well he may be praised, having in his hand thousands and thousands of cows to be milked. The financier is the people, and prevents Chase from ruining the country.
April 29.-A Richmond paper calls McClellan a compound of lies and of cowardice. McClellan, the fetish of Copperheads and of peace-makers. The Richmond paper must have some special reasons which justify this stern appreciation.
April 30.-The World, a paper born in barter, in mud and in shamelessness, condemns General Wadsworth's name to eternal infamy. What a court of honor the World's scribblers! The one a hireling of the brothers Woods, and sold by them in the lump to some other Copperhead financier; the other a pants and overcoats stealing beau. The rest must be similar.
April 30.-The abomination of slavery makes such a splendid field to any rhetor attacking that curse. Were it not so, how many rhetors would be abolitionists?
MAY, 1863.
Advance - Crossing - Chancellorsville - Hooker - Staff - Lee - Jackson - Stunned - Suggestions - Meade - Swinton - La Fayette - Intrigues - Happy Grant - Rosecrans - Halleck - Foote - Elections - Re-elections - Tracks - Seward - 413 - etc., etc., etc.
May 1.-General anxiety about Hooker. If he successfully crosses the river, this alone will count among the most brilliant actions in military history. To cross a river with a large army under the eyes, almost under the guns of an enemy, concentrated, strong, vigilant, and supported by the population, would honor the name of any world-renowned captain.
May 2.-Mr. Seward forces upon the Department of the Navy, instructions for our cruizers that are so obviously favorable to blockade-runners, that our officers may rather give up capturing. Mr. Seward's instructions concede more to England, than was ever asked by England, or by any neutral from a belligerent of a third cla.s.s power.
May 2.-How could Mr. Adams to that extent violate all the international proprieties, and deliver a kind of pa.s.s to a vessel loaded in England with arms and ammunition for Matamoras. It is an offence against England, and a flagrant violation of neutrality to France. Not yet time to show our teeth to them. And all this in favor of that adventurer and almost pickpocket Zermann, this mock-admiral, mock-general, whom twice here they put up for a general in our army. But for me they would have made him one, and disgraced the American uniform. This police malefactor was patronised by some New Yorkers, by Senator Harris and from Mr. Seward may have got strong letters for Mr. Adams. It is probable that Zermann sold Mr. Adams to secessionists who may have wished to stir up trouble by this pa.s.sport business. I am sure the affair will be hushed up and entirely forgotten.
May 2.-Glorious! glorious. Hooker crossed-and successfully. The rebels, caught napping, disturbed him not. Now at them, at them, without loss of an hour! The soldiers will perform wonders when in the hands of true soldiers for commanders, when led on by a true soldier.
O heaven! Why does Hooker publish such a proclamation? It is the merest nonsense. To thank the soldiers, few words were needed. But to say that the enemy must come and fight us on our own ground. O heaven! Hooker ought not to have had time to write a proclamation, but ought to pitch into the rebels, surprise and confuse them, and not wait for them. What is the matter? I tremble.
May 3.-Rumors, anxiety. The patriots feverish. One might easily become delirious.... Copperheads, Was.h.i.+ngton secessionists, spread all kinds of disastrous rumors. The secessionists here in Was.h.i.+ngton, are always invisible when any success attends our arms; but when we are worsted, they are forth coming on all corners, as toads are after a shower of rain.
May 4.-Confused news, but it seems that Hooker is successful. Still not so complete as was expected. Hooker's manuvring seems heavy, slow.
The Copperheads more dangerous and more envenomed than the secessionists. And very natural. The secesh risks all for a bad cause and a bad creed. But the World has no conviction, only envy and mischief, and risks nothing.
May 5.-Nothing decided; nothing certain. From what I can gather, the new generation or stratum of generals fights differently from the style of the Simon-pure McClellan tribe. They are in front, and not in the rear according to regulations.
Halleck digs, digs entrenchments around Was.h.i.+ngton. I meet battalions with spades. Engineers show their poor skill! and Mr. Lincoln is comforted to be strongly defended!
May 5.-Night, storm, rain. News rather doubtful. Stanton said to me that he believes in Hooker, even if Hooker be unsuccessful. Bravo! Not want of success condemns a general, but the way and manner in which he acted; and how he dealt with events.
May 6.-Seward is bitterly attacked by the World, and by other Copperheads. I could not unite with a World and with Copperheads to attack even a Seward. They are too filthy.-Arcades ambo.