Part 17 (1/2)
d Copperheads of various hues and gradations.
Cliques a, b, and c, generated and fostered Copperheads, and facilitated their expansion.
e Imbeciles, lickspittles, politicians, etc.
f The Lincolnites, closely intertwined with the genus e; the Blair men, etc.
g The partisans of Chase. This clique is the most variously and most curiously composed. Honest imbeciles, makers of phrases, rhetors, heavy and narrow-minded, office-hunters, office expectants, politicians, contractors, admirers of pompousness and of would-be radicalism, all who turn round and round, and see not beyond their noses, etc.
Several minor cliques exist, but deserve not to be mentioned. Behind these mud-hills rises the true people, as the Himalayas rise above the plains of Asia.
August 4.-Why could not Everett, that good and true patriot, preside over our relations with Europe; or why is that thorough American statesman, Governor Marcy, dead! How different, how respected, how truly American would have been the character of our relations with Europe! No prophecies, no lies would have been told, no gross ignorance displayed!
August 4. L. B.-In the columns of the Times a friend of Halleck tries to make a great man of the General-in-chief. Halleck repudiates Burnside and Hooker, but claims the victory at Gettysburgh, because Meade, being a good disciplinarian, executed Halleck's orders. So from his room in G street Was.h.i.+ngton, Halleck directed the repulse of the furiously attacking columns. Bravo! more bravo as no telegraph connects Was.h.i.+ngton with Gettysburgh!
Meade being a good disciplinarian, the crime of Williamsport falls upon Halleck; the commander-in-chief is the more responsible, as the crime was perpetrated under his nose; about four hours' drive could have brought him to our army, and then Halleck in person could have directed the attack upon the enemy.
From all that transpires about Williamsport one must conclude that Lee must have known that he would not be seriously attacked, and that he was not much afraid of the combined disciplinarian generals.h.i.+p.
Further: Halleck claims for himself Grant's success, because Grant obeyed orders, and Rosecrans did the same. How astonis.h.i.+ng, therefore, that their campaigns ended in victories and not in such shame as Halleck at Corinth, in 1862. Rosecrans was inspired by telegraph to change defeat into victory; the indomitable Grant received by telegraph the fertility of resources shown by him at Vicksburgh. Oh! Halleck! you cannot succeed in thus belittling the two heroes, and you may tell your little story to the marines.
August 4.-The Proclamation on retaliation is a well-written doc.u.ment; but like all Mr. Lincoln's acts it is done almost too late, only when the poor President was so cornered by events, that s.h.i.+fting and escape became impossible. If I am well informed Stanton long ago demanded such a Proclamation, but Lincoln's familiar demons prevented it. Nevertheless Lincoln will be credited for what intrinsically is not his.
August 5: L. B.-Thomas-not Paul-Lincoln's pet, returns to the Mississippi to organise Africo-American regiments. For six months they organize, organize and have not yet fifteen thousand in field. If Stanton had been left alone, we would have to-day in battle order at least fifty thousand Africo-Americans.
August 5: L. B.-All computed together, among all Western Continental European nations, the Germans, both here and in Germany, behave the best towards the North. I mean the genuine German people. Thinkers and rationalists are seldom, if ever, found on the wrong side. I rejoice to see the Germans behave so n.o.bly.
August 5.-The Peterhoff condemned, notwithstanding all the efforts to the contrary of our brilliant, versatile and highly erudite in international laws Secretary of state. But Mr. Seward will not understand the lesson. How could he?
August 5: L. B.-At least for the fiftieth time, Seward insinuates to the public that we are on the eve of a breach with England-but Seward will prevent it. Oh, Oh! Yes, O Seward! when backed by the iron clads and by twenty-two millions of a brave and stubborn people!
August 5: L. B.-Poor Stanton, I pity him! After Weed comes the ”little villain,” with his puffs. Happily, the World abuses Stanton, and this alone makes up even for the applause of Weed and his consorts.
August 7: L. B.-Coffey, a.s.sistant Attorney-General, published a legal, official opinion on maritime, commercial copperheadism; that is, when an American vessel, from an American port, is sent in ballast to a neutral port to load there, afterwards to run the blockade, Coffey proves it to be treason and criminality. The doc.u.ment is clear, logical, precise and not wordy: not in the style of the State Department logomachy. Why, O why cannot such younger men be at the head! Emanc.i.p.ation would have been carried out, slavery destroyed, the Union restored, rebels crushed, and the French murderers and imperial lackeys would cut very respectful capers to please a great people.
August 8: L. B.-I shudder as I pa.s.s in review what little is done at such an enormous expenditure of human limbs and of human life, not to speak of squandered time, labor and money.
It seems that the prevailing rule is to reach the smallest results at the greatest possible cost. General Scott, Seward and Lincoln early laid down that rule. McClellan, that quintessence of all unsoldierlike capacities, faithfully continued what was already inaugurated. Halleck almost perfected it; and so it became a chronic disease of the leading spirits in the Administration, Stanton and Welles excepted. That sacrilegious, murderous method and rule, at times was forcibly violated by Grant, by Rosecrans, by Banks, by the glorious Farragut, by Admiral Porter. The would-be statesmen either see nothing or do not wish to see what ill-disposed minds could consider to be an almost premeditated slaughter.
I know too well that every initiation is with sacrifice or blood. It is a law of progress, absolute, not made by man, but cut out for him by fate or providence. In a stream of his mother's life-blood man enters this world; by the blood of the Redeemer the Christian becomes initiated to another, called a better world. Sacrifice and blood prevail throughout the eons of the initiation of human societies and religions. Through sacrifice and blood the Reformation became a redeemer. Great results are reached at great cost. I am an atom in a generation which, to a.s.sert her deep, earnest convictions, never caved in before blood and sacrifice; a generation that has labored and still labors, spreads seed and begins to harvest; a generation which regrets nothing, and cheerfully takes the responsibility of its actions. And with all this, the men of convictions and of undaunted revolutionary courage in Europe, bestowed and bestow more care upon any unnecessary sacrifice of human life than I witness here. By heavens! Marat, Saint Just, Robespierre, could be considered lambs when compared with the faiseurs here. And Marat, Saint Just, and Robespierre were fanatics of ideas: here they are fanaticised by selfishness, intrigue, helplessness and imbecility.
August 9: L. B.-For the last few months men of sound and dispa.s.sionate judgment tried to convince me that there is somewhere, in high regions, a settled purpose to prolong the war until the next presidential election. I always disbelieved such a.s.sertions; but now, considering all this criminal sluggishness, I begin to believe in the existence of such a criminal purpose.
August 9: L. B.-All the open and secret Copperhead organs raise a shrill cry on account of what they pervert into McClellan's general Report of his unmilitary campaigns. When a commander is in the field, he is in duty bound, as soon as possible, that is, in the next few weeks, to send to his superior or to the Government, a Report of each of his military movements and operations. McClellan ought to have immediately made a Report to the Government after his bloodless victory at Centreville and Mana.s.sas; a victory crowned with maple trophies! Then McClellan ought to have sent another Report after the great success at Yorktown, and so on. Every period of his campaign ought to have been separately reported. It is done in all well organized governments and armies, and it is the duty of the staff of the army to prepare such periodical, successive Reports. Even if the sovereign himself takes the field, the staff of the army sends such Reports to the Secretary of War. n.o.body stood in the way of McClellan's doing what it was his imperative duty to do, and to do immediately.
But it is unheard of that a commander during a year at the head of an army, should take another year to prepare his Report. No self-respecting government would allow such an insubordination, or accept such a tardy Report. If a government should act upon such a Report, it would be rather by dismissing from service, etc., the sluggish-if not worse-commander.
The so-called ”McClellan's Report,” concocted by a board of choice Copperheads in New York, and of which the World's hireling was an amanuensis, that production is certainly an elaborate essay on McClellan's campaigns, is certainly bristling with afterthoughts and post facta, as pedestals for the fetish's altar. It must have on its face the mark of combination, but not of truth. Such a Report-not written on the spot, in the atmosphere of activity, not written by officers of the staff, not by the Chief-of-staff-such a Report cannot command or inspire any confidence; it has not, and ought not to have any worth in the Government's archives. McClellan may publish his memoirs, or essays, or anything else, and therein may s.h.i.+ne this labor of a dasippus a.s.sisted by vipers.
August 11: L. B.-In Was.h.i.+ngton they seem to insist that Grant shall take the command of the Potomac Army. If Grant accepts, he will be a ruined man. Grant ought to have Pope in memory. Grant soon will see stained his glorious and matchless military record. He will not withstand the cliques and the underground intrigues of craving, selfish and unsatisfied ambitions.