The Irish excepted, all the other foreign-born Americans, but preeminently the Germans, are more in communion with the lofty, pure, and humane element in the thus called American principle, are therefore more in communion with the creed of the immense majority of Americans, than are they, the present dabblers in politics, the would-be leaders, (civil and military,) the would-be statesmen, all of whom are eaten up by the admixture into what is vital and perennial in the signification of America, of all that in itself is local, muddy, petty, accidental, and transient.
Oct. 23.-The recent publication of General Scott"s letter, and of a writing to President Buchanan, confirms my opinion that "the highest military authority in the land" faltered after March 4, 1861, and inaugurated that defensive warfare wherein we stick on the Potomac until this day.
Pseudo-liberal right-honorable Gladstone a.s.serts that Jeff. Davis "has made the South a nation;" then Abraham Lincoln, with W. H. Seward and G. B. McClellan, have destroyed a n.o.ble and generous nation.
England may now recognize the South, France may join in it, but other great European powers, as Russia, Spain, Prussia, Austria, will not follow in such a wake. The recognition will not materially improve the condition of the rebels, nor raise the blockade. But as soon as recognized, Jeff. D. may ask for a mediation, which the people-if not Mr. Seward-will spurn. An armed mediation remains to be applied, wherein, likewise, the other European powers will not concur. An armed mediation between the two principles will be the summum of infamy to which English aristocracy and English mercantilism can degrade itself; if Louis Napoleon joins therein, then his crown is not worth two years lease, provided the Orleans have --
If we should succ.u.mb under the united efforts of imbecility, of pro-slavery treason, of Anglo-Franco-European and of American perjury, then
Ultima clestis terram Astraea reliquit.
Oct. 25.-Only two or three days ago, in a conversation with a diplomat, Mr. Seward a.s.serted that both the extreme parties will be mastered-that is, the secessionists and the abolitionists. So Mr. Seward confesses the credo and the gospel of the New York Herald, the World, the Journal of Commerce, the National Intelligencer, and other similar organs of secession.
Notwithstanding the numerous complications naturally generated by the vicinity of Cuba to Secessia, the Spanish government, Count Serrano, the captain-general of Cuba, and Ta.s.sara, the Spanish minister here, all have maintained the most loyal relations towards the Federal government. It were to be very much regretted if a drunkard or a brute, as in the affair of the Montgomery, should disturb such relations.
Oct. 26.-McClellan-Blair-Seward tactics are crowned with splendid success. By his simplicity Mr. Lincoln aided therein as much as he could. The bad season is in; any successful campaign impossible. The rebels will be safe, and Gladstone justified.
It is so difficult to find out the truth concerning Fremont"s campaign against Jackson, that some generalship may, after all, be credited to him. At any rate Fremont is a better general than McClellan and the pets in command under him, and Fremont is with his heart and soul in the cause, of which the McClellanites cannot be accused, all of them, their fetish included, having no heart and no soul.
Old Europe, and, above all, official Europe, and even the Gladstones, must be vindicated. Official Europe generally appreciates nations by their leaders. Europe demands from such leaders actions and proofs of statesmanship, of high capacity, if not of heroism. The attempt to astonish Europe by speeches, by oratory, and, still worse, by second-rate legal arguments, by what is called papers here, and in Europe diplomatic circulars and despatches, is the same as the attempt to eclipse bright sunlight with a burning candle. But our orators, and, above all, Mr. Seward, flooded the European and the English statesmen with their, at the best, indifferent productions. Official Europe was favored with a shower of three various editions of papers relating to foreign relations in 1862, issued by the State Department, together with the Sanfords, the Weeds, the Hugheses, et hoc genus omne. Undoubtedly, the traitor Mason shows in England more of fire than does the cold, stiff, p.r.i.c.kly, and dignified son and grandson of Presidents; and then the average of our press! O, Jemima!
In his circular, September 22, to our agents in Europe, Mr. Seward belies not himself. The emanc.i.p.ation is rather coldly announced, and it is visible that neither Mr. Seward"s heart nor soul is in it.
The President has now the most reliable information that when Corinth was invested by Halleck, the rebel troops were wholly demoralized, and the enemy was astonished not to be attacked, as very little resistance would have been made. So much for General Scott"s gift in Halleck.
The almost daily occurrences here long ago would have exasperated the hot-headed and warm-hearted nations in Europe, and treason would have become their watchword. O American people! thou art warm-hearted, but of unparallelled endurance!
No European nation, not even the Turks, would patiently bear such a condition of affairs. Every where the sovereign would have been forced to change, or to modify, the personnel of his ministers and advisers; and Mr. Lincoln is in the hands of Messrs. Seward and Blair, both worse even than McClellan, and-cannot shake them off.
Now, for the first time in my life, I realize why, during the last stages of the dissolution of the Roman empire, honest men escaped into monasteries, or why, at certain epochs of the great French revolution, the best men went to the army.
Ah! to witness here the meanest egotism, imbecility, and intrigue, coolly, one by one, destroy the honor and the future of this n.o.ble people. Curse upon my old age! above all, curse upon my obesity! Curse upon my poverty! What a cesspool! what a mire! Only legal slaughterers all around! O, could I go to a camp! but, of course, not to one under McClellan. Sigel"s camp. Sigel"s men are not soulless; they fight for an idea, without an eye to the White House.
The rhetors, the stump-speakers, the politicians, and the intriguers hold the power, and-humanity and history shudder at the results.
Oct. 29.-McClellan, with his wonted intrepidity and rapidity, crossed the Potomac from all directions, pushes on Winchester, and-will find there wherefrom every animal willingly discharges itself.
A foreign diplomat, one of the most eminent in the whole corps, said yesterday, "No living being so ardently prays for rain as does McClellan; rain will prevent fighting, marching, &c." Such is the estimation of our hero.
Fevers decimated many regiments at Harper"s Ferry. If McClellan would have marched only five miles a day, fighting even such battles without any generalship, as he did at Antietam, the army would be healthier, and by this time would be in Richmond.
The decision of the court of inquiry between a patriot and the incarnation of West Point McClellanism, between Martindale and that Fitz-John Porter, ought to open the eyes of any one, but-not those of Mr. Lincoln.
Only two days ago Mr. Lincoln declared, that the reason why McClellan and his pets are not removed is, not any confidence in McClellan"s capacity, but to preserve the political balance between the republican and the democratic parties.
If there exist such spiritual creations as providence, genii, or angels watching over the destinies of nations, then, at the sight of Lincoln-Seward-Blair doings, providence, angels, genii avert their faces in despair.
Oct. 30.-New regiments coming in. It cuts into the deepest of the heart to see such n.o.ble and devoted fellows going to be again wantonly slaughtered by the combined military and civic inefficiency of McClellan-Lincoln-Seward, and, above all, by their utter heartlessness.
When the rebels invaded Maryland, the fighting generals, as Heintzelman, advised to ma.s.s the troops between the rebels and the Potomac, cut them from their bases and communications, push them towards the North without a possibility of escape, instead of throwing them back on the Potomac. Harper"s Ferry would have been saved. Every progress made by the rebels in a Northern direction would have a.s.sured their ruin; soon their ammunition would have been exhausted, and surrender was inevitable. But this bold plan of a fighting general could not be comprehended by pets and pretorians. Since, daily and daily occasions occur to destroy the rebels; but that is not the game. Instead of cutting the rebels from Gordonsville and Richmond, which could have been done any time during the last five weeks if Heintzelman and Sigel were not so thoroughly weakened by an ignorant, or worse, distribution of troops, McClellan with all his might pushes the rebels back to Richmond, back on their bases and their resources. O, poor country!
Even I feel humiliated to continually ascertain, by various direct and indirect sources from Europe, in what little estimation-if not worse-is held our administration by the princ.i.p.al statesmen and governments of the old world.
NOVEMBER, 1862.
Empty rhetoric - The future dark and terrible - Wadsworth defeated - The official bunglers blast every thing they touch - Great and holy day! McClellan gone overboard! - The planters - Burnside - McClellan nominated for President - Awful events approaching - Dictatorship dawns on the horizon - The catastrophe.
O G.o.d, O G.o.d! to witness how, by the hands of Lincoln-Seward-McClellan, this n.o.blest human structure is crumbled-and, perhaps, soon
Pulvere vix tactae poterunt monstrare ruinae.
May G.o.d preserve this people-those n.o.ble patriots, of which Wadsworth, Wade, Potter of Wisconsin, Stanton, Governor Andrew, and many others are the types, when the country will be ruined and rended by the firm, Lincoln-Seward-McClellan, to realize the pang,-
Nessun maggior" dolor" che ricordarsi dell tempo felice Nella miseria.
O, I know what it is!
Mr. Seward"s letter, October 28, to Messrs. Connover and Palmer, is a display of that empty rhetoric whose dust he is wont to throw into the eyes of the good-natured ma.s.ses. His plea for united action-of course with him-is the most bitter irony on himself. Mr. Seward"s policy and action are at the helm, and he piloted "our n.o.ble ship of state" on worse breakers than those "of eighteen months ago."
Mr. Seward"s letter is dumb on the object of the Cooper meeting. Of course, Mr. Seward would rather swallow a viper than applaud the abolition of slavery.
Nov. 5.-Lincoln-Seward politically slaughtered the republican party, and with it the country"s honor. The future looks dark and terrible. I shudder. Dishonor on all sides. Lincoln will not understand to use the lease of power left to him-or to fall as a man. But to be candid, most of the thus called leaders prepared this defeat, and most of them at the last moment may lack decision and dignity. How repeatedly I warned the Sumners, Wilsons, and other wiseacres, that such will be the end, that the people at large will become exasperated by Lincoln"s administration!
The issue brought before the people was all but dignified. It would have been better to make a straightforward issue against the incapacity and the democratic ill-will of McClellan, than to dodge the question, and force honest and n.o.ble men to speak against their convictions. The issue, as made, was concocted by journalists, by politicians; but not by statesmen, not by genuine great leaders.
Seward triumphs. His insincerity preeminently contributed to defeat Wadsworth. Mephisto-like, he rejoices in thus having humbled the pure and radical patriots.
At any rate, I shall try to expose Seward. Arrive que pourra. But for him the sacred cause would have been victorious, and now-horror! horror!
The pro-Romanist clergy is more furiously and savagely pro-slavery than are the Rhetts, the Yanceys, in the South; the poor Africo-Americans are, if not the truest Christians in this country, at any rate their Christianity is sublime when compared with the pro-Romanism.
O, for civic intrepidity, or all is lost! High-minded, intrepid, self-forgetful civism and abnegation alone can avert the catastrophe. Such is the ma.s.s of the people-but its leaders!
Nov. 8.-Hooker has the military instinct in him which lights the fire, and the inspiration of the G.o.d of battles; as Halleck has nothing of the one and of the other, and as Mr. Lincoln is-Mr. Lincoln, so Hooker is not to be put in command of the army. Lincoln and Halleck will find out their man. Similis simili gaudet, or, przywitala sie dupa z wiechciem.
Nov. 9.-The official bunglers have blasted every thing they touched: the people"s virgin enthusiasm and unparalleled devotion; they have endangered the country"s safety. It is to hope for a miracle to expect any thing for the better at the hands of the bunglers. Will the shallow rhetors, will the would-be leaders in the Congress, be as subservient to the bunglers as they have been up to this hour?
Nov. 9.-Great and holy day! McClellan gone overboard! Better late than never. But this belated act of justice to the country cannot atone for all the deadly disasters, will not remove the fearful responsibility from Lincoln-Seward-Blair, for having so long sustained this horrible vampire. Now is Seward"s turn to jump.
It must be acknowledged, in justice to the average of the better cla.s.s of planters, that the superficial, sociable intercourse with them is more easy, and what is commonly considered more European, than is similar intercourse with any corresponding cla.s.s in the North. Therein consists the whole attraction exercised by the Southerners on Europeans visiting America-the diplomats included. I, for one, am always uneasy, anxious, as if touching hot iron, when in intercourse here with men with whom I am very intimate, (on the outside,) and who now are in power. I never felt so out of the track when-once-in intercourse with sovereigns, and with eminent men in Europe.
Nov. 11.-General Burnside succeeds to McClellan-gives a military ovation to his predecessor. In his order of the day, Burnside pays homage to McClellan, and thus implicitly condemns the government. Burnside permits McClellan to issue such a parting word as must shake the army and the country.
Nov. 12.-The democrats nominate McClellan for the next presidency. Thus Mr. Lincoln"s helplessness, Seward"s hatred of the republican creed, the treason, the imbecility, the intrigues of various others, the lack of civic energy in the New York republican press and in the republican politicians, except some repeatedly mentioned in this Diary,-all this combined has built up a pedestal for such a McClellan!
Strange and awful events may occur even before the end of Mr. Lincoln"s administration. The democratic leaders are perverse, unprincipled, reckless, daring beyond conception; success is their creed, and no conscience, no honor restrain them; and in the management of the public opinion and of their party the democrats have evidenced a skill far above that of the republican leaders; further, the democrats evoke the vilest, the most brutish pa.s.sions dormant in the ma.s.ses; the democrats are supported by all that is brutal, savage, ignorant, and sordid; and, to crown and strengthen all, the democrats, united to Romanist priesthood, rule over the Irishry.
And thus the relentless hatred with which the democrats persecute any elevated, n.o.ble, humane aspiration; the helplessness, the incapacity of the official and unofficial leaders of the republican party: both these agencies combined may deal such a blow to the pure and humane republican creed that it may not recover therefrom during the next twenty-five years.