{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_20565/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_20565","id":"gutenberg_20565","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20565","summary":null,"tags":["Category: American Literature","Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: History - American","Category: History - Modern (1750+)","Category: Journals","Category: Politics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Category: Teaching & Education","Continental Monthly","Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals","United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals"],"text":"Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Janet Blenkinship and the\nOnline Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net\n(This file was produced from images generously made\navailable by Cornell University Digital Collections)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE\n\nCONTINENTAL MONTHLY:\n\nDEVOTED TO\n\nLITERATURE AND NATIONAL POLICY:\n\nVOL. VI.--AUGUST, 1864.--No. II.\n\n\n\n\n+--------------------------------------------------------------------+\n|Transcriber's note: Obvious printer errors have been corrected. All |\n|other inconsistencies are as in the original.                       |\n+--------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\n\n\n\nAMERICAN CIVILIZATION.\n\nSECOND PAPER.\n\n\nAs a nation we are fast losing that reverence for the powers that be\nwhich is enjoined by Holy Writ, and without which no form of government\ncan be lasting, no political system can take a firm hold upon the\naffections of the people. The opposition press teems with vituperation\nand personal abuse of those whom the people themselves have chosen to\ncontrol the public policy and administer the public affairs. The\nincumbent of the Presidential chair, so far from receiving that respect\nand deference to which his position entitles him, becomes the victim of\nslander and vilification, from one portion of the country to another, on\nthe part of those who chance to differ with him in political sentiments.\nEven beardless boys, taking their cue from those who, being older,\nshould know better, are unsparing in the use of such terms as\n'scoundrel,' 'fool,' 'tyrant,' as applied to those whom the people have\ndelighted to honor, either unconscious or utterly heedless of the\ndisgust with which their language inspires the older and more\nthoughtful. And thus it has become a recognized fact that no man's\nreputation can withstand the trial of a four years' term of service in\nthe Presidential office. While this is in a great measure the reaction\nfrom the king worship of the Old World, it is nevertheless a blot upon\nour civilization, a departure from those lofty and noble sentiments\nwhich characterize every advanced stage of human intellect, in which the\nsupremacy and inviolability of the law is acknowledged, and in which the\nruler is reverenced as the representative and impersonation of the law.\nAnd as, in such a stage, respect for the magistrate and the law mutually\nreact upon each other, so in the present state of affairs the tendency\nis, in the course of time, to reach from the ruler to the edict which he\nadministers, and thus to beget a disrespect and disregard of law itself,\npaving the way to that violence and mob rule which, in the present state\nof humanity, must inevitably attend the establishment of the democratic\nprinciple.\n\nThe remedy is to be found in reform in the education of our youth,\nwhereby the utmost respect for the law and for those by whom it is\nadministered shall be inculcated as the groundwork of all patriotism and\nnational progress, while at the same time cultivating a loftier\nappreciation of the blessings of social order and harmony, and of\nwell-regulated liberty of thought, speech, and action, and a purer\nstandard of right. Yet even this will be of little avail except in\nconnection with the abatement, through the strong good sense of a\nthinking and upright people, of that national nuisance of bitter and\nunmerciful political partisanship of which we have spoken, all of whose\ntendencies are to evil, and so removing from the eyes of our youth a\nlow, unworthy, and degrading example, which they are too prone to\nfollow. The child will tread, to a great degree, in the steps of the\nfather, and the whole course of his intellectual life be governed, more\nor less, by the principles and prejudices which he is accustomed every\nday to hear from the lips of a parent, who is necessarily the teacher\nand, in a great measure, the moulder of his infant mind. How careful,\nthen, ought every parent to be of the principles which he inculcates and\nthe examples which he sets in his conversation, especially when that\nconversation is directed to a condemnation of the motives or the acts of\nthe ruling powers!--lest the child be some time inclined to enlarge upon\nhis views, and carry his deductions farther than he himself ever\ndreamed, till he shall finally be led into a contempt of the\ninstitutions as well as of the rulers of his native land, through a\nfather's teaching, and so grow up an embryo traitor, ready at the first\nsignal to embark in any revolutionary scheme or wild enterprise of\nvisionary reform, such as have been and are still the disturbers of our\nnational prosperity. For an example of such a result in our day we have\nbut to look at the youth of the Southern States, whose fiery treason,\nfar exceeding that of their elders, is nothing more than the outgrowth,\nthe legitimate extension and development of that bitter denunciation of\nrulers who chanced to be unpopular with their fathers, of that\nunrestrained license of speech which left nothing untouched, however\nsacred, however holy it might be, which chanced to stand in the way of\ngross and sordid interest. The ideas of the hot-blooded, fire-eating\nSouthern youth of to-day, the recklessness and the treason, the\ndenationalizing spirit of revolution and blood which so readily\nmanifests itself in contempt of the old flag, and the direst hatred of\nall that their fathers held sacred and laid down their lives to\nsustain--all this is but the idea, intensified and developed, of the\nSoutherner of a bygone generation; it is but the natural deduction from\nhis conversation and life, pondered over by the child, fixed deeply in\nhis heart as the teaching of a revered tutor, and carried out, by a\nnatural course of reasoning, to its extreme in the parricidal rebellion\nof to-day. And yet that idea was, in its inception, apparently harmless\nenough, being nothing more than that denunciation and vituperation of\nthe political leaders and the ruling powers which chanced to be in the\nopposition, whereby the child was in due course of time weaned from his\ncountry, and taught to look lightly upon and speak lightly of that which\nof old time was only mentioned with love and reverent awe.\n\nNor is this the only reform which is needed in the education of our\nyouth. The phrase 'completing one's education' is used to-day with utter\nlooseness, and applied to that period when the youth leaves the school\nor college for the busy walks of life. How much of error is contained in\nsuch an application of the term he well knows who, after some years of\nworld life, can look back upon his college days and see what a mere\nsmattering of knowledge he gained within the 'classic shades,' and how\npoorly _educated_ he was, in any and every sense of the word, how ill\nfitted for the realities of work-day life, when first he emerged in\nself-sufficient pride from the sacred walls, and launched boldly out\nupon the world. At the time when, according to the popular acceptation\nof the term, the education is completed, it is in truth but just begun;\nand he who, upon the slender capital of college lore, should set himself\nup for a finished man, one competent to take upon himself the duties,\nresponsibilities, and labors of active life, would soon find to his\nsorrow that he was yet but a babe in wisdom, and yet needed a long and\nsevere discipline ere he could be considered one of the world's workers.\nIn the few years devoted, in our country, to the education of youth,\nlittle more can be done than to teach them the value of knowledge and\nthe proper method and system of its acquisition, leaving to the\nexertions of the after years that education of the mind and development\nof the intellectual powers which constitute the finished man. And this\nshould be the object of all our schools, for females as well as for\nmales, to inculcate the truth that the true education begins where the\nschools leave off, and depends entirely upon the scholar himself, aided\nonly by that groundwork of preparation, that systematizing of effort,\nimparted by the tutor in the tender years. This end should be ever\nbefore the teacher's eyes, and the whole course of study adjusted with a\nview thereto. And the instruction imparted should be of such a character\nas most thoroughly to fit the student for future study, giving him a\nfirm foothold upon the most essential branches of knowledge, from which\nhe may advance steadily and securely when left to himself; frequently\nwarning him that this is but the beginning of great things, and that the\nabstrusities of wisdom, wherein is all its aesthetic beauty and its\nholiness--all its moral good--lies far beyond, where it can only be\nreached by the most patient, persevering, and unremitting toil; not\nforgetting, at the same time, to point out the glorious reward which\nawaits the seeker of truth. The effect of such a system would soon be\nfelt, not only in our national life, but in our very civilization. For\nthus would be thrown out upon our society, year after year, a class of\nthinkers, of earnest, working, strong-minded men and women, searchers\nafter truth and disciples of the highest good, instead of the crowd of\nhalf-fledged intellectual idlers who yearly emerge from our schools with\nthe conceited idea that the course of study is finished, the paths of\ninvestigation fully explored, and that life is henceforth a holiday from\nstudy. Under such a giant impulse our society could not but advance with\nenormous strides in all that pertains to true civilization, since\nthinkers would then be the rule instead of the exception, and talent\nalmost universal, which is now, like angels' visits, comparatively 'few\nand far between.' This is no Utopian vision: it is a reality within the\nscope of human exertion and the capacity of our people of to-day, if men\nwould but exert themselves to such an end, and properly apply the energy\nand labor which is now too often excited upon unworthy and trifling\nobjects. The realm of knowledge is so boundless that a lifetime is\nlittle enough and short enough to give to mortals even a smattering of\nthat sea of wisdom which swells around the universe, and he alone can\nclaim to be a seer who devotes the whole of a long existence to the\ninvestigation of truth; and only when this fact is impressed upon the\nminds of youth can they be made to appreciate their true position in\nexistence, and made efficient workers in the great cause of humanity.\n\nYet all education is vain, all intellectual development is of little\nbenefit, all civilization hollow in its nature and ephemeral in its\nduration which lacks the moral element. And by the word _moral_ in this\nconnection is intended to be understood not only what is usually\nconveyed in the term morality, but also all religion. It is a\nwell-established fact, more particularly exemplified in our own history,\nthat all political parties founded upon an ephemeral issue, inevitably\ndisappear with the final adjustment of the questions upon which they are\nbased, having nothing left to rest upon, so it is in the affairs of\nnations. In the weakness of human nature and the fallibility of all\nhuman prescience, no system or theory can be devised which shall endure\nthrough all time, which shall not become effete, useless, and even\nerroneous in the progress of human development, and in the ever-shifting\ncondition of human society. Hence any government and society founded\nupon a system of merely human devising, must, in the progress of events,\nfall to pieces, and give place to the results of a new and younger\ndevelopment. The law of God, as contained in Divine revelation, is alone\nunchangeable, unmodifiable. It is adapted to meet the requirements of\nall lands and all ages, to answer all the necessities of which human\nnature is capable, even to its extremest verge of development. Hence all\npolitical systems are durable only in proportion as they, in their\norganization, conform to the precepts of Divine law.\n\nWe have used the term 'moral element' as necessarily comprehending all\nreligion, for the reason that upon religion is necessarily based all\ntrue morality. There is nothing in the physical, and more especially in\nthe intellectual world, without a final cause; and that so-called\nmorality which exists entirely separate and distinct from religion, can\nbe based upon nothing other than self-interest, which, under different\nconditions and circumstances, would as unhesitatingly lead to evil. The\n'moral man' without religion could as easily be evil minded and\ndissolute in a community purely evil as he is upright and honorable in a\ncivilized and enlightened community of to-day, for the reason that his\nmorality is nothing more than deference to a certain standard of\nhonor--in other words, to the _tone_ of the society by which he is\nsurrounded, bringing with it all the benefits of high public estimation\nand a lofty position in society, which tone it must follow, be it good\nor bad: it is founded and built up in self-interest. Yet this very tone\nof society, and all these standards of honor and uprightness, when\ntraced to their origin, are found to arise from the precepts of\nrevelation. We are all, physically and intellectually, the creatures of\ncircumstance. Experience moulds and develops the intellect. Our moral\nnatures are not innate, but solely and entirely the result of the\ninfluences by which we are surrounded. There is in the soul no absolute\nstandard of right; if there were, uprightness would be the same the\nworld over. But the right of the heathen is a different thing from that\nof the Christian; the right of the Chinese or the Japanese is a\ndifferent thing from that of more enlightened nations; the right of one\nChristian community is different from that of another; and this because\nright, considered distinct from religion, is relative, and subject to\nall the modifications of different conditions of society. The 'Evil, be\nthou my good' of Milton's Satan is a delicate recognition of this fact.\nBut absolute right is a thing unknown to human _nature_; it can never be\ninnate, but comes from without. It can only be apprehended by the\nintellect as a thing of God, a part of His nature, given to us as a law,\na rule of action, which we can accept or not, taking upon ourselves the\nconsequences of its rejection. There can be no standard of absolute\nright other than the law of God; there can be no other invariable and\neternal rule of human action.\n\nAnd if this position be true of individuals, most assuredly is it true\nof nations, which are but individuals in the concrete, subject to the\nsame vicissitudes, governed by the same laws, physical and moral, and\nfollowing the same path of development. Only that form of government\nwhich recognizes the Supreme Being as the chief of rulers, and His law\nas the source and model of all human law, can be sure of truth and\njustice on its side, both in its dealings with other nations and in its\nregulation of its own internal affairs. Only such a form can work\nsteadily for the advancement of its people, both by leading them forward\nand by smoothing the rugged path to perfection, and removing every\nobstacle which impedes the national progress. However near the\nprinciples of our Government may approach to those of the Divine law,\nthere is still room and urgent necessity for reform. Yet, in the\nuniversal disfavor into which theocracies have fallen, and in the\nintense desire which pervades our people to avoid the complicated evils\nof a union between church and state, every attempt to unite religious\nprinciples with those of government is looked upon with positive alarm;\nand justly so, since the experience of past centuries proves that both\nthrive best in separate spheres, however near they may approach each\nother in the abstract, and that when united, the one is apt to prove a\nhamper on the other, through the introduction of error and corruption;\nwhile, separated, they act as a mutual restraint, each tending to\ncontrol the abnormal development of the other. For these reasons reform\nin this particular must move from the people to the government, not from\nthe government to the people.\n\nAnd here we come to the root of the whole matter, to the field where\nreform is most needed, that is, in the moral condition of our society.\nWhile there are few nations in which there is such a diversity of\nreligious views and multiplicity of religious sects, there are few\npeoples which are so proverbially irreligious as our own. Yet our\ncondition in this respect is rather a neutral one than otherwise, for\nwhile we are without any positive immorality which should make us\npreeminent above other nations for vice, there is, nevertheless, in our\nmidst, little of that simple, trusting, unquestioning faith, which is\nthe 'substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not\nseen'--little of that all-pervading and all-powerful reverence for\nsacred things, that deep religious feeling which forms a portion of the\nvery life of most of the nations of the Old World. This is nothing more\nthan the reaction of the stern Puritan tenets of the colonial times. It\nis the logical result of those dark and gloomy theories which aimed to\nmake religion not only unpalatable but absolutely repelling to the young\nand the ardent, causing them to fly to the opposite extreme of throwing\naside religion to 'a more convenient season,' when the pleasures of life\nshould have lost their charm, and they themselves should be drawing near\nthe close of their pilgrimage. That theory which made a deadly sin of\nthat which was at worst but a pardonable misdemeanor and perhaps wholly\ninnocent in its nature, could not fail in time to react violently, first\nthrough the process of disgust, then through that of inquiry, and\nfinally to the carrying of speculation to extremes, and practically\npronouncing harmless and innocent that which was really vice. The\npopular mind, rebounding from the Puritan ideas, did not pause to\ndiscriminate between the truth and error which were so intimately\nmingled in their system, but, sweepingly denouncing all the theories\nwhose most prominent characteristics were revolting, involved in the\ndenunciation and rejection much of pure and simple truth, and ran\nrapidly along the path of revolution, heedless of every warning,\nunchecked by the obstacles which Truth threw in its way, down to the\npresent time of almost universal looseness.\n\nAnother effect of this rebellion of the national mind against the\nPuritan theories is seen in the almost yearly inauguration of some new\nsect in religion, in a land which is already so crowded with diverse and\nantagonistic religious organizations that it might be termed the land of\nsects. However right or wrong in a religious point of view, the Puritans\ncommitted the great _social_ mistake of establishing a new church,\ninstead of working earnestly to reform the old in those respects in\nwhich it seemed to them to have fallen into error, thereby destroying\nthe unity of the Christian world. Had the movement stopped here, less\nharm would have been done; but it was not of the nature of things that\nit should be so. The establishment of the principle that purity of\nworship and of belief was to be sought, and diversity of religious\nopinion to be gratified in separation and the erection of new\norganizations, rather than in the endeavor to purify the old and\nestablished form, at once threw wide open the door of schism, and with\nit, in the end, that of scepticism. The movement once begun could\nneither be checked nor controlled by any human effort. Others claimed\nthe right which they themselves had exercised, and the result was soon\nseen in the separation of one after another denomination from the\nPuritan Church, each, in its turn, to be divided into a score of sects,\naccording as circumstances should alter religious views. Were the\nprinciples of true religion in themselves progressive, were the\nteachings, of the gospel inadequate to or unfitting for all possible\nstages of human progress, or were they capable of development, the world\nmight then have been the gainer. Or, again, were reason infallible, the\nseparation of the churches would be an incalculable blessing, by\nsecuring to all minds a free investigation upon religious subjects. But\ninfidelity desires no more powerful coadjutor than human reason in its\nfreest exercise, because it is so liable to be led away by sophistry,\nand its invariable tendency is to reject as myths and fables all things\nwhich it cannot comprehend or for which it cannot see a material cause.\nPerfect reason is the twin brother and strongest supporter of faith; but\nreason as it exists in the present development of humanity is its most\ndeadly antagonist. The age of reason has fallen upon us, and its result\nis seen in a practical scepticism pervading the whole of our society,\nwhich in its extent and its injurious effects put to the blush the\nwildest speculations of the most radical German metaphysicians. Every\nday we see around us men of no religious profession, and little if any\nreligious feeling, calmly facing death without a tremor, without a\nthought of the awful beyond. And though the application of the term\ninfidel to such a man would not fail to arouse his fiercest indignation,\nhis indifference to the events and the fate of the great hereafter can\narise from nothing else than an utter disbelief in the teachings of Holy\nWrit, in the truths of Christianity. Such men are but types of a class,\nand that class a very large portion of our population.\n\nThe evils of religious divisions are plain to be seen, even if they\nconsisted in nothing more than the division and consequent weakening of\nChristian effort. The church of God, torn by internal dissensions,\nbecomes almost powerless for the spread of the gospel, the greater\nportion of its strength and energy being exhausted in bolstering up its\ndifferent branches as against each other, and in proselytizing within\nitself. Where, if united, a small portion of its wealth and energy would\nsuffice to support in a nourishing condition the worship of a great\npeople, leaving an immense surplus to be directed to the evangelization\nof the heathen world, now, in its divided state, its power and immense\nmaterial resources are squandered in the support of innumerable\nfragments, each one of which costs as much in labor and in means as\nwould suffice to sustain the religion of the whole country if united.\n\nWorse than even this, the incessant bickerings of the Christian world\ntend to invalidate, in the minds of the unbelievers, not only among the\nheathen, but among ourselves, the teachings of that Word which is its\nprofessed guide. The 'See how these Christians hate each other!' is to\nreflecting minds outside the church's pale, an almost unconquerable\nargument against that religion which professes to be founded upon love.\nHence arises a great portion of that practical infidelity of which we\nhave spoken, and which is the bane of our civilization. No nation can be\ntruly great or noble or progressive without religion, and by as much as\nwe are departing, in our every-day life, from the pure teachings of the\ngospel, by so much are we tending to our inevitable downfall. The people\nmust have some high standard of moral excellence, something to elevate\nand purify the tone of society, to lead their aspirations upward away\nfrom the petty toils and cares and vexations, from the sordid desires\nand the animal propensities of life, in order to prevent them from\nfalling into that decay which is inevitably the result of corruption,\nfollowing hard upon a devotion to mere self-interest. We are, in a great\nmeasure, a nation of materialists, too much devoted to the pursuit of\nselfish and so-called practical aims, too little to the spiritual and\nthe ethereal. Reform must come, else the soul will become gross and\ngrovelling, and the nobler part of our natures, the more delicate and\nrefined sympathies of the heart, the finer faculties of the intellect,\nwill rust away with disuse, and the whole race become sensual, and\nfinally effete, however brilliant may be its individual exceptions. From\nwhat direction the needed reform is to come it is not for us to say.\nThat Almighty Providence which overrules an erring world will doubtless\nprovide a way for the regeneration of His people. The first great step\nis to awaken the people to a sense of the necessity of such a change,\nand some more powerful means must be employed to the accomplishment of\nthat end than have ever yet been applied to our civilization. And the\napostle who, in the hands of God, shall be the means of arousing the\nslumbering faith of our people, of awakening them to a full sense of the\ndanger, and of imparting new energy to the recuperative powers of the\nrace, will win for himself a loftier position in the world's\nappreciation than has yet been conceded to any mere mortal.\n\nAnother great and manifest evil in our society, and one closely\nconnected with that of which we have just spoken, is the inordinate love\nof wealth, and the elevation of the money god to the highest seat in our\ntemple of worship. Human nature craves distinction. The divisions and\ncastes in the society of the Old World, from the present day back to the\nremotest ages, is not only an evidence, but a practical exemplification\nof this fact. The abolition of all these distinctions consequent upon\nthe establishment of our republican government upon the ground of\npolitical equality, swept away from our ancestors almost the only means\nof gratifying this innate propensity. A hard-working, practical,\nagricultural people, with no literature, and little if any cultivation\nof the fine arts, there was but one road to distinction open to the mass\nof the population, and that lay through the avenues of wealth. Hence it\nwas but natural that affluence should take the place of the hereditary\nhonors of the olden times, and that the people should bow to the only\ndistinction, however spurious it might be, which elevated any portion of\nthemselves above their fellows. With all the evils connected with a\nhereditary aristocracy, the distinction which attends upon a nobility is\nin a great measure an ideal one. It is not either its wealth or power\nwhich constitutes its charm, but a certain nameless something pertaining\nto the ideal, which affects not only the tenants and retainers, but even\nour republican selves. It may well be questioned whether we have been\nthe gainers by substituting for such distinctions a gross and material\none, affecting the bodily senses alone--the animal part of our\nnature--and which contains little either to expand the mind or exalt the\naspirations. With us but comparatively few can become distinguished in\nthe ranks of literature or of art, or, indeed, in any of the higher or\nintellectual branches of human attainment; hence for the great mass\nthere is but one road to distinction, one object to claim every\nexertion--the pursuit of wealth. And as a natural consequence, we see\nevery art, every profession hinging upon this motive. Most of the evils\nconnected with the administration of our public affairs, the fraud and\ncorruption which are so prominent, the quadrennial scramble for place,\nwith its consequent degrading of those positions which should be those\nof the highest honor, may be traced to this one source. More than this,\nwe find the so-called aristocracy of our great cities--a moneyed one\npurely--excluding from its ranks those who earn their livelihood in the\npursuit of literature and art, and who, if true to their professions,\nare entitled to the very highest rank in society. There are of course\nexceptions, but not more than sufficient to prove the rule. A striking\nexemplification of the power of wealth among us is seen in these days of\nshoddy, when those who have hitherto moved in the humblest circles\nsuddenly take their positions among the 'upper ten thousand,' and are\ntreated with a deference to which they have all their lives been\nstrangers, by virtue of a successful contract or a towering speculation.\nThe effect of such a state of things upon our civilization is easy to be\nseen. A low motive is sure to bring down its followers to its own level.\nA people without a lofty and ennobling object is sure to fall into\ndecay. The grasping spirit which everywhere pervades our society is fast\nlowering our people to the level of a race of mercenary jobbers. Truth,\njustice, honor, purity, and even religion, are in a great measure lost\nsight of in the general scramble for gold, until the strictest\nintegrity, the most self-sacrificing honesty, are beginning to be looked\nupon as marvels, and we have won for ourselves among the nations of the\nworld the unenviable title of worshippers of the 'almighty dollar.'\nReligion itself is twisted and distorted into every imaginable shape to\nbring it into harmony with our all-absorbing pursuit: all our ideas of\npublic policy and of social progress are made to depend upon and\nmodified by this unworthy motive. We mean not to include those\nindividuals who, with loftier motives and a true appreciation of man's\nspiritual capabilities, are prominent among us, battling earnestly in\nthe cause of true progress; we are speaking of the mass of our\npopulation. Those few are the goodly leaven who are yet to prove the\nregeneration of our race. Bad as is the state of affairs in this\nrespect, it will, if left to itself, become infinitely worse as each\nsucceeding year rolls around, for the spirit of greed is progressive in\nits nature, growing fatter and fatter upon its success.\n\nYet, in another point of view, this same strife for wealth is one great\nsecret of American prosperity and progress. It is the motive power to\nthat energy which has peopled the wilderness, erected as if by magic a\nmighty republic among the savage wilds, and, above all, spread American\nideas, and with them the germ of human liberty, over the whole broad\nearth. To this spirit of greed upon our shores the Old World owes much\nof its advancement and most of those useful inventions which are fast\nrevolutionizing humanity itself. But we are not considering it in this\nlight; we are viewing it in its moral aspect, that respect in which it\nmost strongly affects true civilization, which must soon fall away and\nlapse into the condition of the ages long past, if it be not sustained\nby an enduring moral and religious element. The moral advancement must\nkeep pace with the intellectual, else the latter will some day reach\nthat point where extremes meet, and have its weary journey to commence\nagain.\n\nIt is to be hoped that this evil is already on the wane. It is to be\nhoped that the present stirring up of our society from its uttermost\ndepths, with its consequent exploding of worn-out theories, which have\nhitherto held their places only through our national lethargy--with its\nsweeping away of old-time prejudices, and mingling together of elements\nwhich have hitherto existed distinct and aloof from each other, will\nresult in bringing true merit to the surface, in awakening our people to\na loftier appreciation of the good and the true, thereby establishing a\nhigher moral standard among us; that purer motives will henceforth\nactuate our society. The fears which are entertained by some that the\npresent war will prove a severe shock to our civilization, are not\nsustained by the facts which are everywhere appearing around us. The\nfrequent demands upon the generosity and forbearance of a great people,\nthe constant calls for the exercise of the noblest qualities, the most\nself-sacrificing devotion, and that too in support of a great principle\nrather than of any present material interest, the very necessity for an\nexalted civilization and intellectual development on the part of the\nmasses, which shall enable them to see in that principle the groundwork\nof all their future well-being, both as regards material prosperity and\npolitical position, are constantly bringing before the people, in a\nclearer light than ever before, the blessings of honor and uprightness,\nthe necessity of national purity, and developing a moral element in our\nmidst, whose good effects will far outbalance the ephemeral and\nspasmodic immorality and vice which a state of war usually engenders.\nOur people are _becoming acquainted_ with those blessings of individual\nwell-doing and those principles of philanthropy to which they have for\nso long been comparative strangers. And it is this, together with the\nunveiling, through the present convulsion, of those errors, both in our\npolitical system and in our society, which have so nearly proved our\nruin, which will make this war in very truth the greatest blessing that\nhas ever befallen us. And if this moral progress shall be such and so\ngreat as to throw down the golden calf from his throne and make the\nplace of honor the reward of true merit alone, then shall we have cause,\nfor the remotest generations, to thank God for this seeming calamity\nwhich has fallen upon us.\n\nAnd these same facts, standing out as shining lights in the darkness,\ntend to show that we are, after all, not quite so sordid as we seem;\nthat, with all our worship of the money god, there is yet, away down in\nthe great American heart, a wealth of strong, true, generous feeling,\nready at the first call of sorrow and of suffering to spring forth and\nscatter its golden blessings even beyond the seas. It is not alone that,\nyears ago, when we were at peace and at the height of prosperity, many\nships left our shores laden down with food, the voluntary contributions\nof the American citizen to his starving brethren of the Emerald Isle;\nthough this of itself was enough to place our civilization on a level\nwith that of the most polished nation of the Old World. But even now,\nwhen we are struggling for our very existence, when every energy and\nevery material resource is being exerted to stem the tide of internal\ndissensions and crush out the hydra of internal treason; at a time when\nthe mother country has gone to every length short of open war to aid and\nassist those who are striving for our downfall, and her press is\nexhausting every epithet of vituperation and scurrilous abuse of us, who\nare battling so earnestly in our own defence, and who are entitled by\nevery truth of human nature to her warmest sympathy--a press which,\nadopting the phraseology of its Secession friends and allies, scruples\nnot to place the civilization of the slaveholding States far in advance\nof that of the 'Northern mudsills'--even now, when the cry of the\nstarving operatives of the English mills comes to us across the water,\nforgetting for the time all the abuse and maltreatment we have received,\nall the enmity and bitter hostility which the traitorous perfidy of\nEngland has engendered, more than one full-freighted vessel has left our\nports bearing grain to those whom their own proud aristocracy is either\npowerless or too niggardly to sustain. Is this not evidence of a\ncivilization considerably advanced beyond any which history has yet\nrecorded?--a civilization based upon the golden rule of Christianity,\nand upon that still more precious command: 'Love those that hate you,\nand do good to those that persecute you.' For it is in its moral aspect\nthat every civilization must in the end be judged; and that society\nwhich develops such noble principles and feelings as these, which\nmanifests itself in this higher region of spiritual excellence, in the\nexercise of these finer feelings of the heart, is certainly nearest to\nperfection, in that it follows most closely the law of God, the truths\nof divine revelation. When instances such as these occur on the part of\nany of the older nations of the world, it will do for them to boast of a\ncivilization superior to ours; but until their faith is shown by their\nworks, suffering humanity the world over will accord to us the palm. Nor\nwill it answer to ascribe to us an unworthy motive in this matter--a\ndesire to win credit in the eyes of the world. An individual might, with\nsome degree of plausibility, fall under such an imputation, but a great\npeople does not move spontaneously and unitedly in one direction from\nsuch a motive, since none but a pure and just principle can produce\nunity in the masses. Such an unworthy and degrading motive is the\nproperty of individuals, not of nations, even if it were possible for\nsuch an idea to be conceived at one and the same time by a multitude of\nminds. No! it was the spontaneous expression of a deep and pervading\nprinciple of American society--of American humanity--a free outpouring\nof the American heart; and as such it will stand upon the page of\nhistory as the evidence of a civilization behind none of its age.\n\nNor is this the only mark of the moral awakening of our people.\nInstances are every day appearing in our midst of this truest of\ncharity, not the least of which are the 'wood processions' of the\nWestern cities and towns; those long lines of wagons laden with fuel and\nprovisions for the families of the absent soldiers, whose sole object\nand motive is the comfort of those whose protectors and supporters are\nsustaining the country's honor in the field; evidences more striking\nthan the founding of charitable institutions or benevolent societies,\nsince the latter may, and too often does, arise from the most selfish\nand vainglorious motive, while in the former the individual is lost in\nthe many who press eagerly to bear their part in a noble work, in this\nspontaneous outpouring of true and heartfelt benevolence. From this same\nspirit arises the wonderful success which attends the efforts of\nsanitary commissions and soldiers' aid associations in alleviating the\nsufferings and softening the privations of our soldiers in the field.\nWith such evidences constantly appearing before our eyes of the deep and\nnoble feelings of the American heart, who can doubt that our\ncivilization is a progressive one, our enlightenment equal? Who can\ndoubt the capacity of the American people for good, or look with\nforeboding upon our future?\n\nAnother important sign of the times, as evincing our advancing\ncivilization, is the revival of art in our midst. In the midst of all\nour bustle and toil and eager strife for gain, there has ever been a\nsomething wanting to the completeness of our life, a something to fill\nand satisfy that yearning of the soul for aesthetic beauty, which is at\nonce an evidence of its progress and its capacity for diviner things.\nToo long have we been absorbed by the desires of our animal nature, in\nwhose pursuit there is little gratification to that finer portion of our\ninner selves which will not be silenced by anything short of the deepest\ndegradation. The people--the great people--need something--something\nhigher, more ennobling, more tender--to fill the vacant spot in their\nhearts and homes, to preserve the balance between the animal and the\nspiritual part of their lives, and to clothe their surroundings with a\nhigher and holier significance than can arise from the events and\nassociations of the work-day life. In art the missing link is found, and\nwhether it be the simple ballad in the evening circle or the modest\nprint that graces the humble cottage walls--and the humbler the\nhabitation the deeper the manifestation, because the more touching--it\nis but the expression of the people's appreciation of the needs, the\ncapacities, and the holier aspirations of the better part of humanity.\nHence the revival of art has a deep significance; it is something more\nthan a forced, an exotic, and hence ephemeral growth; it is the\nmanifestation of the awakening of the people to the aesthetic sentiment;\nit is the actual result of the intellectual and moral needs of society;\nit is in itself the striving of a great people for the beautiful and\ntrue. And as such it has a broad and deep foundation in the godlike in\nhuman nature, which shall insure not only its permanence but its\nprogress as long as the good and the true have any influence whatever\nupon our society. That we have had, until a comparatively late period,\nno art among us, is the result not of a lack of capacity to comprehend\nthe beautiful, but of the intense and all-absorbing passion for gain\nwhich has so nearly proved the bane of our society by shutting out the\nconsideration of better things: that art has so suddenly revived in our\nmidst is a proof that, so far from having our humanity, our political\nposition, our very civilization itself swallowed up in the love of the\nalmighty dollar, as has been predicted of us by foreign wiseacres, we\nhave been aroused to our danger and to a true appreciation of the better\npart of existence; which is itself an evidence of the elasticity and the\nrecuperative energy of our social system.\n\nIn literature our progress is not so flattering. In its effects upon\ncivilization a literature can only be judged by that portion of it which\ntouches the popular heart, which descends to the humblest fireside, and\nis most eagerly sought after by the ploughboy and the operative. All\nother, however brilliant it may be--and the more brilliant or profound\nthe farther it is generally removed from the minds of the masses--is to\nthem but as the stars of a winter night, cold and distant, radiating\nlittle warmth to the longing soul, too far away to awaken more than a\nfaintly reflected admiration. He who said, 'Give me to write the songs\nof a people, and I care not who makes their laws,' touched the tender\nspot in the great heart of humanity; he was a sage in that truest of\nphilosophy, the study of human nature. Though we have our princes in\nevery branch of literature, who are the result of and an honor to our\ncivilization, yet for their own results in moulding the tastes, the\nhabits, and the intellects of the common people, in contributing to\ntheir advancement, they fall far below the efforts of the veriest\npenny-a-liner. It is a lamentable fact of our society that while the\nmore solid literature scarcely pays, the flashiest of so-called 'flash\nliterature' brings down the golden shower. The writer of the lowest\npossible order of literary productions is enriched, and his name is\nfamiliar in the remotest corners of the land, while our monarchs of\nliterature are oftentimes poverty stricken and comparatively obscure;\nand that because the latter is confined to a comparatively small\naudience and patronage, while the former speaks to and for the masses;\nand, as a natural consequence, the former controls the tastes of the\ngreater portion of the reading community, and that too for anything but\ngood, since he reaps his golden harvest by pandering to the basest of\nappetites, the lowest of sensibilities and sympathies; thus retarding\nrather than accelerating the intellectual advancement of the people,\nthis being his material interest.\n\nAnd how great is the responsibility of those who thus speak to the ear\nof the simple and the unlearned! how terrible the retribution they are\nheaping up for themselves in the great hereafter, for thus prostituting\ntalent which might be made eminently useful in leading the minds of the\ncommon people to the highest and noblest of truths; in making purer and\nbetter in every sense of the word! The idea that the province of\nliterature, even of fiction, is simply to amuse, is exploded in the\nlight of advancing civilization. Every writer has a higher mission, and\naccordingly as he discharges the duty which his faculty lays upon him,\nis he true or false to the true end of his existence, a success or a\nfailure in the world of intellect and morality. The mission of all\nliterature is to make mankind both wiser and _better_, and the writer\nwho fails to appreciate and act upon this truth is worse than a useless\ncumberer of society; he is a curse to his age, and, however great his\npresent fame, will most assuredly be forgotten with the passing away of\nhis generation. For does not _all_ human effort resolve itself into this\none thing? Is there any work which we call good or great, or even\nimportant, which is not intended in some way to benefit mankind? Else we\nwere but butterflies, and our works but mists. In the past ages the\nworld has not seen and appreciated this fact; but the world of to-day\ndoes appreciate it, and will certainly set every worker upon his proper\npedestal, high or low, according as his efforts have conduced or not to\nthe welfare of humanity.\n\nPresent reform in this particular is not to be looked for; it must be\nexternal rather than internal. Could the whole mass of light literature\nbe at once and forever swept out of existence, the people would soon\nacquire a love of solid reading as ardent as that which now pervades the\nlower stratum of our society for 'yellow-covered' trash. For the love of\nknowledge is innate, and the people would necessarily seek for and find\namusement in such reading as could not fail to instruct and educate, to\nrevive this love of knowledge, and fan it into an ardent flame. But this\ncannot be done. The people will ever seek that reading which is most\ncongenial to their present tastes and habits, and there will ever be\nfound a legion of those who are eager to supply this sort of mental\npabulum--if it can be so called--for the sake of the golden equivalent.\nFor these reasons, the literature of the common people must ever follow,\nnot lead, their civilization; it must continue to be the outward and\nvisible sign of their progress, instead of the inward and spiritual\ngrace by which it is pervaded and sustained; and reform must be\ninaugurated and consummated in those other influences which tend to\nmould the moral man, and which must be so guided as to destroy all these\nlow and grovelling tastes, by lifting the man into a higher plane of\nbeing, in which the animal shall be wholly subservient to the spiritual.\nHence the province of the true philanthropist lies in those other paths\nwhich we have pointed out, rather than in this, since in them lies the\nprospect of success whose _fruits_ will in this most clearly appear.\n\nIt is a significant fact that the foreign view points to but two blots\nupon our society, and that foreign detractors harp continually upon\nthese, and these alone, as evidences of the backwardness of our\ncivilization--the institution of slavery and the riots which\noccasionally disgrace our large cities. For in the light of the facts\nand experience of to-day, such a position is simply a yielding of the\nwhole question. When it is considered that the few riots with which we\nare afflicted--few in comparison with those which so often convulse\nEuropean society--are almost invariably incited and sustained by our\nforeign population, and that portion of it, too, latest arrived upon our\nshores, it will be seen with what injustice the evil is laid at the door\nof American society. It is, in fact, nothing else than the outbreak of\nthe long-accumulated and long-suppressed discontent and misery of\nEuropean lands, which, for the first time for centuries, finds vent upon\nthe shores of a land of political and social liberty--a reaction of the\nsprings long held down by the iron hand of tyranny--a violent\nrestoration of that natural elasticity which had so nearly been\ndestroyed by ages of social degradation. The mob law, the frequent\nresort to the pistol and the bowie knife, and the universal social\nrecklessness of our own citizens of the Southern States, is the effect\nof the institution of slavery, and falls within the discussion of that\nquestion, with the disappearance of which they must inevitably depart.\n\nWere African slavery a permanent feature in our midst, the argument\nagainst our civilization would be unanswerable. But it has maintained\nits ground in spite of, rather than as the result of or in connection\nwith the spirit of our institutions. It has hitherto been suffered to\nexist as an acknowledged evil, solely because the disastrous results\nattending its sudden abolition have been justly feared as greater than\nany which could at present arise from its continuance. Yet at no period\nhas the American people ceased to look forward to some future time when\nit might safely be rooted out. Our faith has ever been strong, and our\nconfidence in the ultimate triumph of the right unshaken. That time has\ncome. The present war, from whose inauguration the question of slavery\nabolition was--on our part, at least--entirely absent, has given the\nopportunity which our people have not failed to seize. To crush out the\nrebellion without meddling with the institutions of the South was at\nfirst the main spring of the war; _fiat justitia, ruat coelum_, is now\nthe voice of the whole people; and the very fact that the nation has so\nearnestly taken hold of the work, so sternly determined to sacrifice\neverything but its existence to the demolition of this bloody god, is of\nitself an evidence of the purity of our civilization. We have not been\ndead to the principles of truth and justice involved in this question;\nwe have been but biding our time, plainly seeing and carefully noting\nthe direful effects of slavery upon our social organization, and\n'heaping up wrath against the day of wrath.' And now, with the blessing\nof God upon our efforts, the present war will not cease until the death\nblow is given to the accursed institution with all its attendant evils.\nWe, as a people, are fully aroused and sternly determined henceforth to\nlet nothing stand in the way of our social advancement, however\ntime-honored and cherished may have been the obstacle. And when these\nevils have all been swept away, as they assuredly will be, we shall\nstand forth among the nations in all the glory of a pure and enlightened\ncivilization, and challenge the world to produce a nobler record, to\npoint out a happier, more prosperous, more truly progressive people.\n\nWith the close of the present war will arise another important question,\nbearing not less strongly than that of slavery upon our ultimate\ncivilization. The slaveholding States are to be, in a measure,\nrepeopled. The tide of immigration which has so long and so steadily\nstreamed toward the West will be for some time diverted to the fertile\nplantations of the South. Not only the soldiers of the North, to whom\nthe war has opened what has hitherto been to them almost a _terra\nincognita_, will seek new homes within the sunny climes; but the flood\nof foreign immigration, which, upon the vindication of our national\nintegrity and power, will quickly double itself in comparison with that\nof former years, and sweep toward this new and inviting field; and the\ndistinctive feature of Southern society--of so-called 'Southern\nchivalry'--will soon be swallowed up in the torrent. And what then shall\nwe have to fill its place? The crude ideas of foreign tyros in the\nschool of freedom, the conflicting religious, social, and political\ntheories of European revolutionists, the antagonistic policies of a\nhundred different nationalities. All this, in connection with the\ndifficulties arising from the freeing of so large an African population,\nwill prove a severe trial to our national civilization, and call for the\nexercise of the profoundest wisdom, the most careful discrimination, and\nthe most patient forbearance on the part of our rulers and statesmen.\nAnd most assuredly the times will themselves produce the men most fitted\nfor the care of such interests and the decision of such questions.\nThough there is need of the firm hand, the utmost watchfulness, and the\nstrongest exertion on the part of every citizen as well as statesman, it\nis not to be feared that the result will in the end be disastrous to our\nprogress. For the genius of the American people was never yet at fault.\nWe have handled similar questions before; we are handling a more\nimportant one now, and our capabilities and our power of development are\nsuch that we need not fear but that we shall be enabled to cope with the\nexigencies of the future. That genius which has built up a powerful\nnation here in the wilderness, which has developed to such a degree the\nresources of the laud and the capacities of the people, which has\nconceived and executed in so short a time such a social and moral\nrevolution, has in it too much of the godlike to suffer the work to fall\nthrough from any incapacity to deal with the legitimate consequences of\nits action. The power to inaugurate and carry through the work\nnecessarily implies the capacity to establish and render permanent its\nresults, to guide the ship when the storm is past. It will find the ways\nand means; the times themselves will develop new truths, which will make\nthe task less difficult than it seems to us of to-day. Such is the\nfeeling of the people; and this same noble faith and confidence in our\nown capacities, this turning a deaf ear to all the possibilities of\nfailure, and looking with a never-failing trust, a soul-felt faith, to\nthe triumph of our cause and of our civilization, is our greatest\nstrength, while it is, at the same time, a conclusive evidence that we\nare on the high road of true progress, that our civilization is not a\nthing of yesterday, to-day, or to-morrow, but of the eternal ages.\n\n\n\n\nAPHORISM.--NO. X.\n\n\n'It is a frequent result of poverty to make men rich--a common curse of\nwealth to make them poor.' Poverty, making us feel our dependence upon\nGod, almost compels us to an acquaintance with Him--this leads us to\naccept Him as the one Infinite Benefactor; and so gives us wealth that\ncan never fail: but riches, by encouraging our natural love of\nindependence, is too apt to keep us away from our Heavenly Father, and\nthus plunge us into such poverty as admits of no actual relief. In this\nview there is something to hope for in the present distresses of our\ncountry. Rarely have so many people felt that their dependence must be\nupon the mercy of God; and rarely, if ever, have so many, with such\nearnestness, appealed to the Father of all on the occasion of a\nwidespread calamity. This must result in a closer union with the\nInfinite Giver, and thus in a great increase of true riches.\n\n\n\n\nTHE ENGLISH PRESS.\n\nV.\n\n\nHow had _The Times_ been getting on all these years? Slowly but surely.\nAt first, as has been already stated, feeling its way with difficulty\namid a host of obstacles, long-established and successful rivals,\nGovernment prosecutions abroad, and personal crotchets and peculiarities\nat home. John Walter, its founder, retired from the management of the\npaper in 1803, and died in 1812, having lived to see his literary\noffspring grow up into a strong young giant, with thews and sinews\ngrowing fuller and firmer every day, tossing his weighty arms in every\ndirection, but never aimlessly; and with his vigorous feet firmly\nplanted, expanded chest, and head boldly erect, fearlessly standing\nforward in the very first rank of the champions of freedom. Mr. Walter's\nson John succeeded him in the management in 1803; and, under his abler\nand more enlightened administration, the paper rapidly increased in\nimportance. He opened his columns to all comers, and whenever any\ncommunication appeared to possess more than average ability he\nendeavored to engage the writer of it as a regular contributor. He\nperfected the system of reporting, and the reports in _The Times_ soon\nbegan to be fuller and more exact perhaps even than Perry's in _The\nChronicle_. He especially turned his attention to the foreign department\nof his journal, and no trouble or expense was spared in obtaining\nintelligence from abroad. This had been one of the strong points with\nthe elder Walter, and he had always striven to be the first to\ncommunicate important foreign news to the world--thus, for instance,\n_The Times_ was the first newspaper which announced the execution of\nMarie Antoinette. This element was now greatly strengthened and\ndeveloped, correspondents were engaged in all the chief cities of\nEurope, and, as time progressed, in other quarters of the world as well,\nletters from whom appeared as regularly and as early as the post-office\nauthorities would allow; and a regular system of expresses from the\nContinent was organized. But the Government, who saw and felt the\ngrowing greatness of _The Times_, placed every possible hinderance in\nthe way--it was not then the custom for the Premier to invite the editor\nto dinner--and the letters and foreign packages were delayed in every\npossible manner--the machinery of the custom house being even employed\nfor that purpose--in order that the Government organs might at least get\nthe start. But fair means and foul alike failed to win over the young\njournalistic athlete to the ministerial side, and this illiberal and\nselfish policy was at length compelled to give in, beaten at all points.\nBut there was one thing which was destined to give _The Times_\nsupremacy, at which the younger Walter began to work soon after the\nreins of power fell into his hands--and that was steam. Great strides\nhad been made in the art of printing. The first metal types ever cast in\nEngland were those of Caxton, in 1720. Stereotype printing had been\nfirst suggested by William Ged, of Edinburgh, in 1735, and was perfected\nand brought into general use by Tillock, in 1779. The printing machine\nhad been originated by Nicholson, in 1790, and an improved form of it,\nmade of iron, the invention of Earl Stanhope, was in general use in\n1806. Thomas Martyn, a compositor of _The Times_, invented some further\nmodifications, and was aided by the younger Walter. Owing, however, to\nthe violent opposition of his fellow workmen, the experiments were\ncarried on under the greatest secrecy; but the elder Walter could not be\ninduced to countenance them, and consequently nothing came of them. In\n1814, Koenig and Bauer, two German printers, conceived the idea of\nprinting by steam, and the younger Walter, now by his father's death\npermitted to do as he liked, entered warmly into their project. The\ngreatest silence and mystery was observed, but the employes of _The\nTimes_ somehow or other obtained an inkling of what was going on, and,\nforeseeing a reduction in their numbers, vowed the most terrible\nvengeance upon everybody connected with the newfangled invention. Spite\nof their threats, however, the necessary machinery was quietly prepared\nand erected, and one morning, before day had broken, Mr. Walter called\nhis printers together, and informed them that that day's issue was\nstruck off by steam. This ever-memorable day in the history of\njournalism was Monday, the 28th of November, 1814. Loud murmurs and\nthreats were heard among the workmen, and burning down the whole affair\nwas the least thing suggested; but Mr. Walter had taken precautions,\nand, showing his work people that he was prepared to meet any outbreak\non their part, no violence was attempted. Since then _The Times_ has\nbeen regularly printed by steam. Various improvements in steam machinery\nhave from time to time been patented, and Hoe's gigantic machines--the\nproduction of that country the most prolific of all the world in useful\ninventions, America--seemed to show that the limit of the application of\nsteam to printing had been reached. But a machine still more\nwonderful--a machine that possessed all the skill of human intelligence\nand ten times the quickness of human fingers--a machine for composing by\nsteam, was shown at the International Exhibition in London, in 1862.\nPrinting by steam at once raised the circulation of _The Times_\nenormously, as was but natural, from the facilities which it afforded of\na rapid multiplication of copies; and under the editorship of Thomas\nBarnes it soon reached the first place in journalism. But Walter himself\nwas not idle, and was always on the lookout for fresh and rising talent.\nOn one occasion, being at a church in the neighborhood of his country\nseat in Berkshire, he was very much struck by the sermon which was\npreached by a new curate. After the service he went into the vestry, and\nhad a long conversation with the preacher, the result of which was that\nhe told him that a curacy was not a very enviable position, and that he\nwould do much better to go to London, and write for _The Times_ at a\nsalary of L1,000 a year. It is needless to add that the offer was not\ndeclined.\n\nIn 1817, _The Literary Gazette_ was brought out by William Jordan, as an\norgan of literature and the fine arts, and, until The _Athenaeum_ was\nestablished, it was without a rival of any consequence. But its\ncirculation declined, and, after Jordan's death, dwindled down to a very\nsmall number. In 1862 its name was changed to _The Parthenon_, or\nrather, to speak more correctly, _The Parthenon_ arose as a new\npublication from the ashes of _The Literary Gazette_. But change of name\ndid not produce change of circumstances, and, before many numbers had\nappeared, _The Parthenon_ was privately offered for sale at the low sum\nof L100, but, failing to meet with a purchaser, it gave up the ghost\nearly in 1863. In 1817, Lord Sidmouth made a terrific onslaught upon the\npress. He issued a circular to the different lord lieutenants of the\ncounties, to the effect that any justice of the peace might issue a\nwarrant for the apprehension of any person charged with printing a\nlibel. One result of this circular and the vigorous prosecutions which\nensued was that William Cobbett for a while gave up printing his\n_Political Register_, and went away to America, from whence he did not\nreturn for two years. He stated his reasons for adopting this course in\nhis paper, as follows:\n\n     'I do not retire from a combat with the attorney-general, but from\n     a combat with a dungeon, deprived of pen, ink, and paper. A combat\n     with the attorney-general is quite unequal enough; that, however, I\n     would have encountered. I know too well what a trial by special\n     jury is; yet that or any sort of trial I would have stayed to face.\n     But against the absolute power of imprisonment, without even a\n     hearing, for time unlimited'--an act had been passed which gave the\n     secretary of state power to suspend the _habeas corpus_ act--'in\n     any jail in the kingdom, without the use of pen, ink, and paper,\n     and without communication with any soul but the keepers--against\n     such a power it would have been worse than madness to attempt to\n     strive.'\n\nBut the Government met with a notable check in the case of William Howe,\nthe bookseller. Howe was thrice tried for libel, and, despite the\nexertions of Lord Ellenborough, who descended from the judicial bench to\nthe barrister's table, was thrice acquitted. Persecution after this\nlanguished for a while, but in 1819 were passed those stringent measures\nwhich are known as the Six Acts. One of these gave the judges the power,\nupon the conviction of any person a second time of the publication of a\nseditious libel, to punish him with fine, imprisonment, banishment, or\ntransportation. But such monstrous enactments were not suffered to pass\nunchallenged, and the result of several animated debates was that the\nobnoxious words banishment--a novelty in English jurisprudence--and\ntransportation were withdrawn, but the remaining provisions of the Six\nActs were carried in all their rigor. But amid much harm, some good was\ndoubtless effected, for certain provisions were introduced into the act\nwhich declared certain inferior newspapers, which had hitherto evaded\nthe stamp act, by calling themselves pamphlets and not newspapers,\nbecause they only commented upon the news of the day, to be henceforth\nliable to the stamp duties. This really did good service to the better\nclass of journals, by sweeping away a swarm of newspapers which, by the\nquibble above mentioned, were enabled to undersell them.\n\n_John Bull_ was started in 1820, with the avowed object of espousing the\nKing's side, and covering the Queen and her friends with obloquy.\nTheodore Hook was the editor, but very few persons were in the secret.\nEvery man or woman who was conspicuous as a friend of the Queen was duly\ngibbeted, and any tittle-tattle gossip or scandal that could be ferreted\nout against them was boldly printed in the most unmistakable terms.\nTrial for libel failed to discover the real proprietors, editor, and\nwriters, and the men who stood their trial as printer, publisher,\nproprietor, etc., were manifestly mere shams, men who would swear to\nanything and undergo any amount of imprisonment for the consideration of\nthe smallest coin of the realm. The scandalous details in _John Bull_\nattracted the public at once, and by the time it reached its sixth\nnumber, the circulation had risen to ten thousand, while the first five\nnumbers were reprinted over and over again, and the first and second\nwere actually stereotyped. But it began to be whispered about that Hook\nwas the editor, whereupon he printed and signed a letter denying the\nrumor in the most indignant terms. This letter was supplemented by an\neditorial, from which the following is an extract:\n\n     'The conceit of some people is amusing, and it has not unfrequently\n     been remarked that conceit is in abundance where talent is most\n     scarce. Our readers will see that we have received a letter from\n     Mr. Hook, disowning and disavowing all connection with this\n     paper.... We are free to confess that two things surprise us in\n     this business. The first, that anything which we have thought\n     worthy of giving to the public should have been mistaken for Mr.\n     Hook's; and secondly, that such a person as Mr. Hook should think\n     himself disgraced by a connection with _John Bull_.'\n\nAfter the death of the Queen, Hook devoted himself to the demolition of\nthe Whigs and Radicals. Joseph Hume was his especial target, and was\ndished up week after week with a decidedly original Latin garnish: '_Ex\nhumili potens_--From a surgeon to a member of Parliament;' '_Humili modi\nloqui_--To talk Scotch like Hume;' '_Nequis humasse velit_--Let no one\ncall Hume an ass,' etc., etc. _John Bull_ sustained a great many\nconvictions for libel, and its dummies were frequently imprisoned, but\nthey never betrayed Hook, who retained the editorship until his death in\n1841. Somewhere about this time _The Britannia_, a Conservative journal,\nof a few years' standing, was incorporated with it. It had meanwhile\nconsiderably moderated its tone, and at the present day enjoys a fair\ncirculation among steady-going people--chiefly country gentlemen, old\nladies, and parsons--who obstinately cling to Tory principles.\n\n_John Bull_ was not the only newspaper which was prolific in libels, and\nperhaps at no time were scandalous attacks upon public and private\npersons more common. Mr. Freemantle, writing to the Marquis of\nBuckingham, in 1820, says:\n\n     'The press is completely open to treason, sedition, blasphemy, and\n     falsehood, with impunity.... I do not know whether you see\n     Cobbett's _Independent Whig_, and many other papers now circulating\n     most extensively, and which are dangerous much beyond anything I\n     can describe.'\n\nThis is a sweeping censure, but, allowing for a little personal\nirritation, natural enough under the circumstances--he had been\nlampooned himself--is true of a great portion of the press. The supply\nwas regulated by the demand, and the character of the wares purveyed\ndepended upon the wants of the market. Editors found that scandal was\neagerly devoured by their subscribers, and they did not therefore\nhesitate or scruple to gratify the prevailing tastes of the day. But the\nbetter class of papers were not able to keep clear of the law of libel,\neven though they did not condescend to pander to the vitiated tastes of\nthe multitude. Many of them had to sustain actions for merely reporting\nproceedings before the police magistrates and in the law courts, and\nmany a rascal solaced himself for the disagreeables attending a\npreliminary examination at the police court for a criminal offence, by a\nverdict in his behalf in a civil action against any newspaper that had\nbeen bold enough to print a report of the proceedings. This kind of\naction originated from a ruling of Lord Ellenborough, that it was\n'libellous to publish the preliminary examination before a magistrate\npreviously to committing a man for trial or holding him to bail for any\noffence with which he is charged, the tendency of such a publication\nbeing to prejudice the minds of the jurymen against the accused, and to\ndeprive him of a fair trial.' This monstrous and at the same time absurd\ndoctrine remained in force for many years, but is now happily no longer\nthe law of the land.\n\n_The Times_ had now reached the pinnacle of prosperity, and its claims\nto be considered the foremost of journals were no longer disputed. The\ncirculation of _The Morning Chronicle_ had dwindled during the latter\nyears of Perry's life, and after his death did not revive very much\nunder Black, his successor. Brougham, Talfourd, and Alderson were among\nthe writers in _The Times_, and Captain Sterling, whose vigorous,\nslashing articles first gained for _The Times_ the title of the\n'Thunderer,' was regularly engaged upon the staff at a salary of L2,000\na year and a small share in the profits. But the Government still\nsteadily set its face against it, and in 1821 Mr. Hume loudly inveighed\nagainst the ministry in the House of Commons for not sending Government\nadvertisements to _The Times_, instead of to other journals, which did\nnot enjoy a tithe of its circulation. The arrangements of the post\noffice were a great hinderance to the diffusion of newspapers, since the\ncharge for the carriage of a daily journal was L12 14_s._, and for a\nweekly L2 4_s._ a year. The number, therefore, that was sent abroad by\nthis channel, either to the Continent or our own colonies, was very\nsmall. In 1810 the whole number thus despatched was but three hundred\nand eighty-three, and in 1817 it had fallen to two hundred and\nseventy-one, owing to the increase in the charges demanded by the\npost-office authorities, who were actually allowed to put the money in\ntheir own pockets; and in 1821 it was only two hundred and six. The\ncirculation through the kingdom of Great Britain itself was not entirely\nfree, inasmuch as every newspaper sent through the post office was\ncharged for by weight, at an exorbitant rate, unless it was franked by a\nmember of Parliament. This regulation continued in force until 1825,\nwhen an act was passed which provided that newspapers should be sent\nthrough the post free, on condition that they were open at both ends,\nand had no other writing upon the cover than the necessary address. At\nthe same time the ridiculous acts which limited the size of newspapers\nwere done away with, and every printer was henceforth permitted to print\nhis journal upon any sized sheet he pleased. Two important concessions\nwere also made to the press at this date, one in the House of Commons,\nand the other in the House of Lords. In the former, a portion of the\nstrangers' gallery was set apart for the exclusive use of the reporters;\nand in the latter, reporters were permitted to be present for the first\ntime. Previously to this, if any one had been rash enough to attempt to\ntake any notes, an official would pounce upon him, and, with an air of\noffended dignity well befitting that august assembly, strike the\noffending pencil from his grasp!\n\nIn 1825, Joseph Hume attempted to get the stamp duty reduced on\nnewspapers to twopence, and the advertisement duty to one shilling; and\nin 1827 he tried to gain an exemption from the stamp act for political\npamphlets; but he was defeated on each occasion. In 1827, _The Standard_\nwas started as a Tory organ, under the auspices of a knot of able\nwriters, the chief of whom were Dr. Giffard, the editor, Alaric Attila\nWatts, and Dr. Maginn. It has always possessed a good connection among\nthe Conservative party, but has never been a very profitable concern.\nAfter the abolition of the stamp duty its price was reduced to twopence,\nand in 1858 to one penny, and it was the first of the daily journals to\noffer a double sheet at that price. In recent times the Letters of\n'Manhattan' have given an impulse to its circulation, from their novelty\nof style--an impulse which was probably further aided by the ridiculous\nbut widely believed assertion that those letters had never crossed the\nAtlantic, but were penned beneath the shadow of St. Paul's.\n\nThe following statistics of newspapers in the chief countries of Europe\nin 1827, will probably prove interesting: France, with a population\nof--in round numbers--thirty-two millions, possessed 490 journals; the\nGermanic Confederation, with a population of thirteen millions, 305;\nPrussia, with a population of twelve millions, 288; Bavaria, with a\npopulation of four millions, 48; the Netherlands, with a population of\nsix millions, 150; Sweden and Norway, with a population of four\nmillions, 82; and Denmark, with a population of two millions, 80. Great\nBritain, with a population of twenty-three millions, far outstripped\nthem all, for she boasted 483 newspapers; but was yet compelled to yield\nthe palm to her Transatlantic kinsmen, for the United States, at the\nsame date, with a population of twelve millions, circulated the\nunequalled number of 800. In looking at these figures, one cannot help\nbeing struck with the enormous disproportion between the journals of\nRoman Catholic and Protestant countries--a disproportion which is so\nsignificant that comment upon it is unnecessary. But the difference is\nstill more plainly shown if we take two capitals. Rome, with a\npopulation of one hundred and fifty-four thousand, possessed only 3\nnewspapers, while Copenhagen, with a population of one hundred and nine\nthousand, enjoyed the advantage of having 53. The London papers were\n100, the English provincial papers 225, the Irish papers 85, the Scotch\n63, and the Welsh 10. The number of stamps issued was more than\ntwenty-seven millions, of which London alone consumed more than fifteen\nmillions; the number of advertisements was seven hundred and seventy\nthousand, of which London supplied nearly a half; and the amount of\nadvertisement duty was L56,000, of which London contributed L22,000.\n\nThe year 1829 is remarkable for the first appearance of _The Times_ with\na double sheet, consisting of eight pages, or forty-eight columns. This\ngreat step in advance must have quite answered the expectations of its\nspirited proprietor, for in 1830 _The Times_ paid to Government for\nstamps and advertisement duty no less than L70,000. The day of perfect\nfreedom was beginning to dawn upon the press, although it took a quarter\nof a century to remove the last fetter, the stamp, and still longer, if\nwe take into consideration the paper duty, which was removed in 1862.\nFirst came the abolition of the most oppressive portion of Lord\nCastlereagh's Six Acts, next the advertisement duties, and finally the\nstamp. The high price of the stamp, fourpence, kept the better journals\nat sevenpence, but a numerous class of unstamped journals at twopence\nsprang up in defiance of the law, and were allowed for a time to go on\nunchecked. They had a large circulation, one of them, _The London\nDispatch_, attaining to twenty-five thousand a week. Growing bolder with\ntheir impunity, they indulged in the most abominable trash and the most\nfrantic sedition and treason. They were of course prosecuted and\npunished, but they were never finally destroyed until the reduction of\nthe stamp duty. They did good indirectly, for they formed one of the\nstrongest arguments in favor of the abolition of that obnoxious impost.\n\nIn 1833 a battle royal raged between Daniel O'Connell and the press;\nbut, as might have been expected, Dan was no match for the hydra-headed\nantagonist he had been rash enough to provoke. The quarrel originated in\na complaint made by the Liberator of a misrepresentation of a speech of\nhis, and he did this in so intemperate a manner that the reporters\npublished a letter in _The Times_, in which they expressed their\ndetermination never again to report a speech of O'Connell's until he had\napologized for the insults he had levelled at them. O'Connell vainly\nattempted to put the machinery of the House of Commons in motion against\nthem, but, after repeated efforts, was obliged to give in. His attacks\nwere principally levelled at _The Times_--which then counted among its\ncontributors the brilliant names of Macaulay, Thackeray, and\nDisraeli--for he and John Walter were bitter foes. But he evoked several\npowerful defenders of the press, first and foremost among whom was Sir\nRobert Peel.\n\nIn 1834 the system of condensing the speeches in Parliament, and placing\nthe summary before the leading articles, was first introduced into _The\nTimes_ by Horace Twiss. At this date there occurred a great schism\nbetween the proprietors and writers of _The Sun_, some of whom seceded,\nand brought out _The True Sun_, in opposition to that eccentric planet\nwhich always rises in the evening despite the general conviction of\nmankind that the sun is the luminary of the day. Douglas Jerrold, Laman\nBlanchard, and, greatest of all, Charles Dickens, commenced their\napprenticeship to literature in this journal, which enjoyed, however,\nbut a fleeting existence. Jerrold afterward started a paper of his own,\nwhich failed, and then became editor of Lloyd's _Weekly London\nNewspaper_, a post which he retained until his death, and which has\nsince been ably filled by his son Blanchard Jerrold. Laman Blanchard\nbecame the editor of _The Courier_, but resigned it when it became a\nTory organ, and was one of the original writers in and proprietors of\n_Punch_. Dickens transferred his services to _The Morning Chronicle_, in\nthe columns of which the Sketches by Boz first appeared. Several acts of\nParliament relating to newspapers were passed at this period. In 1833\nthe advertisement duty was reduced from three shillings and sixpence to\none shilling and sixpence in England, and one shilling in Ireland. In\n1834 an act was passed by which the newspapers of those foreign\ncountries in which English journals were admitted free of postage, were\nallowed to enter Great Britain on the same terms. In 1835 a bill was\npassed to relieve the press from the action of common informers, and\nplaced them under the jurisdiction of the attorney-general alone; and\nanother, which forbade newspapers to publish lectures delivered at\nliterary and scientific institutions, without the permission of the\nlecturer.\n\nThe time was now fast approaching for the reduction of the stamp duty.\nGovernment was getting wearied of the war with the hydra-headed\nunstamped monster, and at last adopted the only expedient likely to be\nsuccessful in putting it down, which was to place the higher-class\njournals in a position to rival them. From 1831 to 1835 there had been\nno less than seven hundred and twenty-eight prosecutions, of which the\nyear 1835 alone had produced two hundred and nineteen. This fact, joined\nto the influential agitation which was now being made for the repeal,\ncaused the Government to decide upon bringing in a measure of relief. It\ntook six months and an immense deal of speechifying to bring this\nmeasure to maturity; but at last, in 1836, the stamp duty was reduced\nfrom fourpence to one penny, being one halfpenny less than it had been\noriginally fixed at in 1760. The Tories were the great friends of this\nreduction, and Lord Lyndhurst, who had been instrumental in abolishing\nmany of the most oppressive enactments with which the measure had been\nclogged, wished to do away with the duty altogether. There was of course\na loss to the revenue at first. In the first half year of the new duty,\nthe number of stamps issued was 21,362,148, realizing L88,502. In the\ncorresponding previous half year, under the old scale, the number of\nstamps had been 14,874,652, and the amount paid, L196,909, so that in\nsix months the number of stamped newspapers had increased by about one\nhalf.\n\nIn 1837, _The Economist_ was started by John Wilson, and attracted great\nattention by its statistical and politico-economical articles, Wilson\nafterward became secretary of the treasury, and, having been sent to\nIndia, died there, to add one more to the many illustrious victims that\nour Indian empire has exacted. In 1838 a most amusing hoax was\nperpetrated upon _The Morning Post_ and _Morning Chronicle_, which\nannounced the death of Lord Brougham, and published a most elaborate\nbiography of him. But the next day there came a letter from Lord\nBrougham, declaring that he was still alive and hearty. The joke,\nhowever, did not end here--for people were ill natured enough to assert\nthat he had been the author of the rumor himself, in order to learn what\nthe world would say about him; and so widespread had this second rumor\nbecome, that Lord Brougham was compelled to write another letter\ncontradicting it.\n\nThe next great event in the history of journalism is the commercial\nlibel case, Boyle _versus_ Lawson, the printer of _The Times_. Barnes\nhad died, and had been succeeded by John T. Delane, a nephew of Mr.\nWalter, as editor, who still continues to occupy that responsible post.\nThe matter originated thus: In May, 1841, _The Times_ published a letter\nfrom the Paris correspondent, containing the particulars of an organized\nsystem of forgery on a gigantic scale, which had been agreed on by\ncertain persons, whose names were published in full. The plan was to\npresent simultaneously at the chief Continental cities letters of credit\npurporting to emanate from Glynn & Co., the London bankers. The\nconfederates had fixed the sum they meant to realize at one million, and\nhad actually secured more than L10,000 before the plot was discovered.\nOne of them was Boyle, a banker, of good position, at Florence, and he\nbrought an action for libel and defamation. He pressed on the trial, but\n_The Times_ maintained its ground, and at an enormous expense despatched\nagents all over the Continent to collect evidence. _The Times_\ntriumphantly succeeded in proving the truth of what it--_The Times_ is\nalways spoken and written of as an individual--had printed; but as the\nold law--the greater the truth the greater the libel--still existed, the\njury were compelled to find a verdict for the plaintiff, which they did,\nwith one farthing damages, and the judge clinched the matter by refusing\nthe plaintiff his costs. Universal joy was expressed at the result of\nthe trial, and public meetings were called together in London and the\nchief Continental cities for the purpose of making a subscription to\ndefray the expenses of _The Times_ in defending the action. The\nproprietors, however, declined this, but said that, at the same time,\nthey should feel much gratified if a sum of money were raised for some\npublic object in commemoration of the event. Accordingly it was decided\nto found two scholarships in perpetuity for Christ's Hospital and the\nCity of London School at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, to be\ncalled the Times' Scholarships, and the nomination to them to be placed\nin the hands of the proprietors of _The Times_ in perpetuity. Two marble\ntablets were also voted, at the cost of a hundred and fifty guineas\neach, with commemorative inscriptions, one to be placed in _The Times_\noffice and the other in the Royal Exchange. Two somewhat similar tablets\nwere also placed in Christ's Hospital and the City of London School. For\nthese purposes the sum of L2,700 was very quickly subscribed, the lord\nmayor leading off with ten guineas. If anything had been wanting to\nplace _The Times_ upon the pinnacle of preeminence among journals, this\nfamous trial firmly established it there, and ever since it has been\nlooked up to as an oracle of the commercial world. But _The Times_ was\nnot contented to rest quietly on its oars. It was ambitious, and looked\nfarther afield. In 1845, its vigor, enterprise, and disregard of expense\nwere exemplified in a remarkable manner. _The Times_ had been in the\nhabit of sending a special courier to Marseilles, to bring its Indian\ndespatches, and thus anticipate the regular course of the mail. The\nFrench Government threw every possible obstacle in the courier's way,\nand _The Times_ took Lieutenant Waghorn, the originator of the Overland\nRoute, into its pay. In October, 1845, a special messenger met the mail\non its arrival at Suez on the 19th. Mounted on a dromedary, he made his\nway, without stopping, to Alexandria, where Waghorn awaited him with a\nsteamer. Waghorn came _via_ Trieste--special post horses and steamers\nand trains being ready for him at the various points of the route--and\nhe reached London on the morning of the 31st, in time for his despatches\nto appear in the morning's issue of the paper. The result of this was\nthat _The Times_ reached Paris with the Indian news from London before\nthe regular mail had reached that city from Marseilles. The next\nnoticeable enterprise of _The Times_ was the sending out commissioners\nto investigate the condition of the poor and laboring population of\nLondon in 1847, an enterprise which was crowned with the moat\nsatisfactory results. _The Times_ has always been the firm friend of the\npoor, and its columns are always open to the tale of distress. No case\nis advocated until it has been thoroughly investigated; but when once it\nhas been mentioned in _The Times_, subscriptions pour in on all sides.\nAt the commencement of each year especially, _The Times_ publishes\ngratuitously appeals from public charities, and during last January the\nsums received through those appeals reached the large amount of L12,000.\nThe last great exploit of _The Times_ was the sending forth a special\ncorrespondent with the English army to the Crimea, a precedent which it\nhas followed up since in China, India, Italy, America, and\nSchleswig-Holstein. But this was not the first occasion that reporters\nhad accompanied our armies, for Canning despatched reporters with the\ntroops sent to Portugal in 1826. The tactics of _The Times_ are very\ngenerally misunderstood and misrepresented. Whatever objections\ncavillers and opponents may urge, and with truth too--for the course\ntaken by _The Times_ is not to be praised on all occasions--it cannot be\ndenied that _The Times_ is the first journal in the world, a position\nwhich it has reached by its enterprise, vigor, and ability. It has\nfrequently proved its disinterestedness, and during the great railway\nmania of 1845, while it was receiving no less a sum than L6,000 weekly\nfor advertisements, constantly cautioned its readers against the\nprevailing madness, and persistently predicted the crash that was\ncertain to follow. _The Times_, while it appears to lead, in reality\nwaits upon public opinion, and hence the accusations of inconsistency\nand tergiversation so freely lavished upon it. _The Times_ is the\nprinted breath of public opinion. It throws out a feeler, perhaps,\nthough not quite at first, accompanied by some decided expression of\nopinion, and carefully watches the effect upon the public mind. Should\nthat effect be different to what was expected, _The Times_ knows how to\nveer round with the _popularis aura_. This is not always, however, done\nso skilfully but that the act is apparent. It is not the most dignified\ncourse that a journal which aspires to be--and which is--the leading\njournal of Europe ought to pursue; but _The Times_ knows human nature,\nand knows, too, that were it to adopt any other course, it would fall\nfrom its high estate, and become a mere party organ. Moreover, _The\nTimes_ possesses an enormous prestige--deservedly won, as this article\nhas endeavored to show--and that, in a conservative country like\nEngland, is considerably more than half the battle.\n\nIn 1842 appeared the first pictorial newspaper, _The Illustrated London\nNews_. It was started by Herbert Ingram, who began life as a provincial\nnewsboy, and died, in the vigor of his age, member of Parliament for his\nnative town. It was a success from the first, so great that numerous\ncompetitors sprang up and endeavored to undersell it. But these were all\nvastly inferior, and one by one withered away, the most persistent of\nthem at last passing into the hands of _The Illustrated London News_,\nwhich now enjoys a larger circulation than any other weekly newspaper,\namounting to about six millions a year!\n\nThere was a satirical paper at this time, called _The Age_, which, being\nof a strongly libellous character, was continually feeling the weight of\nthe law. It did not improve in character as it grew older, and its\neditor, Tommy Holt, was proved upon a trial to have received bribes to\nsuppress a slander that he had threatened should appear in his paper.\nThis same Tommy Holt was very successful in inventing 'sensation'\nheadings for his columns, and by no means either delicate or scrupulous\nin so doing. There was another rascally paper of the same description,\ncalled _The Satirist_, which was at last finally crushed by the Duke of\nBrunswick, the result of several actions for libel. Among other new\nliterary oddities at this time may be mentioned _The Fonetic Nuz_,\nthe organ of those enthusiastic reformers who were endeavoring to\naccomplish a revolution in our orthography. It lasted, however, but a\nvery short time.\n\nThe year 1850 saw the initiation of the final campaign directed against\nthe only remaining burdens of the press. Mr. Ewart and Mr. Milner Gibson\nbrought forward a motion for the repeal of the advertisement duty, but\nwere defeated by two hundred and eight votes to thirty-nine. But they\nwere not cast down by their want of success, but manfully returned to\nthe charge. In 1851, they procured the appointment of a committee to\ninquire into the question, and in 1852, gathering strength, like William\nof Orange, from each successive defeat, they brought forward a triple\nset of resolutions, one for the abolition of the advertisement duty,\nanother levelled at the stamp, and the third for the repeal of the paper\nduties. They carried the first, but lost the others. In 1854, Mr. Gibson\nmade a fresh motion concerning the laws affecting the press, and\nreceived a promise that the subject should receive the early attention\nof the House; and in 1855, Sir G.C. Lewis, then chancellor of the\nexchequer, who had hitherto opposed the repeal of the duty, brought in a\nbill for its abolition. After a struggle in both Houses the measure\npassed, and received the royal assent on the 15th of June.\n\nIn following up this final struggle, we have passed over one important\nperiod, the railway mania in 1845, which gave birth to no less than\ntwenty-nine newspapers, entirely occupied with railway intelligence, in\nLondon, besides many others in the provinces. Only two of these have\nsurvived, for the other two railway newspapers which still exist were\nestablished before that memorable madness fell upon the nation. Of\nthese, Herapath's _Journal_ is the oldest and best, and is the oracle of\nthe Stock Exchange on railway matters. There are some slight symptoms of\nthe madness returning in the present year, as far at least as the\nmetropolis is concerned, and one new railway journal has just been\nstarted in consequence. There are many amusing anecdotes told of\nnewspapers at this epoch, of which we will quote one. One of these\nrailway organs had published and paid for, from time to time, lengthy\nand elaborate reports of the meetings of a certain company, supplied by\none of the staff of reporters. At length the editor told the reporter\nthat he thought it was high time for the company to give the paper an\nadvertisement, after all the favorable notices that bad been given to\nthe undertaking in question. The reporter acquiesced, and promised to\nget the order for an advertisement, but putting it off from time to\ntime, the editor was induced to make inquiries for himself; whereupon he\nhad the extreme satisfaction of learning that no such company had ever\nexisted, and that the elaborate reports of meetings, speeches, etc., had\nbeen entirely fabricated by his ingenious employe! An endeavor was made\nlast year to resuscitate one of these defunct daily journals, _The Iron\nTimes_, and Tommy Holt was the editor. It lingered for some weeks, and\nthen smashed utterly. The editor called the contributors together, and\ntold them that there was nothing to pay them with--nothing in fact\nremained but the office furniture. 'Take that, my boys,' said he, 'and\ndivide it among you.' This was accordingly done, and one man marched off\nwith a table, another with a chair, a third with a desk, a fourth with\nan inkstand, and so on!\n\nWhen the stamp duty was abolished as a tax, it remained optional with\nthe publishers to have any number of their issue stamped they pleased\nfor transmission through the poet. The number of stamps thus issued in\nthe first six months after the repeal was 21,646,688, whereas the number\nin the corresponding period of 1854, when the tax still existed, was\n55,732,499. The number of stamps issued in the year 1854 to the\nprincipal newspapers was as follows: _Times_, 15,975,739; _Morning\nAdvertiser_, 2,392,780; _Daily News_, 1,485,099; _Morning Herald_,\n1,158,000; _Morning Chronicle_, 873,500; _The Globe_, 850,000; and _The\nMorning Post_, 832,500. Of the weeklies, _The Illustrated London News_\nwas then the second, 5,627,866; _The News of the World_, a Liberal,\nunillustrated journal, started in 1843, standing first, with 5,673,525\n(the price of this paper is now reduced to twopence, and it is an\nadmirably conducted journal); Lloyd's _Weekly Newspaper_, 5,572,897;\n_The Weekly Times_, price one penny, 3,902,169; Reynolds's _Weekly\nNewspaper_, also a penny journal, which is best described by the epithet\n'rabid,' 2,496,256; _The Weekly Dispatch_, price fivepence, an advanced\nLiberal journal, which is emphatically the workingman's newspaper, and\noriginally started in 1801, 1,982,933; Bell's _Life in London_,\n1,161,000. Of the provincial newspapers, _The Manchester Guardian_ heads\nthe list with 1,066,575, followed by _The Liverpool Mercury_, with\n912,000, and _The Leeds Mercury_, with 735,000. Foremost among the\nScotch newspapers stands _The North British Advertiser_, with 808,002;\nand the Irish paper with the largest circulation was _The Telegraph_,\nwith 959,000. Of the London literary papers the chief was _The\nExaminer_, with 248,560. With one or two exceptions, the circulation of\nthese journals may be considered to have increased enormously. There are\nnow published in Great Britain 1,350 different newspapers, of which 240\nare London papers, 20 being dailies, 776 English provincial papers, 143\nIrish, 140 Scotch, 37 Welsh, and 14 are published in the British Isles.\nMany of these enjoy but a limited circulation, as naturally follows from\nthe narrow limit they assign to themselves. Thus several trades have\ntheir special organs, as for instance, the grocers, the bakers, and even\nthe hairdressers among others.\n\nBefore concluding this article it will be well to notice a few of the\nleading journals which have not been mentioned. _The Daily Telegraph_\nwas originally started at twopence, in 1855, by Colonel Sleigh, but he,\ngetting behindhand with his printers to the amount of L1,000, sold them\nthe paper for another L1,000, and in their hands it has since remained.\nThe price was reduced to a penny, and, under the new management, its\ncirculation rapidly increased. _The Standard_ dealt a heavy blow at it\nin 1858, by coming out suddenly one morning, without any previous\nwarning, as a double sheet. This first number was given away in the\nstreets, in vast quantities, thrown into omnibuses and cabs, pitched\ninto shops and public houses, and so on. The sale of _The Telegraph_ so\ndecreased that it was found necessary to enlarge it to the same size as\n_The Standard_, when its circulation rose again immediately. It has now\nthe largest circulation in the world, more than 100,000 daily, a much\nlarger London circulation than _The Times_, though a smaller provincial\nand foreign sale; and its clear profits are variously stated by persons\nwho profess to be well informed, at different sums, the least of which\nis L20,000 a year. The chief causes of its success are its independent\nand uncompromising tone, the great pains it takes to gain early\nintelligence--it has frequently anticipated _The Times_ itself in\nforeign news--and the vigorous and able social articles of Mr. George\nAugustus Sala. _The Daily News_ was started as a Liberal and Reform\njournal in 1846. An enormous sum of money was sunk in establishing it,\nfor it was not at first successful. Charles Dickens was the first\neditor, but politics were not much in the line of the genial and\nunrivalled novelist, and he was soon succeeded by John Forster and\nCharles Wentworth Dilke, whose connection with the South Kensington\nMuseum and the great Exhibition has made him a knight, a C. B., and a\nvery important personage. _The Daily News_ is now one of the ablest and\nmost successful of London journals, and has had and still enjoys the\nassistance of the best writers of the day in every department. The line\nwhich this journal has always maintained toward America will forever\nearn it the admiration and gratitude of the United States. Another firm\nfriend of the great republic is _The Morning Star_, the organ of Mr.\nBright and the Manchester school, started in 1856. In addition to its\npolitical claims, it has a great hold upon the public as a family\nnewspaper, by the careful manner in which everything objectionable is\nexcluded from its columns. Its twin sister, born at the same time, is\ncalled _The Evening Star_. _Bell's Life in London_, a weekly journal,\nwas originally brought out in 1820, and, although it has more than one\nsuccessful rival to contend against, it still maintains its preeminence\nas the first English sporting paper. It is very carefully edited, each\ndepartment being placed under a separate editor, and is the great oracle\nin all matters relating to sports and games. The history of one of the\nablest contributors to this journal, who wrote some most charming\narticles on fly-fishing and other kindred topics, under the signature of\n'Ephemera'--though he was said never to have thrown a fly in his\nlife--is a very sad one. His name was Fitzgerald, a man of good family\nand connections, married to a lady with L1,200 a year, and living in a\ngood house at the West End. But the alcoholic demon had got hold of him.\nHe would disappear for days together, and then suddenly present himself\nat the office of the paper with nothing on but a shirt and trousers. He\nwould then sit down and write an article, receive his pay, go away and\npurchase decent clothes, return home, and live quietly perhaps for a\nmonth, when he would--to use a prison phrase--break out again as before.\nHe was last seen, in the streets of London, in a state of complete\nintoxication, being carried upon a stretcher by two policemen to the\npolice cell, where he died the same night.\n\nAt the head of the Sunday papers stands _The Observer_, founded in 1792.\nLike _The Globe_, it is extremely well informed upon all political\nmatters, for very good reasons. It spares no expense in obtaining early\nnews, and is an especial favorite with the clubs. _The Era_ is the great\norgan of the theatrical world, but joins to that _specialite_ the\ngeneral attributes of an ordinary weekly journal. It was established in\n1837. _The Field_, which calls itself the country gentleman's newspaper,\nis all that it professes to be, and a most admirable publication,\ntreating of games, sports, natural history, and rural matters generally.\nIt was started by Mr. Benjamin Webster, the accomplished actor manager,\nin 1853. But to particularize the principal papers, even in a short\nseparate notice of a few lines, would far transgress the limits at our\ndisposal. All the professions are well supplied with journals devoted to\ntheir interests, and it is impossible here to dwell upon them or those\nwhich represent literature and the fine arts. With regard to religious\npapers, their name is legion, and they would require a separate article\nto be fairly and honestly considered. _Punch_, too, and his rivals, dead\nand living, are in the same category, and must, however reluctantly, be\npassed over. Two curiosities, however, of the press must be mentioned.\n_Public Opinion_ was started about two years and a half ago. It\nconsisted of weekly extracts from the leading articles of English and\nforeign journals, and scraps of news, and other odds and ends. It has\nsucceeded mainly from its cost of production being so slight, owing to\nits paste-and-scissors character, and also because it freely opens its\ncolumns to correspondents _de rebus omnibus_, who are willing to buy any\nnumber of copies for the pleasure of seeing themselves in print. _The\nLiterary Times_, in addition to reviews of books, professed to criticize\nthe leading articles in the various papers, but, after an existence of\nsome six months or so, one Saturday morning _The Literary Times_ was\n_non est inventus_.\n\nIn concluding this series of articles, which has run to a much greater\nlength than he originally intended, the writer is conscious of many\nshortcomings and omissions, which he trusts will be pardoned and\noverlooked when his principal object is borne in mind. That object has\nbeen to give a general outline of the history of the press, and\nespecially of its struggles against 'the powers which be;' and, though\ntempted now and again--he fears too often for the patience of his\nreaders--to wander away into particularities, he has always endeavored\nto keep that object in view. Above all, he hopes he has at least been\nsuccessful in showing the truth of that sentiment which was first\npublicly expressed as a toast at a Whig dinner, at the Crown and Anchor\ntavern, in 1795: 'The liberty of the press--it is like the air we\nbreathe--if we have it not, we die!'\n\n\n\n\nOUR MARTYRS.\n\n\n  Lightly the river runs between\n  Hanging cliffs and meadows green.\n\n  Blackly the prison, looking down,\n  Frowns at its shadow's answering frown.\n\n  Shut from life in his life's fresh morn,\n  Crouches a soldier, wounded and worn.\n\n  Chained and starved in the dungeon grim,\n  Day and night are alike to him;\n\n  Save that the murmurous twilight air\n  Stings his soul with a deeper despair.\n\n  Day by day, as the taunting breeze\n  Wafts him the breath of orange trees,\n\n  He fancies in meadows far away\n  The level lines of odorous hay;\n\n  And sees the scythes of the mowers run\n  In and out of the steady sun.\n\n  Night by night, as the mounting moon\n  Climbs from his eager gaze too soon,\n\n  The gleams that across the gratings fall,\n  Broken and bright, on the prison wall,\n\n  Seem the tangles of Northern rills,\n  Like threads of silver winding the hills.\n\n  When, sinking into the western skies,\n  The sun aslant on the window lies;\n\n  And motes that hovered dusty and dim,\n  Golden-winged through the glory swim:\n\n  He drops his head on his fettered hands,\n  And thinks of the fruitful Northern lands.\n\n  Between his fingers' wasted lines,\n  Tear after tear into sunlight shines,\n\n  As, wandering in a dream, he treads\n  The ripened honey of clover heads;\n\n  Or watches the sea of yellow grain\n  Break into waves on the windy plain;\n\n  Or sees the orchard's grassy gloom\n  Spotted with globes of rosy bloom.\n\n  Through the shimmer of shadowy haze\n  Redden the hills with their autumn blaze.\n\n  The oxen stand in the loaded teams;\n  The cider bubbles in amber streams;\n\n  And child-like laughter and girlish song\n  Float with the reaper's shout along.\n\n  He stirs his hands, and the jealous chain\n  Wakes him once more to his tyrant pain--\n\n  To festered wounds, and to dungeon taint,\n  And hunger's agony, fierce and faint.\n\n  The sunset vision fades and flits,\n  And alone in his dark'ning cell he sits:\n\n  Alone with only the jailers grim,\n  Hunger and Pain, that clutch at him;\n\n  And, tight'ning his fetters, link by link,\n  Drag him near to a ghastly brink;\n\n  Where, in the blackness that yawns beneath,\n  Stalks the skeleton form of Death.\n\n  Starved, and tortured, and worn with strife;\n  Robbed of the hopes of his fresh, young life;--\n\n  Shall one pang of his martyr pain\n  Cry to a sleepless God in vain?\n\n\n\n\nAENONE:\n\nA TALE OF SLAVE LIFE IN ROME.\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nBut though AEnone's sanguinely conceived plan for Cleotos's happiness had\nso cruelly failed, it was not in her heart to yield to his passionate,\nunreflecting demand, and send him away from her, even to a kinder home\nthan he would have found at the house of the captain Polidorus. It would\nbut increase his ill fortune, by enforcing still greater isolation from\nevery fount of human sympathy. Though the affection of the wily Leta had\nbeen withdrawn from him, her own secret friendship yet remained, and\ncould be a protection to him as long as he was at her side; and in many\nways she could yet extend her care and favor to him, until such time as\nan outward-bound vessel might be found in which to restore him to his\nnative country.\n\nWhether there was any instinct at the bottom of her heart, telling her\nthat in the possibility of trying events to come his friendship might be\nequally serviceable to her, and that, even in the mere distant\ncompanionship of a slave with his mistress, she might feel a certain\nprotecting influence, she did not stop to ask. Neither did she inquire\nwhether she wished to retain him for his own benefit alone, and without\nthought of any happiness or comfort to be derived by her from his\npresence. Had she been accustomed closely to analyze her feelings, she\nmight have perceived, perhaps, that, in her growing isolation, it was no\nunpleasant thing to look upon the features and listen to the tones which\ncarried her memory back to her early days of poverty, when, except for a\nshort interval, her life had been at its happiest. But had she known and\nacknowledged all this, it would not have startled her, for she would\nhave felt that, in her heart, there was not the slightest accompanying\nshade of disloyalty. Her nature was not one to admit of sudden transfers\nof allegiance. It was rather one in which a real love would last\nforever. When the first romantic liking for Cleotos had consumed itself,\nfrom the ashes there had sprung no new passion for him, but merely the\nflowers of earnest, true-hearted friendship. And it was her misfortune,\nperhaps, that the real love for another which had succeeded would not in\nturn consume itself, but would continue to flourish green and perennial,\nthough now seemingly fated to bask no longer in the sunshine of kindly\nwords and actions, but only to cower beneath the chill of harsh and\nwanton neglect.\n\nCleotos therefore remained--at first passing weary days of bitter,\nheartbreaking despondency. His lost liberty he had borne without much\ncomplaint, for it was merely the fortune of war, and hundreds of his\ncountrymen were sharing the same fate with him. But to lose that love\nupon which he had believed all the happiness of his life depended, was a\nblow to which, for a time, no philosophy could reconcile him--the more\nparticularly as the manner in which that loss had been forced upon him\nseemed, to his sensitive nature, to be marked by peculiar severity. To\nhave had her torn from him in any ordinary way--to part with her in some\nquarrel in which either side might be partially right, and thenceforth\nnever to see her again--or to be obliged to yield her up to the superior\nclaims of an open, generous rivalry--any of these things would, in\nitself, have been sufficient affliction. But it was far worse than all\nthis to be obliged to meet her at every turn, holding out her hand to\nhim in pleasant greeting, and uttering words of welcoming import; and\nall with an unblushing appearance of friendly interest, as though his\nrelations with her had never been other than those of a fraternal\ncharacter, and as though, upon being allowed her mere friendship, there\ncould be nothing of which he had a right to complain.\n\nAt first, in the agony of his heart, he had no strength to rise above\nthe weight which crushed him, and to obey the counsels of his pride so\nfar as to play before her a part of equally assumed indifference. To her\nsmiling greetings he could return only looks of bitter despair or\npassionate entreaty--vainly hoping that he might thereby arouse her\nbetter nature, and bring her in repentance back to him. And at first\nsight it seemed not impossible that such a thing might take place; for,\nin the midst of all her change of conduct and wilful avoidance of\nallusion to the past, she felt no dislike of him. It was merely her love\nfor him that she had suppressed, and in its place there still remained a\nwarm regard. If he could have been content with her friendship alone,\nshe would have granted it all, and would have rejoiced, for the sake of\nolden times, to use her influence with others in aid of his upward\nprogress. Perhaps there were even times when, as she looked upon his\nmisery and thought of the days not so very far back, in which he had\nbeen all in all to her, her heart may have been melted into something of\nits former affection. But if so, it was only for a moment, nor did she\never allow the weakness to be seen. Her path had been taken, and nothing\nnow could make her swerve from it. Before her enraptured fancy gleamed\nthe state and rank belonging to a patrician's wife; and as she wove her\ntoils with all the resources of her cunning, the prize seemed to\napproach her nearer and nearer. Now having advanced so far, she must not\nallow a momentary weakness to imperil all. And therefore unwaveringly\nshe daily met her former lover with the open smile of friendly greeting,\ninviting confidence, mingled with the same indescribable glance,\nforbidding any renewal of love.\n\nAnd so days passed by, and Cleotos, arousing from his apathetic despair,\nfelt more strongly that, if the lapse of love into mere friendship is a\nmisfortune, the offer of friendship as a substitute for promised love is\na mockery and an insult: his soul rebelled at being made a passive party\nto such a bargain; and he began himself to play the retaliatory part\nwhich a wronged nature naturally suggests to itself. Like Leta, he\nlearned to hold out the limpid hand in careless greeting, or to mutter\nmeaningless and cold compliments, and, in any communication with her, to\nassume all the appearances of indifferent acquaintanceship. At first,\nindeed, it was with an aching heart struggling in his breast, and an\nagony of wounded spirit tempting him to cast away all such studied\npretences, and to throw himself upon her mercy, and meanly beg for even\nthe slightest return of her former affection. But gradually, as he\nperceived how vain would be such self-abasement, and how its display\nwould rather tend to add contempt to her indifference, his pride came to\nrescue him from such a course; and he began more and more to tune the\ntemper of his mind to his actions, and to feel something of the same\ncoldness which he outwardly displayed.\n\nNot but that for a while such a disposition was forced and unnatural;\nand however steadily composed he felt, and strongly fortified in his\nstubborn pride, a look or a word from her would have brought him again a\nwilling slave to her feet. But that look or word was not given. Perhaps,\nin her eager struggle after the glittering prize which she had held out\nbefore herself, she disdained the love which had once delighted her;\nperhaps, actuated by a purer and less selfish motive, her friendship\nfor Cleotos forbade her, in mere wanton pride, to keep open the wound\nwhich she had made. Whatever the reason, the withdrawal of the\nfascinations which had once attracted him, gave his mind leisure and\nopportunity to reason with itself in more quietude and composure than\ncould have been expected. And, as he more and more began to realize how\nclosely she was wrapped up in her ambition, to the exclusion of any\ngentler feeling, and how, under the stimulant of her infatuated hopes,\nshe was allowing herself each day to act with less guarded resolution,\nthere were times when he found himself asking whether she had indeed\nchanged from what she had been, or whether, on the contrary, she had not\nalways, at heart, been the same as now, and his conception, of her true\ncharacter been at fault.\n\nBut, in proportion as the veil of error seemed lifted from his soul,\nletting calm content once more shine in upon him, so, on the other hand,\ndid a night of despair slowly settle upon AEnone. By no reasoning could\nshe longer urge upon herself the belief that the neglect with which her\nlord treated her could be traced to any inoffensive cause. Claims of\ncourt--urgency of military duties--exactions of business might easily\naccount for transitory slights, but not for long-sustained periods of\nindifference, unbroken by a single word of kindness. And as days passed\nby and this indifference continued, until at times seeming ready to give\nplace to openly expressed dislike, and her ears became more and more\naccustomed to words of hasty petulance, and Sergius grew still deeper\nabsorbed in the infatuation which possessed him, and less careful to\nconceal its influences from her, and the Greek girl glided hither and\nthither, ever less anxious, as she believed her triumph more nearly\nassured, to maintain the humble guise which she had at first assumed,\nAEnone felt that there had indeed come upon her a sorrow from which there\ncould be no escape. There were a hundred methods of relief from it which\nhourly occurred to her agitated mind, but one after another was in turn\nlaid aside, as she felt that it would but aggravate the evil, or as the\nopportunity to employ it was not given her. To make open complaint of\nher wrongs and try to drive Leta from the house--to humble herself\nbefore her, and thereby strive to move her pity--to reproach Sergius for\nhis neglect, and demand that, since he no longer loved her, he would\nsend her back to her native place, away from the hollow world of\nRome--to assume toward him, by a strong effort of will, a like\nindifference--to watch until she could find some season when his better\nnature appeared more impressible, and then to throw herself before him,\nas she had once before done, and plead for a return of his love--these\nand like expedients fruitlessly passed in review before her. All in turn\nfailed in promise of relief; and at times it seemed as though the only\ncourse left to her was to lie down in her sorrow and die.\n\nIt was no uncommon thing then, as now, for the husband to neglect his\nwife. All Rome rang with the frequent story of marital wrong. But those\nwere days in which the matron did not generally accept her desertion\nwith meekness. Brought up in a fevered, unscrupulous society, she had\nher own retaliatory resources; and if no efforts were sufficient to\nbring back the wandering affection, she could recompense herself\nelsewhere for its loss, secure that her wrongs would be held as a\njustification, and that her associates, equally aggrieved and avenged,\nwould applaud her course. But with AEnone, brought up in a provincial\ntown, under the shelter of her own native purity and innocence, no such\nidea could find countenance. Even the thought which sometimes dimly\npresented itself, that by some harmless coquetry she might perhaps\nexcite her husband's jealousy, and thereby chance to win back his love,\nwas one which she always stifled in its beginning as weak and unworthy.\n\nBut the recompenses of friendship were still left to her, and it was\nsurely doing no wrong to accept them. Therefore the more she realized\nthat her source of real happiness was becoming estranged from her, so\nmuch the more did she feel naturally drawn toward the society of\nCleotos. To her, of course, he was not a mere slave, but rather a person\nof equal birth with herself, who had been beaten down by the same fate\nwhich had elevated her. And in conversation with him, it was easy to\ncarry her mind back to her early home, and for a little while forget her\npresent misery. And he, in turn, having been repulsed where he had\nplaced his highest hopes of happiness, and imbittered with the\ndisappointment, was not at all loth to transfer, in all innocence, his\ndevotion to one who extended such kindly condescension toward him. It\ntherefore happened that the two were naturally drawn much together, and,\nfor a time, without attracting invidious notice. Those were days in\nwhich the association between master and slave was often of an intimate\ncharacter. To the lower class of slaves, indeed, there could be no\nfamiliar approach. It was sufficient for them that at times they could\nlook upon the faces of their owners from a distance. But above these,\nwere converging circles, each rising in rank and responsibility, until\nthere were those who stood at their owners' right hands, more in the\nposition of friends and confidants than of menials. Of these was\nCleotos, whose winning face and graceful mien, joined to his natural\nabilities and his valued accomplishments, would have insured him a\nhigher position than that of most captives, even if he had not been\nassisted by the partiality of his mistress.\n\nIt was his duty to announce her guests, to trim the lamps at which she\nread, to read to her when she felt indisposed to do so for herself; to\nindite her correspondence--and generally to superintend all those little\nelegancies and demands of social life which require grace or mental\nability in their execution. These offices naturally kept him near her\nduring much of each day--and when AEnone and he were alone, and no task\nwas before him requiring immediate completion, it was but to be expected\nthat a mingling of curiosity and friendly interest should lead her to\nquestion him upon his past life, his home, his associates, even his\nthoughts. And often it as naturally happened that, while he spoke, the\nmusic of his voice lulled her into forgetfulness of all but the past,\nand she would find herself unconsciously relaxing from the somewhat\nfrigid dignity which she felt called upon to assume, until her features\nmust have glowed with some expression of her former familiar kindness.\nFor she would be suddenly startled back into her forced propriety by a\nstrange and troubled look of puzzled thought flitting across his face--a\nlook which she could read and analyze better than he could; for it told\nher that, without any real suspicion of the truth, he was wondering at\nthe likeness of that beaming face which bent over him to something which\nhe had seen elsewhere in the past.\n\nThere was one morning that he sat before her by a little table where he\nhad been writing a letter at her dictation. The letter was folded and\nsealed, and then ensued one of those vacant intervals when each, having\nno pressing task at hand, remains for a few moments listlessly thinking\nwhat shall be done next. At that instant Leta passed through the\nroom--bowing low as she moved before her mistress, and throwing out\ntoward Cleotos from the corner of her dark eye one of those aggravating\nlooks in which friendly interest in him and pleasure at his sight were\nmingled with a certain cruel warning against any renewal of past\nmemories. Cleotos retorted with a similar careless greeting, expressive\nof simple friendliness, unconscious of any warmer emotion. But he had\nnot yet perfectly learned his part; for, as Leta passed out of the room,\nthe quiver of his lip showed how difficult had been the task of\nmastering his forced smile even for that moment.\n\n'Poor boy!' said, AEnone, as she witnessed the effort. 'You have not yet\nlearned not to love her.'\n\n'Not yet, indeed, my mistress,' he responded. 'But it seems as though I\nknew the task better than last week, and would know it still better a\nweek hence. What can I say? It is not to be thought that I should lapse\nin a moment into real indifference, even though I may find out that she\nis unworthy of love. There cannot but be an interval during which the\nheart will struggle against the judgment, and lead to foolish longings\nafter what has passed.'\n\n'True, indeed,' said AEnone.\n\n'And still, in my heart, I sometimes almost think that I have never\nloved her,' he continued in a reflective, dreamy tone; 'that I have been\nunder a spell--have been made the slave of certain outward fascinations,\nwhich have fettered my judgment. Can it be that one will think he loves\nand yet does not?'\n\n'It is indeed hard to answer, I suppose.'\n\n'It must be hard; for wherein, after all, is the difference between\nbeing and thinking to be? But yet it seems as though there were times,\neven long past and before this captivity, when, being in our own land,\nand with nothing to disturb us or make us doubtful of the future, I\nlooked upon her with a strange kind of fear--wondering whether, though I\nloved her with so strong a passion, it might not rather be the passion\nof an unlasting, unsatisfying slavery of thought, than of a calm,\nlifelong trustfulness. And now it seems to me that if I ever had this\nfeeling--for I cannot certainly tell whether I ever had or only now\nimagine it--it seems to me as though it were an inner instinct warning\nme against evil; for day by day I see more clearly that there has been\nsome veil over my soul, hiding it from a clear perception of what was\nsuitable for it.'\n\n'And you begin to dislike her?' inquired AEnone.\n\n'Not so,' he said. 'Nor do I know whether I ought to do so, if I could.\nI believe now that she does not, and perhaps never has loved me, but I\nmust forgive her for all that. She may have tried to do so, and for a\ntime have thought that she did, and the true blame may all the while\nhave rested with me alone. With her strong, unbending temperament,\nfearless of correction, and jealous of all control, how, indeed, could\nshe long cling to one of such a tranquil and yielding nature as myself?\nThat she loved me not, proves not that she could love no one; and though\nshe now seems so coldly heartless and so rashly heedless of her fame,\nyet who knows what she might have been if fettered by the love of a\nspirit more imperious than her own? Who can tell how the great good that\nis within her might then have conquered the evil, and her soul have\nspurned its present headstrong course, and gloriously aroused itself to\nits sole great duty of love and innocent trustfulness?'\n\n'These, indeed, are very far from being words of dislike,' said AEnone;\n'and they only prove that you still love her, or you would not so\nreadily excuse her.'\n\n'Neither have I denied that I love her yet,' he said. 'But it is not\nwith as blind an affection as before. Her touch, her words, her\nsmile--if given with real love--would still please me as of old; and yet\nI should feel that there was something gone from me forever. Even if we\nwere restored to our own isle, with no enemy near or rival to interrupt\nus, I could not but henceforth feel that destiny had not meant her for\nme, so much would her stronger nature be ill assorted with my own. And\nsometimes--'\n\n'Well?'\n\n'Sometimes--now that this thraldom of my spirit is passing off--there\ncomes back to me the memory of another face, a gentle, loving\nface--which, if it were possible ever to see it again, I have too long\nforgotten, but which, if I may not see it more, I should, for my own\nsake, have forgotten long ago. But all this, honored mistress, can be of\nno interest to you, and therefore it were foolish to mention it.'\n\n'Nay, speak to me of it,' murmured AEnone; and, struggle as she would,\nthe telltale blood began to flow up into her face. 'Is there any woman\nwho does not care to listen to a love story?' she added, as though in\nexcuse for her curiosity.\n\n'It is but a common love tale,' he said, 'and the more so that nothing\ncame of it. A few stolen interviews--a few promises exchanged--and then\na parting forever. That is all.'\n\n'But where and when was this?'\n\n'Six years ago, at Ostia. For, though a Greek, I have been in this land\nbefore now. I was a sailor then, and in that port I met her. Met her and\nloved her, and promised to return again. And for a while I meant to do\nso; but on our passage back our ship was wrecked. I could not at once\nfind place upon another, and so took employment on the shore--none the\nless, however, intending some day to come back and claim her. What shall\nI say? It is the old story. The sea is wide, and I could interchange no\ntidings with her. Ill success followed me, and I could not return to\nOstia. Then, little by little, as the months drifted past, and I\nbelieved her lost to me, her image began to fade from my memory. And\nthen I saw Leta; and under the spell of that new charm, it seemed to me\nas though the other one had lost all grasp upon my mind. Not altogether,\nthough, for even at the height of my later love, I have always borne\nabout me the last keepsake that she had given me.'\n\n'Let me see it, what it is like,' said AEnone, faintly; and in obedience\nto her command, and perhaps wondering a little that she should take such\ninterest in so simple a story, Cleotos drew from beneath his tunic a\nthread with a coin dangling at the end.\n\nThe tears struggled into AEnone's eyes as she gazed upon the token. It\nwas a poor little silver coin of the time of the first Caesars--one of\nthe few curiosities of her father's family--and which she had given to\nher lover as the most precious thing belonging to her. She remembered\nthat when, in that last stroll by the shore, she had hung it about his\nneck with her own hands, and had made him promise always to keep it, she\nhad received from him a similar token--a bright silver piece of\nVespasian, and had placed it near her heart, while murmuring similar\nvows. He had kept his word, and she had not kept hers. For the moment,\nshe felt even guilty of bad faith, forgetting that when she afterward\ngave her more mature affection to Sergius, it was only her duty to lay\naside all that even whispered of past promises.\n\n'I could not bear to part with it,' he said; 'for it still spoke to me\nof her friendship, if not of her love. And a superstitions thought came\ninto my mind that I might some day see her again, and that, though we\nshould not meet as lovers, yet she might, perhaps, be pleased to learn\nthat I had not entirely forgotten her. Would she not, noble lady, do you\nthink?'\n\n'She does--that is, it surely should so move her,' said AEnone.\n\n'So have I still worn it,' he continued. 'And somehow each day brings\nback the recollection of her more faithfully to me. Whether it is\nbecause this other absorbing love is passing from my heart, and leaving\nto me greater freedom of thought--or whether it is that Ostia is now so\nnear to me that I daily hear of it and see its costumes in the streets,\nand thus my recollection of the place is kindled anew--or whether it\nis--'\n\n'Is what?' said AEnone, encouragingly.\n\n'I know not how to dare say it,' he stammered. 'It is a presumption,\nindeed, but I mean it not for such. I would say that there is something\nin your face, most noble mistress--a look--a flash of thought--a glance\nof the eye--a something I know not what, which reminds me of her whom I\nknew so many years ago. So that sometimes, were it not for the\ndifference of dress and all else around you, so much at variance with\nwhat had been her state, I could almost forget the lapse of years, and\nimagine that--Pardon, most noble lady! I meant not to offend!'\n\nFor she had arisen; and now, drawn to her full height, was looking down\nupon him with all the coldness of patrician dignity that she could\nsummon to her aid. He, too, arose, and stood trembling opposite her. For\na moment they remained gazing upon each other; he aghast at the apparent\nconsequences of his remark, reproaching himself for having so\ninconsiderately raised her anger by daring to compare, even in feature,\na lowly country girl with her, and despairingly asking himself what he\nshould do to restore himself to her favor--she more and more wrapping\nherself in a disguise of outward pride and haughty bearing, lest by some\nchance his unsuspecting eyes might detect the truth, and yet inwardly\nbleeding at the heart to think that she could not reveal herself to him\nand promise him her friendship, in full confidence that his love for her\nwould not return and bring new distress upon them. Then suddenly, while\neach stood wondering what course to take, a light step was heard in the\nouter hall, and the poet Emilius entered.\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nAt the interruption, AEnone hastily reseated herself; while Cleotos, in\nobedience to a quick and significant motion of her finger, remained in\nthe room, and, resuming his position at the table, prepared to continue\nhis writing. The poet Emilius could not, of course, fail to notice this\nsomewhat confused alteration of posture, but no suspicion of having\nintruded upon an embarrassing scene crossed his mind. He merely saw a\nproudly erect mistress and a cowering slave; and it was no unusual thing\nto interrupt a Roman lady in the act of giving even corporeal correction\nto her attendant, nor did the stranger's entrance always cause the\npunishment to cease.\n\n'Has the caitiff been insolent?' he exclaimed, in gallant tone, as he\napproached and seated himself before her. 'Has he dared to look too\nrebelliously upon so charming a mistress? If so, permit that I may\nchastise him for you. It is not fit that such fair hands should be\nobliged to wield the rod.'\n\n'Nay, it is nothing,' she said. 'Nothing, indeed, needing much reproof;\nand it is all past now. And wherefore have we lately seen so little of\nyou?'\n\n'Commands of court--the claims of Parnassus--all these, fair lady, have\nwithheld me from heretofore giving to beauty its proper meed of\nadmiration and worship. To speak more plainly, I have undertaken, by\norder of our emperor, the not ungrateful task of weaving a few poetical\nsentiments to be recited at the opening of our new amphitheatre. And in\norder that the results of my labor might not lessen my already acquired\nfame, I judged it most prudent to seclude myself for the past few days\nfrom the gayeties of the world, and give myself up to study and\nmeditation. Though, after all, I could not deny, if closely questioned,\nthat my seclusion was but little productive of results; for, upon being\ntempted out one evening, sorely against my judgment, to a feast at the\nhouse of the comedian Bassus, the true poetic inspiration overtook me\nat the end of my third goblet, and, calling for parchment, I there\naccomplished, in one short hour, the greater portion of my task.'\n\n'Then, I presume that your ode, unlike your other works, will be of a\ncheerful and lively character, more especially as it is written for such\na festive occasion.'\n\n'Scarcely, perhaps, what the world would call altogether lively, though\nhere and there a thread of playful thought may gleam upon the more sober\ntexture of the basis. I have rather judged it proper that, for the due\ncelebration of an event of such wondrous magnificence, I should give\nutterance to deeper and more lasting sentiments, so as to fit the minds\nof the spectators for a higher comprehension of its true significance.\nBut, if you wish, I will read aloud a few of my thoughts; and be assured\nthat so far no eye has seen the scroll, not even the august eye of the\nemperor Titus himself.'\n\nAEnone inclined her head in assent, and he drew from the breast of his\ntunic a small roll of parchment, carefully wrapped in a covering of\nembroidered silk.\n\n'I commence, of course, by an address to the emperor, whom I call the\nmost illustrious of all the Caesars, and liken unto Jove. I then\ncongratulate the spectators not only upon living in his time, but also\nupon being there to bask in the effulgence of his majesty; his\ncountenance being the sight most to be desired, and the games and\ncombats being merely accessory thereto. After which, I speak to the\ngladiators and captives; and prove to them how grateful they should be\nto the gods for allowing them the privilege of dying in such an august\npresence.'\n\n'Is it such a privilege, do you think?' inquired AEnone.\n\n'Perhaps not a privilege, but certainly no great hardship. The trained\ngladiators surely cannot complain, for they have voluntarily assumed the\nrisks; and as for the captives, the most of them will some day die a\nviolent death of some kind or another, and, therefore, why not now,\nattended by the decent observances of the games and the applause of all\nthe Roman people? But to proceed. From thence I speak of death--its\npleasures and its recompenses; showing that, if there be a future life,\nthe gods have done wisely to withhold its exact nature from us, and\nthat, whatever uncertainties may exist in other respects, nothing can be\nmore true than that those who now die in the arena will, in another\nworld, find their highest felicity in the privilege of looking up from a\ndistance at the loved emperor in whose honor they perished, and\nbeholding him enjoying, through adoption, the society of the inhabitants\nof Olympus. I then--but it is useless to detail all the argument. I will\nread the poem itself; or rather, if you so permit, I will let this\nscribe of yours read it for me. Perhaps, upon hearing it from another's\nmouth, I may be led to make still further corrections.'\n\nHanding the manuscript with all care to Cleotos, the poet leaned back\nwith eyes closed in delicious revery, now and then arousing himself to\ncorrect some defective emphasis or unsatisfactory intonation, the\ntolerance of which, he imagined, would mar the proper effect of the\nproduction, or, with persistent desire for praise, momentarily calling\ncloser attention to such passages as appeared to him deserving of\nespecial commendation--and generally omitting no opportunity of exacting\nthat entire admiration to which he believed his genius entitled him.\nApart from a somewhat extravagant display of high-strained metaphor, the\npoem had merit, being bold in scope, sonorous and well rounded in tone,\nand here and there gracefully decked with original and pleasing\nthoughts. Throughout the whole, however, the singular propensity of the\nauthor for indulgence in morbid and gloomy reflection found its usual\ndevelopment, while every line was laden with lofty maxims of moral\nphilosophy, mingled with urgent incentives to the adoption of a virtuous\ncareer;--all, in themselves, both unexceptionable and praiseworthy, but,\nnevertheless, having a strange sound in the ears of those who recognized\nthem as the utterances of one whose conversation was always flippant and\npuerile, and whose daily life, in the enormity and uninterrupted\npersistency of its profligacy, rendered him the acknowledged leader of\nall that was most disreputable and contaminating in Roman society.\n\nAt length, the reading having been fully completed, and the listener's\npowers of flattery exhausted, the author carefully rewrapped his poem in\nits silken cover and carried it away, to read it, in turn, to other\nnoble ladies, with the same transparent pretence of giving exclusive\nhearing of it to each. For a few moments AEnone remained in thoughtful\nsilence, with her head bowed upon her hand; recalling the scattered\nfragments of the sonorous verses, and wondering why it was that, when\neach line had seemed so perfect in itself, and every thought so pure and\nnoble in its purport and conception, the whole should have left upon her\nmind such an undefinable impress of dissatisfaction.\n\nCleotos, with unobtrusive scrutiny, seemed to read her thoughts, for, at\nthe first intimation of her perplexity, he said:\n\n'It is because the author of those verses has not sincerely felt the\nfull meaning of what he has there written. For, with whatsoever display\nof ingenious and artistic skill fair sounding maxims of morality may be\nexpressed, yet, if they come not from the heart, their utterance must\nseem hollow and unreal. I do not know this author--how or where he\nlives. It may be that in his daily life he is outwardly all that could\nbe desired. But I know this--that he has written about virtue and death,\nnot because he loves the one and fears not the other, but simply\nbecause, by a display of well-toned periods, he may more surely hope to\ngain the applause of the arena and the smiles of the court.'\n\n'But why should not these sentiments, though called into being by\npersonal ambition alone, give equal pleasure as if springing directly\nfrom the heart? Are they not, after all, as true?'\n\n'Nay, honored mistress, neither are they true. This is again where they\nfail to please; for in your soul there is an instinct, though you may\nnot know of it, which forbids that such cold and unsatisfactory\nreasoning should bring you comfort. He speaks of death: is it cheering\nto be told that, though the gods have appointed death to every person,\nthey have given it, not as a veiled mercy, but rather as a dreadful\nfate--that there is no certainty about our future condition, but that,\nif we are destined to live again, it may be with the same evils\nencompassing us which bind us now--and that the slave may then still be\na slave, destined forever to look up to and worship the high and mighty\nones who trampled on him here?'\n\n'That is, in truth, no comfort,' said AEnone. And she bowed her head upon\nher hands, and sadly thought how worthless to her would be the gift of\neternal life, if her present sorrows were to follow her. 'But what can\nwe do? If it were possible to discover and believe in some other fate,\ntelling us that death, instead of being a dreaded pang, is a boon and\nrelief to the sick and weary and oppressed--'\n\n'There is a book,' said Cleotos--and for a moment he hesitated, as\nthough fearful of proceeding--'there is a book which I have read, and\nwhich tells us all this. It says that death is not merely a fate, but is\na source of blessing; since it leads to a world where the sufferings of\nthis life shall be recompensed with abundant joy, not to the rich\nmerely, but more especially to the poor and lowly.'\n\n'Where is that book?' cried AEnone, with sudden energy, as the wondrous\ndepth and power of the sentiment flashed upon her. 'Where can I see and\nread it? He who can talk like that, must surely have said still more?'\n\n'I have not that book,' answered Cleotos. 'I have only this little copy\nof a small portion of it;' and he hesitatingly drew from beneath his\ntunic a single small leaf of discolored parchment, closely filled with\nGreek characters. 'But being at Corinth, a year ago, I was permitted to\nsee the book itself, and to hear portions of it read. It was written to\na Christian church there, by one Paul, a leader of that sect.'\n\nAt the word 'Christian' the first impulse of AEnone was to shrink back,\nnot knowing but that even the presence of one who had ever come into\ncontact with any of that despised sect might be injurious to her. For at\nonce she began to recall many of the tales which she had heard to its\ndiscredit--its members hiding as outcasts in the caves and dens of the\nearth--their repeated insults to the gods--their proud and unaccountable\nworship of a malefactor--their sacrifice of infants--and other\nexaggerations and calumnies, begotten in malice or ignorance, and thence\nwidely spread, making it not hard to believe that the only fate fit for\nthose to whom they related was a life of persecution and a cruel death\nin the arena.\n\nBut only for a moment did this instinctive horror control her. The\nsingle doctrine which she had just heard advanced already began to bear\nits fruits. It seemed, indeed, not unlikely that one who could write\nsuch truths, and those, his disciples, who could so gratefully treasure\nthem up, might not, after all, be wantonly wicked, but, at the worst,\nmight be merely victims of mistaken zeal. And then, in turn, she thought\nof much that had been related to her in their favor. During her life at\nRome, indeed, she had heard no mention of the Christian sect, unless\naccompanied with sneers or contempt. But she remembered how that in\nOstia, while she was yet a very young girl, she had heard it sometimes\nwhispered that the Christians were kind and loving to all the world, and\nfree from many sins in which other men openly exulted, and that, through\ntheir great love for their founder, they organized charities which had\nnever before been even thought of--and how that once, when she had been\nvery sick, a strange woman had nursed her into health and refused all\npayment for it, alleging that her religion bade her give herself up to\nsuch tasks--and how that she had once seen pass by, one who was pointed\nout to her as a holy man among the sect--whose name indeed she could not\nremember, but whose mild and serene expression yet lived in her\nrecollection. It was hardly possible that one whose face was so radiant\nwith universal love and benevolence as to impress itself thus lastingly\nupon the heart of a young child could have been very wicked. Nor did it\nseem likely that Cleotos, whose greatest weakness was that his life had\nbeen almost too innocent and trusting, could speak well of a sect which\nworthily ought to be persecuted. And then again she thought upon that\nlittle book to the sect at Corinth, and she bade Cleotos to read a verse\nor two. He did so. At another time she might have listened as she had\nlistened to the moral maxims of the poet Emilius--judging well of it,\nperhaps, for the beauty of its words, but, beyond that, regarding it\nsimply as some new and more original expression of long-accepted\nphilosophy. But now, in her trouble, she felt that there was something\nin it beyond all known philosophy--a new development of faith, appealing\nto the heart, and speaking comfort to all who were in misery. It surely\ncould not be that such words were the emanations of an evil influence.\n\n'Art thou--answer me, Cleotos--art thou one of the sect of Christians?'\nshe inquired.\n\n'How can I tell?' he responded. 'I have so often asked that question of\nmy heart, and yet have not been able to understand what it has said to\nme. There are times when I think that I must pray only to the gods of\nOlympus, and that all I have heard or read about other gods must be\nuntrue. And again, when I read this little parchment of mine, and\nremember other like things that have been told to me, and see how they\nall speak of death as a relief to the sorrowing, and of another life in\nwhich the down trodden and the captive shall be recompensed for what\nthey have suffered here, and know that I am one of those who need such\nrecompense--then I think that perhaps the only true God is the God of\nthe Christians. But I can learn so little about it all, that I cannot,\nfrom my own judgment, determine which must be right.'\n\n'Perhaps,' thoughtfully responded AEnone, 'it may be that if you tell me\nall you know about it, I may be able to assist your conclusions. Who\nknows what light I myself need, or how much of good we may borrow from\nthis new religion? It cannot be wrong to examine for one's self, and the\ngods will not be angry if we gain good doctrine even from wrong sources,\nso long as it may make us better. To-morrow, therefore, let us begin.'\n\nUpon the morrow, therefore, and for many succeeding days, the mistress\nand the slave spent stolen moments in groping after the truth of that\nfaith which makes the high and the low equal. It was a blind search, for\nneither of them had any definite comprehension of the history and\ndoctrine upon which the new religion had been founded. Cleotos had\nenjoyed the best opportunities of acquainting himself with it, having\nnaturally, in his wanderings about the East, and in his contact with the\npoor and enslaved of many lands, heard much respecting the Christian\nchurches and their belief; but having had no instructor, a great portion\nof what he had thus received came to him in but distorted and puzzling\narray. And AEnone could not comprehend how, when the gods ruled Rome, and\nRome had scattered the Jews, one whom the Jews had had the power to slay\ncould be greater than all. But between them, for their study, lay the\nleaf of parchment, closely covered with writing, beside which the\nproudest and choicest philosophy of Rome seemed mockery; and though they\ncould not understand its full meaning, they knew that it spoke such good\nwords that, at the least, though it may have come from erring men, it\nwas no less worthy to have come from a God. Whatever the real nature of\nthe faith itself, here was certainly a proof that among its attributes\nwere mercy and peace and brotherly love toward all.\n\nWhat might have been the consequences if AEnone had been free to pursue\nthe investigation as far as she wished--to send for other books to aid\nher--to consult more learned teachers, who, though perhaps hiding in\nsecret shelter, were yet attainable with proper search, cannot be known.\nIt is not improbable that, in the end, one more might have been added to\nthe list of those few Roman women of high degree who even then gave up\nall their rank and state in order to share the persecutions of the\nNazarenes. But it was otherwise ordered. Already indications, each\nslight in itself, but altogether of important bearing, began to present\nthemselves before her, warning her that jealous eyes were watching her,\nand that, if she would avoid the consequences of misconstruction, she\nmust bring her feeble investigations to a close.\n\nUntil now, Leta, in her struggle to alienate the husband from the wife,\nhad been actuated simply by the exigencies of her ambitious policy.\nBearing in her heart no especial hatred toward her mistress, she would\nwillingly have spared her, had not the circumstances of the case seemed\nto require the ruin of the one preliminary to the exaltation of the\nother. But now, other incentives to her efforts were added. First in her\nmind came jealousy of Cleotos; for though she had cast him off, and bade\nhim stifle the yearnings of his heart, and, by the cool exercise of\nintellect and craft alone, seek a better fortune for himself, it was\nhardly natural that she should feel pleased to have him so soon appear\nto take her at her word. She would have better liked to see him display\nmore prolonged sorrow for her loss. Then came jealousy of AEnone, who had\napparently been able to console him so early. And mingled with all this,\nthere began to press upon her a startling thought--one which she at\nfirst contemned as unlikely and absurd--but which, though continually\ndriven away, so obstinately returned and commended itself to her\nattention with newer plausibility, that at last she began to give bitter\nand anxious heed to it. What if this constant communication between\nAEnone and Cleotos were to result in a mutual love? It was no uncommon\nthing in those days for the high-born lady to cast her eyes upon the\nslave. How mortifying to herself, then, if, while she had been exerting\nall her powers of fascination, taxing the utmost resources of her\nintellect, and making of her whole existence one labored study for the\npurpose of gaining an undue influence over the lord, Cleotos, without\nart or disguise or apparent effort, or any advantage other than that\nafforded by his simple-hearted, trusting nature, should have quietly won\nfrom the other side of the house a victory of almost equal importance?\nAnd further than this--what if the lord were to perish in some brawl or\nby the hired assassin of a rival house; and AEnone, released from her\nthraldom, and despising conventional scruples--as again was not uncommon\namong the Roman ladies of that day--were to exalt her favorite with\nlegal honors, and thus make herself, Leta, his slave? This, to be sure,\nwas an improbable chance; but a mind as active as her own did not\ndisdain to foresee and provide against all contingencies.\n\nThen, in addition to everything else, she became absorbed in the one\noverwhelming and bitter reflection, that after all her sacrifice and\nlabor, the anticipated success might be escaping her. It is true that,\nthanks to her efforts, the distance between Sergius and AEnone had\nwidened, until it seemed that there could never be a perfect reunion;\nbut all this, if the state of partial neglect which had existed in the\nbeginning could be relied upon as an indication, was a consequence which\nmight easily, in time, have come of itself. It is true that Sergius had\nyielded himself a willing victim to the unlawful fascinations thrown\naround him; but yet Leta could not avoid seeing that he regarded her not\nwith the deep, earnest love which she had hoped to inspire, but rather\nwith the trifling carelessness of one giving himself up to the plaything\nof the hour. Not having, from the very first, been chary of the sidelong\nglance and the winning smile, and whatever grace of style or manner\ncould tempt him to pursuit, as an illusive appearance of success seemed\nto beckon her onward, her heart at times grew desperate with the\napprehension that all had been in vain. For Sergius, content that the\nwife whom he neglected did not disturb his repose with idle complaints,\nhad no thought of inflicting any deeper injury upon her, being well\nsatisfied to have her remain and confer honor upon him by the grace with\nwhich she maintained the dignity of his house. And though well pleased\nto sun himself in Leta's smile, there never came to him the thought that\nthe slave could be worthy of any exaltation, or that her highest\nambition could prompt her to desire more than a continuance of the\ncompanionship with which he honored her. All this Leta began to dimly\nsee; and there were times when, strive to hide it from her heart as she\nwould, it seemed as though he might be even growing weary of her.\n\nThus tormented with doubt and jealousy and the constantly increasing\nsuspicion of baffled ambition, how was she to act? To accept her\nsituation as a decree of fate, to fawn upon the mistress like a patient\nslave, and, if the lord were to tire of her in the end and give himself\nup to other captivations, to submit unmurmuringly to the unavoidable\nnecessity? All this some might consent to do; but surely not one like\nherself, gifted with indomitable will, and stung to desperation with the\nsense of great and irreparable sacrifices. To her there could be but one\ncourse. She must abandon her slow and cautious policy, and seek the\nearliest opportunity to urge the matter to its crisis. If, by sparing no\nwatchfulness or ingenuity, or by the exercise of bold and vigorous\nmanoeuvring, she could produce a quarrel and final separation between\nSergius and his wife, it might not be impossible for her to impress upon\nhim how much she was necessary to his happiness, and thereby elevate\nherself into the vacant place. And if unsuccessful, at the least she\nwould be but sharing a ruin which would fall like an avalanche upon all\nalike.\n\n\n\n\nTHE FIRST CHRISTIAN EMPEROR.\n\n\nThe last great imperial persecution of the Christians under Diocletian\nand Galerius, which was aimed at the entire uprooting of the new\nreligion, ended with the edict of toleration of 311 and the tragical\nruin of the persecutors. Galerius died soon after of a disgusting and\nterrible disease (_morbus pedicularis_), described with great minuteness\nby Eusebius and Lactantius. 'His body,' says Gibbon, 'swelled by an\nintemperate course of life to an unwieldy corpulence, was covered with\nulcers and devoured by innumerable swarms of those insects which have\ngiven their name to a most loathsome disease.' Diocletian had withdrawn\nfrom the throne in 305, and in 313 put an end to his imbittered life by\nsuicide. In his retirement he found more pleasure in raising cabbage\nthan he had found in ruling the empire; a confession we may readily\nbelieve. (President Lincoln, of the United States, during the dark days\nof the civil war, in December, 1862, declared that he would gladly\nexchange his position with any common soldier in the tented field.)\nMaximin, who kept up the persecution in the East, even after the\ntoleration edict, as long as he could, died likewise a violent death by\npoison, in 313. In this tragical end of their last three imperial\npersecutors the Christians saw a palpable judgment of God. The edict of\ntoleration was an involuntary and irresistible concession of the\nincurable impotence of heathenism and the indestructible power of\nChristianity. It left but a step to the downfall of the one and the\nsupremacy of the other in the empire of the Caesars.\n\nThis great epoch is marked by the reign of Constantine I. He understood\nthe signs of the time, and acted accordingly. He was the man for the\ntimes, as the times were prepared for him by that Providence which\ncontrols both and fits them for each other. He placed himself at the\nhead of true progress, while his nephew, Julian the Apostate, opposed\nit, and was left behind. He was the chief instrument for raising the\nchurch from the low estate of oppression and persecution to\nwell-deserved honor and power. For this service a thankful posterity has\ngiven him the surname of the Great, to which he was entitled, though not\nby his moral character, yet doubtless by his military and administrative\nability, his judicious policy, his appreciation and protection of\nChristianity, and the far-reaching consequences of his reign. His\ngreatness was not indeed of the first, but of the second order, and is\nto be measured more by what he _did_ than by what he _was_. To the Greek\nChurch, which honors him even as a canonized saint, he has the same\nsignificance as Charlemagne to the Latin.\n\nConstantine, the first Christian Caesar, the founder of Constantinople\nand the Byzantine empire, and one of the most gifted, energetic, and\nsuccessful of the Roman emperors, was the first representative of the\nimposing idea of a Christian theocracy, or of that system of policy\nwhich assumes all subjects to be Christians, connects civil and\nreligious rights, and regards church and state as the two arms of one\nand the same divine government on earth. This was more fully developed\nby his successors, it animated the whole Middle Age, and is yet working\nunder various forms in these latest times; though it has never been\nfully realized, whether in the Byzantine, the German, or the Russian\nempire, the Roman church-state, the Calvinistic republic of Geneva, or\nthe early Puritanic colonies of New England. At the same time, however,\nConstantine stands also as the type of an undiscriminating and harmful\nconjunction of Christianity with politics, of the holy symbol of peace\nwith the horrors of war, of the spiritual interests of the kingdom of\nheaven with the earthly interests of the state.\n\nIn judging of this remarkable man and his reign, we must by all means\nkeep to the great historical principle, that all representative\ncharacters act consciously or unconsciously as the free and responsible\norgans of the spirit of their age, which moulds them first before they\ncan mould it in turn, and that the spirit of the age itself, whether\ngood or bad or mixed, is but an instrument in the hands of Divine\nProvidence, which rules and overrules all the actions and motives of\nmen.\n\nThrough a history of three centuries Christianity had already overcome\nthe world, and thus rendered such an outward revolution, as has attached\nitself to the name of this prince, both possible and unavoidable. It\nwere extremely superficial to refer so thorough and momentous a change\nto the personal motives of an individual, be they motives of policy, of\npiety, or of superstition. But unquestionably every age produces and\nshapes its own organs, as its own purposes require. So in the case of\nConstantine. He was distinguished by that genuine political wisdom,\nwhich, putting itself at the head of the age, clearly saw that idolatry\nhad outlived itself in the Roman empire, and that Christianity alone\ncould breathe new vigor into it and furnish its moral support.\nEspecially on the point of the external catholic unity, his monarchical\npolitics accorded with the hierarchical episcopacy of the church. Hence\nfrom the year 313 he placed himself in close connection with the\nbishops, made peace and harmony his first object in the Donatist and\nArian controversies, and gave the predicate 'catholic' to the church in\nall official documents. And as his predecessors were supreme pontiffs of\nthe heathen religion of the empire, so he desired to be looked upon as a\nsort of bishop, as universal bishop of the eternal affairs of the\nchurch. All this by no means from mere self-interest, but for the good\nof the empire, which, now shaken to its foundations and threatened by\nbarbarians on every side, could only by some new bond of unity be\nconsolidated and upheld until at least the seeds of Christianity and\ncivilization should be planted among the barbarians themselves, the\nrepresentatives of the future. His personal policy thus coincided with\nthe interests of the state. Christianity appeared to him, as it proved\nin fact, the only efficient power for a political reformation of the\nempire, from which the ancient spirit of Rome was fast departing, while\ninternal civil and religious dissensions and the outward pressure of the\nbarbarians threatened a gradual dissolution of society.\n\nBut with the political he united also a religious motive, not clear and\ndeep, indeed, yet honest, and strongly infused with the superstitious\ndisposition to judge of a religion by its outward success, and to\nascribe a magical virtue to signs and ceremonies. His whole family was\nswayed by religious sentiment, which manifested itself in very different\nforms, in the devout pilgrimages of his Helena, the fanatical Arianism\nof Constantia and Constantius, and the fanatical paganism of Julian.\nConstantine adopted Christianity first as a superstition, and put it by\nthe side of his heathen superstition, till finally in his conviction the\nChristian vanquished the pagan, though without itself developing into a\npure and enlightened faith.\n\nAt first Constantine, like his father, in the spirit of the Neo-Platonic\nsyncretism of dying heathendom, reverenced all the gods as mysterious\npowers; especially Apollo, the god of the sun, to whom in the year 308\nhe presented munificent gifts. Nay, so late as the year 321 he enjoined\nregular consultation of the soothsayers in public misfortunes, according\nto ancient heathen usage; even later, he placed his new residence,\nByzantium, under the protection of the God of the Martyrs and the\nheathen goddess of Fortune; and down to the end of his life he retained\nthe title and the dignity of a _Pontifex Maximus_, or high priest of the\nheathen hierarchy. His coins bore on the one side the letters of the\nname of Christ, on the other the figure of the sun-god, and the\ninscription _Sol invictus_. Of course these inconsistencies may be\nreferred also to policy and accommodation to the toleration edict of\n313. Nor is it difficult to adduce parallels of persons who in passing\nfrom Judaism to Christianity, or from Romanism to Protestantism, have\nhonestly so wavered between their old and their new position, that they\nmight be claimed by both. With his every victory over his pagan rivals,\nGalerius, Maxentius, and Licinius, his personal leaning to Christianity\nand his confidence in the magic power of the sign of the cross\nincreased; yet he did not formally renounce heathenism, and did not\nreceive baptism until, in 337, he was laid upon the bed of death.\n\nHe had an imposing and winning person, and was compared by flatterers\nwith Apollo. He was tall, broad shouldered, handsome, and of a\nremarkably vigorous and healthy constitution, but given to excessive\nvanity in his dress and outward demeanor, always wearing an oriental\ndiadem, a helmet studded with jewels, and a purple mantle of silk richly\nembroidered with pearls and flowers worked in gold. His mind was not\nhighly cultivated, but naturally clear, strong, and shrewd, and seldom\nthrown off its guard. He is said to have combined a cynical contempt of\nmankind with an inordinate love of praise. He possessed a good knowledge\nof human nature and administrative energy and tact.\n\nHis moral character was not without noble traits, among which a chastity\nrare for the time, and a liberality and beneficence bordering on\nwastefulness were prominent. Many of his laws and regulations breathed\nthe spirit of Christian justice and humanity, promoted the elevation of\nthe female sex, improved the condition of slaves and of unfortunates,\nand gave free play to the efficiency of the church throughout the whole\nempire. Altogether he was one of the best, the most fortunate, and the\nmost influential of the Roman emperors, Christian and pagan.\n\nYet he had great faults. He was far from being so pure and so venerable\nas Eusebius, blinded by his favor to the church, depicts him, in his\nbombastic and almost dishonestly eulogistic biography, with the evident\nintention of setting him up as a model for all future Christian princes.\nIt must, with all regret, be conceded, that his progress in the\nknowledge of Christianity was not a progress in the practice of its\nvirtues. His love of display and his prodigality, his suspiciousness and\nhis despotism, increased with his power.\n\nThe very brightest period of his reign is stained with gross crimes,\nwhich even the spirit of the age and the policy of an absolute monarch\ncannot excuse. After having reached, upon the bloody path of war, the\ngoal of his ambition, the sole possession of the empire, yea, in the\nvery year in which he summoned the great council of Nicaea, he ordered\nthe execution of his conquered rival and brother-in-law, Licinius, in\nbreach of a solemn promise of mercy (324). Not satisfied with this, he\ncaused soon afterward, from political suspicion, the death of the young\nLicinius, his nephew, a boy of hardly eleven years. But the worst of all\nis the murder of his eldest son, Crispus, in 326, who had incurred\nsuspicion of political conspiracy, and of adulterous and incestuous\npurposes toward his stepmother Fausta, but is generally regarded as\ninnocent. This domestic and political tragedy emerged from a vortex of\nmutual suspicion and rivalry, and calls to mind the conduct of Philip\nII. toward Don Carlos, of Peter the Great toward his son Alexis, and of\nSoliman the Great toward his son Mustapha. Later authors assert, though\ngratuitously, that the emperor, like David, bitterly repented of this\nsin. He has been frequently charged besides, though it would seem\naltogether unjustly, with the death of his second wife Fausta (326?),\nwho, after twenty years of happy wedlock, is said to have been convicted\nof slandering her stepson Crispus, and of adultery with a slave or one\nof the imperial guards, and then to have been suffocated in the vapor of\nan overheated bath. But the accounts of the cause and manner of her\ndeath are so late and discordant as to make Constantine's part in it at\nleast very doubtful.\n\nAt all events Christianity did not produce in Constantine a thorough\nmoral transformation. He was concerned more to advance the outward\nsocial position of the Christian religion, than to further its inward\nmission. He was praised and censured in turn by the Christians and\npagans, the orthodox and the Arians, as they successively experienced\nhis favor or dislike. He bears some resemblance to Peter the Great, both\nin his public acts and his private character, by combining great virtues\nand merits with monstrous crimes, and he probably died with the same\nconsolation as Peter, whose last words were: 'I trust that in respect of\nthe good I have striven to do my people (the church), God will pardon my\nsins.' It is quite characteristic of his piety that he turned the sacred\nnails of the Saviour's cross, which Helena brought from Jerusalem, the\none into the bit of his war horse, the other into an ornament of his\nhelmet. Not a decided, pure, and consistent character, he stands on the\nline of transition between two ages and two religions; and his life\nbears plain marks of both. When at last on his deathbed he submitted to\nbaptism, with the remark, 'Now let us cast away all _duplicity_,' he\nhonestly admitted the conflict of two antagonistic principles which\nswayed his private character and public life.\n\nFrom these general remarks we turn to the leading features of\nConstantine's life and reign, so far as they bear upon the history of\nthe church. We shall consider in order his youth and training, the\nvision of the cross, the edict of toleration, his legislation in favor\nof Christianity, his baptism and death.\n\nConstantine, son of the co-emperor Constantius Chlorus, who reigned over\nGaul, Spain, and Britain till his death in 306, was born probably in the\nyear 272, either in Britain or at Naissus (now called Nissa), a town of\nDardania, in Illyricum. His mother was Helena, daughter of an innkeeper,\nthe first wife of Constantius, afterward divorced, when Constantius, for\npolitical reasons, married a daughter of Maximian. She is described by\nChristian writers as a discreet and devout woman, and has been honored\nwith a place in the catalogue of saints. Her name is identified with the\ndiscovery of the cross and the pious superstitions of the holy places.\nShe lived to a very advanced age, and died in the year 326 or 327, in or\nnear the city of Rome. Rising by her beauty and good fortune from\nobscurity to the splendor of the court, then meeting the fate of\nJosephine, but restored to imperial dignity by her son, and ending as a\nsaint of the Catholic church: Helena would form an interesting subject\nfor a historical novel illustrating the leading events of the Nicene age\nand the triumph of Christianity in the Roman empire.\n\nConstantine first distinguished himself in the service of Diocletian in\nthe Egyptian and Persian wars; went afterward to Gaul and Britain, and\nin the Praetorium at York was proclaimed emperor by his dying father and\nby the Roman troops. His father before him held a favorable opinion of\nthe Christians as peaceable and honorable citizens, and protected them\nin the West during the Diocletian persecution in the East. This\nrespectful, tolerant regard descended to Constantine, and the good\neffects of it, compared with the evil results of the opposite course of\nhis antagonist Galerius, could but encourage him to pursue it. He\nreasoned, as Eusebius reports from his own mouth, in the following\nmanner: 'My father revered the Christian God, and uniformly prospered,\nwhile the emperors who worshipped the heathen gods, died a miserable\ndeath; therefore, that I may enjoy a happy life and reign, I will\nimitate the example of my father and join myself to the cause of the\nChristians, who are growing daily, while the heathen are diminishing.'\nThis low utilitarian consideration weighed heavily in the mind of an\nambitious captain, who looked forward to the highest seat of power\nwithin the gift of his age. Whether his mother, whom he always revered,\nand who made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in her eightieth year (A. D.\n325), planted the germ of the Christian faith in her son, as Theodoret\nsupposes, or herself became a Christian through his influence, as\nEusebius asserts, must remain undecided. According to the heathen\nZosimus, whose statement is unquestionably false and malicious, an\nEgyptian, who came out of Spain (probably the bishop Hosius of Cordova,\na native of Egypt, is intended), persuaded him, after the murder of\nCrispus (which did not occur before 326), that by converting to\nChristianity he might obtain forgiveness of his sins.\n\nThe first public evidence of a positive leaning toward the Christian\nreligion he gave in his contest with the pagan Maxentius, who had\nusurped the government of Italy and Africa, and is universally\nrepresented as a cruel, dissolute tyrant, hated by heathens and\nChristians alike. Called by the Roman people to their aid, Constantine\nmarched from Gaul across the Alps with an army of ninety-eight thousand\nsoldiers of every nationality, and defeated Maxentius in three battles;\nthe last in October, 312, at the Milvian bridge, near Rome, where\nMaxentius found a disgraceful death in the waters of the Tiber.\n\nHere belongs the familiar story of the miraculous cross. The precise day\nand place cannot be fixed, but the event must have occurred shortly\nbefore the final victory over Maxentius in the neighborhood of Rome. As\nthis vision is one of the most noted miracles in church history, and has\na representative significance, it deserves a closer examination. It\nmarks for us on the one hand the victory of Christianity over paganism\nin the Roman empire, and on the other the ominous admixture of foreign,\npolitical, and military interests with it. We need not be surprised that\nin the Nicene age so great a revolution and transition should have been\nclothed with a supernatural character.\n\nThe occurrence is variously described, and is not without serious\ndifficulties. Lactantius, the earliest witness, some three years after\nthe battle, speaks only of a dream by night, in which the emperor was\ndirected (it is not stated by whom, whether by Christ, or by an angel)\nto stamp on the shields of his soldiers 'the heavenly sign of God,' that\nis, the cross with the name of Christ, and thus to go forth against his\nenemy. Eusebius, on the contrary, gives a more minute account, on the\nauthority of a subsequent private communication of the aged Constantine\nhimself under oath--not, however, till the year 338, a year after the\ndeath of the emperor, his only witness, and twenty-six years after the\nevent. On his march from Gaul to Italy (the spot and date are not\nspecified), the emperor, while earnestly praying to the true God for\nlight and help at this critical time, saw, together with his army, in\nclear daylight toward evening, a shining cross in the heavens above the\nsun, with the inscription: '_By this conquer;_' and in the following\nnight Christ himself appeared to him while he slept, and directed him to\nhave a standard prepared in the form of this sign of the cross, and with\nthat to proceed against Maxentius and all other enemies. This account of\nEusebius, or rather of Constantine himself, adds to the night dream of\nLactantius the preceding vision of the day, and the direction concerning\nthe standard, while Lactantius speaks of the inscription of the initial\nletters of Christ's name on the shields of the soldiers. According to\nRufinus, a later historian, who elsewhere depends entirely on Eusebius,\nand can therefore not be regarded as a proper witness in the case, the\nsign of the cross appeared to Constantine in a dream (which agrees with\nthe account of Lactantius), and upon his awaking in terror, an angel\n(not Christ) exclaimed to him: '_Hoc vince._' Lactantius, Eusebius, and\nRufinus are the only Christian writers of the fourth century, who\nmention the apparition. But we have besides one or two heathen\ntestimonies, which, though vague and obscure, still serve to strengthen\nthe evidence in favor of some actual occurrence. The contemporaneous\norator Nazarius, in a panegyric upon the emperor, pronounced March 1,\n321, apparently at Rome, speaks of an army of divine warriors and a\ndivine assistance which Constantine received in the engagement with\nMaxentius; but he converts it to the service of heathenism by recurring\nto old prodigies, such as the appearance of Castor and Pollux.\n\nThis famous tradition may be explained either as a real miracle implying\na personal appearance of Christ, or as a pious fraud, or as a natural\nphenomenon in the clouds and an optical illusion, or finally as a\nprophetic dream.\n\nThe propriety of a miracle, parallel to the signs in heaven which\npreceded the destruction of Jerusalem, might be justified by the\nsignificance of the victory as marking a great epoch in history, namely,\nthe downfall of paganism and the establishment of Christianity in the\nempire. But even if we waive the purely critical objections to the\nEusebian narrative, the assumed connection, in this case, of the gentle\nPrince of peace with the god of battle, and the subserviency of the\nsacred symbol of redemption to military ambition, is repugnant to the\ngenius of the gospel and to sound Christian feeling, unless we stretch\nthe theory of divine accommodation to the spirit of the age and the\npassions and interests of individuals beyond the ordinary limits. We\nshould suppose, moreover, that Christ, if he had really appeared to\nConstantine either in person (according to Eusebius) or through angels\n(as Rufinus and Sozomen modify it), would have exhorted him to repent\nand be baptized rather than to construct a military ensign for a bloody\nbattle. In no case can we ascribe to this occurrence, with Eusebius,\nTheodoret, and older writers, the character of a sudden and genuine\nconversion, as to Paul's vision of Christ on the way to Damascus; for,\non the one hand, Constantine was never hostile to Christianity, but most\nprobably friendly to it from his early youth, according to the example\nof his father, and, on the other, he put off his baptism quite five and\ntwenty years, almost to the hour of his death.\n\nThe opposite hypothesis of a mere military stratagem or intentional\nfraud is still more objectionable, and would compel us either to impute\nto the first Christian emperor, at a venerable age, the double crime of\nfalsehood and perjury, or, if Eusebius invented the story, to deny to\nthe 'father of church history' all claim to credibility and common\nrespectability. Besides, it should be remembered that the older\ntestimony of Lactantius, or whoever was the author of the work on the\nDeaths of Persecutors, is quite independent of that of Eusebius, and\nderives additional force from the vague heathen rumors of the time.\nFinally the _Hoc vince_, which has passed into proverbial significance\nas a most appropriate motto of the invincible religion of the cross, is\ntoo good to be traced to sheer falsehood. Some actual fact, therefore,\nmust be supposed to underlie the tradition, and the question only is\nthis, whether it was an external, viable phenomenon or an internal\nexperience.\n\nThe hypothesis of a natural formation of the clouds, which Constantine\nby an optical illusion mistook for a supernatural sign of the cross,\nbesides smacking of the exploded rationalistic explanation of the New\nTestament miracles, and deriving an important event from a mere\naccident, leaves the figure of Christ and the Greek or Latin\ninscription, '_By this sign thou shalt conquer!_' altogether\nunexplained.\n\nWe are shut up, therefore, to the theory of a dream or vision, and an\nexperience within the mind of Constantine. This is supported by the\noldest testimony of Lactantius, as well as by the report of Rufinus and\nSozomen, and we do not hesitate to regard the Eusebian cross in the\nskies as originally a part of the dream, which only subsequently assumed\nthe character of an outward objective apparition, either in the\nimagination of Constantine or by a mistake of the memory of the\nhistorian, but in either case without intentional fraud. That the vision\nwas traced to supernatural origin, especially after the happy success,\nis quite natural and in perfect keeping with the prevailing ideas of the\nage. Tertullian and other ante-Nicene and Nicene fathers attributed many\nconversions to nocturnal dreams and visions. Constantine and his friends\nreferred the most important facts of his life, as the knowledge of the\napproach of hostile armies, the discovery of the holy sepulchre, the\nfounding of Constantinople, to divine revelation through visions and\ndreams. Nor are we disposed in the least to deny the connection of the\nvision of the cross with the agency of Divine Providence, which\ncontrolled this remarkable turning point of history. We may go farther\nand admit a special providence, or what the old divines call a\n_providentia specialissima_; but this does not necessarily imply a\nviolation of the order of nature or an actual miracle in the shape of an\nobjective personal appearance of the Saviour. We may refer to a somewhat\nsimilar, though far less important, vision in the life of the pious\nEnglish Colonel James Gardiner. The Bible itself sanctions the general\ntheory of providential or prophetic dreams and nocturnal visions through\nwhich divine revelations and admonitions are communicated to men.\n\nThe facts, therefore, may have been these: Before the battle,\nConstantine, leaning already toward Christianity as probably the beat\nand most hopeful of the various religions, seriously sought in prayer,\nas he related to Eusebius, the assistance of the God of the Christians,\nwhile his heathen antagonist, Maxentius, according to Zosimus, was\nconsulting the sibylline books and offering sacrifice to the idols.\nFilled with mingled fears and hopes about the issue of the conflict, he\nfell asleep, and saw in a dream the sign of the cross of Christ with a\nsignificant inscription and promise of victory. Being already familiar\nwith the general use of this sign among the numerous Christians of the\nempire, many of whom no doubt were in his own army, he constructed the\n_labarum_,[A] afterward so called, that is, the sacred standard of the\nChristian cross with the Greek monogram of Christ,[B] which he had also\nput upon the shields of the soldiers. To this cross-standard, which now\ntook the place of the Roman eagles, he attributed the decisive victory\nover the heathen Maxentius.\n\nAccordingly, after his triumphal entrance into Rome, he had his statue\nerected upon the forum with the labarum in his right hand, and the\ninscription beneath: 'By this saving sign, the true token of bravery, I\nhave delivered your city from the yoke of the tyrant.' Three years\nafterward the senate erected to him a triumphal arch of marble, which to\nthis day, within sight of the sublime ruins of the pagan Colosseum,\nindicates at once the decay of ancient art and the downfall of\nheathenism; as the neighboring arch of Titus commemorates the downfall\nof Judaism and the destruction of the temple. The inscription on this\narch of Constantine, however, ascribes his victory over the hated\ntyrant, not only to his master mind, but indefinitely also to the\nimpulse of Deity; by which a Christian would naturally understand the\ntrue God, while a heathen, like the orator Nazarius, in his eulogy on\nConstantine, might take it for the celestial guardian power of the _urbs\naeterna_.\n\nAt all events the victory of Constantine over Maxentius was a military\nand political victory of Christianity over heathenism; the intellectual\nand moral victory having been already accomplished by the literature and\nlife of the church in the preceding period. The emblem of ignominy and\noppression[C] became thenceforward the badge of honor and dominion, and\nwas invested in the emperor's view, according to the spirit of the\nchurch of his day, with a magic virtue. It now took the place of the\neagle and other field badges, under which the heathen Romans had\nconquered the world. It was stamped on the imperial coin, and on the\nstandards, helmets, and shields of the soldiers. Above all military\nrepresentations of the cross the original imperial labarum shone in the\nrichest decorations of gold and gems; was intrusted to the truest and\nbravest fifty of the body guard; filled the Christians with the spirit\nof victory, and spread fear and terror among their enemies; until, under\nthe weak successors of Theodosius II., it fell out of use, and was\nlodged as a venerable relic in the imperial palace at Constantinople.\n\nBefore this victory at Rome (which occurred October 27, 312), either in\nthe spring or summer of 312, Constantine, in conjunction with his\nEastern colleague, Licinius, had published an edict of religious\ntoleration, now not extant, but probably a step beyond the edict of the\nstill anti-Christian Galerius in 311, which was likewise subscribed by\nConstantine and Licinius as co-regents. Soon after, in January, 313, the\ntwo emperors issued from Milan a new edict (the third) on religion,\nstill extant both in Latin and Greek, in which, in the spirit of\nreligious eclecticism, they granted full freedom to all existing forms\nof worship, with special reference to the Christian. This religion the\nedict not only recognized in its existing limits, but also--what neither\nthe first nor perhaps the second edict had done--allowed every heathen\nsubject to adopt it with impunity. At the same time the church buildings\nand property confiscated in the Diocletian persecution were ordered to\nbe restored, and private property-owners to be indemnified from the\nimperial treasury.\n\nIn this notable edict, however, we should look in vain for the modern\nProtestant and Anglo-American theory of religious liberty as one of the\nuniversal and inalienable rights of man. Sundry voices, it is true, in\nthe Christian church itself, at that time and even before, declared\nfirmly against all compulsion in religion. But the spirit of the Roman\nempire was too absolutistic to abandon the prerogative of a supervision\nof public worship. The Constantinian toleration was a temporary measure\nof state policy, which, as indeed the edict expressly states the motive,\npromised the greatest security to the public peace and the protection of\nall divine and heavenly powers, for emperor and empire. It was, as the\nresult teaches, but the necessary transition step to a new order of\nthings. It opened the door to the elevation of Christianity, and\nspecifically of Catholic hierarchical Christianity, with its\nexclusiveness toward heretical and schismatic sects, to be the religion\nof the state. For, once put on an equal footing with heathenism, it must\nsoon, in spite of numerical minority, bear away the victory from a\nreligion which had already inwardly outlived itself.\n\nFrom this time Constantine decidedly favored the church, though without\npersecuting or forbidding the pagan religions. He always mentions the\nChristian church with reverence in his imperial edicts, and uniformly\napplies to it, as we have already observed, the predicate of catholic.\nFor only as a catholic, thoroughly organized, firmly compacted, and\nconservative institution did it meet his rigid monarchical interest, and\nafford the splendid state and court dress he wished for his empire. So\nearly as the year 313 we find the bishop Hosius of Cordova among his\ncounsellors, and heathen writers ascribe to the bishop even a magical\ninfluence over the emperor. Lactantius, also, and Eusebius of Caesarea\nbelonged to his confidential circle. He exempted the Christian clergy\nfrom military and municipal duty (March, 313); abolished various customs\nand ordinances offensive to the Christians (315); facilitated the\nemancipation of Christian slaves (before 316); legalized bequests to\ncatholic churches (321); enjoined the civil observance of Sunday, though\nnot as _dies Domini_, but as _dies Solis_, in conformity to his worship\nof Apollo, and in company with an ordinance for the regular consulting\nof the haruspex (321); contributed liberally to the building of churches\nand the support of the clergy; erased the heathen symbols of Jupiter and\nApollo, Mars and Hercules from the imperial coins (323); and gave his\nsons a Christian education. This mighty example was followed, as might\nbe expected, by a general transition of those subjects who were more\ninfluenced in their conduct by outward circumstances than by inward\nconviction and principle. The story, that in one year (324) twelve\nthousand men, with women and children in proportion, were baptized in\nRome, and that the emperor had promised to each convert a white garment\nand twenty pieces of gold, is at least in accordance with the spirit of\nthat reign, though the fact itself, in all probability, is greatly\nexaggerated.\n\nConstantine came out with still greater decision, when, by his victory\nover his Eastern colleague and brother-in-law, Licinius, he became sole\nhead of the whole Roman empire. To strengthen his position, Licinius had\ngradually placed himself at the head of the heathen party, still very\nnumerous, and had vexed the Christians first with wanton ridicule, then\nwith exclusion from civil and military office, with banishment, and in\nsome instances perhaps even with bloody persecution. This gave the\npolitical strife for the monarchy between himself and Constantine the\ncharacter also of a war of religions; and the defeat of Licinius in the\nbattle of Adrianople, in July, 321, and at Chalcedon, in September, was\na new triumph of the standard of the cross over the sacrifices of the\ngods; save that Constantine dishonored himself and his cause by the\nexecution of Licinius and his son.\n\nThe emperor now issued a general exhortation to his subjects to embrace\nthe Christian religion, still leaving them, however, to their own free\nconviction. In the year 325, as patron of the church, he summoned the\ncouncil of Nice, and himself attended it; banished the Arians, though he\nafterward recalled them; and, in his monarchical spirit of uniformity,\nshowed great zeal for the settlement of all theological disputes, while\nhe was blind to their deep significance. He first introduced the\npractice of subscription to the articles of a written creed and of the\ninfliction of civil punishments for non-conformity. In the years\n325-329, in connection with his mother, Helena, he erected magnificent\nchurches on the sacred spots in Jerusalem.\n\nAs heathenism had still the preponderance in Rome, where it was hallowed\nby its great traditions, Constantine, by divine command as he supposed,\nin the year 330, transferred the seat of his government to Byzantium,\nand thus fixed the policy, already initiated by Domitian, or\norientalizing and dividing the empire. In the selection of the\nunrivalled locality he showed more taste and genius than the founders of\nMadrid, Vienna, Berlin, St. Petersburg, or Washington. With incredible\nrapidity, and by all the means within reach of an absolute monarch, he\nturned this nobly situated town, connecting two seas and two continents,\ninto a splendid residence and a new Christian Rome, 'for which now,' as\nGregory of Nazianzen expresses it, 'sea and land emulate each other, to\nload it with their treasures, and crown it queen of cities.' Here,\ninstead of idol temples and altars, churches and crucifixes rose; though\namong them the statues of patron deities from all over Greece, mutilated\nby all sorts of tasteless adaptations, were also gathered in the new\nmetropolis. The main hall in the palace was adorned with representations\nof the crucifixion and other Biblical scenes. The gladiatorial shows, so\npopular in Rome, were forbidden here, though theatres, amphitheatres,\nand hippodromes kept their place. It could nowhere be mistaken, that the\nnew imperial residence was, as to all outward appearance, a Christian\ncity. The smoke of heathen sacrifices never rose from the seven hills of\nNew Rome, except during the short reign of Julian the Apostate. It\nbecame the residence of a bishop, who not only claimed the authority of\nthe apostolic see of neighboring Ephesus, but soon outshone the\npatriarchate of Alexandria, and rivalled for centuries the papal power\nin ancient Rome.\n\nThe emperor diligently attended divine worship, and is portrayed upon\nmedals in the posture of prayer. He kept the Easter vigils with great\ndevotion. He would stand during the longest sermons of his bishops, who\nalways surrounded him, and unfortunately flattered him only too much.\nAnd he even himself composed and delivered discourses to his court, in\nthe Latin language, from which they were translated into Greek by\ninterpreters appointed for the purpose. General invitations were issued,\nand the citizens flocked in great crowds to the palace to hear the\nimperial preacher, who would in vain try to prevent their loud applause\nby pointing to heaven as the source of his wisdom. He dwelt mainly on\nthe truth of Christianity, the folly of idolatry, the unity and\nprovidence of God, the coming of Christ, and the judgment. At times he\nwould severely rebuke the avarice and rapacity of his courtiers, who\nwould loudly applaud him with their mouths and belie his exhortations by\ntheir works. One of these productions is still extant, in which he\nrecommends Christianity in a characteristic strain, and in proof of its\ndivine origin cites especially the fulfilment of prophecy, including the\nsibylline books and the Fourth Eclogue of Virgil, with the contrast\nbetween his own happy and brilliant reign and the tragical fate of his\npersecuting predecessors and colleagues.\n\nNevertheless he continued in his later years true, upon the whole, to\nthe toleration principles of the edict of 313, protected the pagan\npriests and temples in their privileges, and wisely abstained from all\nviolent measures against heathenism, in the persuasion that it would in\ntime die out. He retained many heathens at court and in public office,\nalthough he loved to promote Christians to honorable positions. In\nseveral cases, however, he prohibited idolatry, where it sanctioned\nscandalous immorality, as in the obscene worship of Venus in Phenicia;\nor in places which were especially sacred to the Christians, as the\nsepulchre of Christ and the grove of Mamre; and he caused a number of\ndeserted temples and images to be destroyed or turned into Christian\nchurches. Eusebius relates several such instances with evident\napprobation, and praises also his later edicts against various heretics\nand schismatics, but without mentioning the Arians. In his later years\nhe seems, indeed, to have issued a general prohibition of idolatrous\nsacrifice; Eusebius speaks of it, and his sons in 341 refer to an edict\nto that effect; but the repetition of it by his successors proves that,\nif issued, it was not carried into general execution under his reign.\n\nWith this shrewd, cautious, and moderate policy of Constantine, which\ncontrasts well with the violent fanaticism of his sons, accords the\npostponement of his own baptism to his last sickness. For this he had\nthe further motives of a superstitious desire, which he himself\nexpresses, to be baptized in the Jordan, whose waters had been\nsanctified by the Saviour's baptism, and no doubt also a fear that he\nmight by relapse forfeit the sacramental remission of sins. He wished to\nsecure all the benefit of baptism as a complete expiation of past sins,\nwith as little risk as possible, and thus to make the best of both\nworlds. Deathbed baptisms then were to half Christians of that age what\ndeathbed conversions and deathbed communions are now. But he presumed to\npreach the gospel, he called himself the bishop of bishops, he convened\nthe first general council, and made Christianity the religion of the\nempire, long before his baptism! Strange as this inconsistency appears\nto us, what shall we think of the court bishops who, from false\nprudence, relaxed in his favor the otherwise strict discipline of the\nchurch, and admitted him, at least tacitly, to the enjoyment of nearly\nall the privileges of believers, before he had taken upon himself even a\nsingle obligation of a catechumen?\n\nWhen, after a life of almost uninterrupted health, he felt the approach\nof death, he was received into the number of catechumens by laying on of\nhands, and then formally admitted by baptism into the full communion of\nthe church in the year 337, the sixty-fifth year of his age, by the\nArian (or properly Semi-Arian) bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia, whom he had\nshortly before recalled from exile together with Arius! His dying\ntestimony then was, as to form, in favor of heretical rather than\northodox Christianity, but merely from accident, not from intention. He\nmeant the Christian as against the heathen religion, and whatever of\nArianism may have polluted his baptism, was for the Greek Church fully\nneutralized by the orthodox canonization. After the solemn ceremony, he\npromised to live thenceforth worthily of a disciple of Jesus; refused to\nwear again the imperial mantle of cunningly woven silk, richly\nornamented with gold; retained the white baptismal robe; and died a few\ndays after, on Pentecost, May 32, 337, trusting in the mercy of God, and\nleaving a long, a fortunate, and a brilliant reign, such as none but\nAugustus, of all his predecessors, had enjoyed. 'So passed away the\nfirst Christian emperor, the first defender of the faith, the first\nimperial patron of the papal see, and of the whole Eastern Church, the\nfirst founder of the holy places, pagan and Christian, orthodox and\nheretical, liberal and fanatical, not to be imitated or admired, but\nmuch to be remembered, and deeply to be studied.'\n\nHis remains were removed in a golden coffin by a procession of\ndistinguished civilians and the whole army, from Nicomedia to\nConstantinople, and deposited, with the highest Christian honors, in the\nChurch of the Apostles, while the Roman senate, after its ancient\ncustom, proudly ignoring the great religious revolution of the age,\nenrolled him among the gods of the heathen Olympus. Soon after his\ndeath, Eusebius set him above the greatest princes of all times; from\nthe fifth century he began to be recognized in the East as a saint; and\nthe Greek and Russian Church to this day celebrates his memory under the\nextravagant title of _Isapostolos_, the 'Equal of the Apostles.' The\nLatin Church, on the contrary, with truer tact, has never placed him\namong the saints, but has been content with naming him 'the Great,' in\njust and grateful remembrance of his services to the cause of\nChristianity and civilization.\n\nConstantine marks the beginning of the downfall of ancient and classical\npaganism. Still it dragged out a sickly old age for about two hundred\nyears longer, until at last it died of incurable consumption, without\nthe hope of a resurrection.\n\nThe final dissolution of heathenism in the Eastern empire may be dated\nfrom the middle of the fifth century. In the year 435, Theodosius II.\ncommanded the temples to be destroyed or turned into churches. There\nstill appear some heathens in civil office and at court so late as the\nbeginning of the reign of Justinian I. (527-567). But this despotic\nemperor prohibited heathenism as a form of worship in the empire on pain\nof death, and in 529 abolished the last intellectual seminary of it, the\nphilosophical school of Athens, which had stood nine hundred years. At\nthat time just seven philosophers were teaching in that school, the\nshades of the ancient seven sages of Greece--a striking play of history,\nlike the name of the last West-Roman emperor, Romulus Augustus, or, in\ncontemptuous diminutive, Augustulus, combining the names of the founder\nof the city and the founder of the empire.\n\nIn the West, heathenism maintained itself until near the middle of the\nsixth century, and even later, partly as a private religious conviction\namong many cultivated and aristocratic families in Rome, partly even in\nthe full form of worship in the remote provinces and on the mountains of\nSicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, and partly in heathen customs and popular\nusages, like the gladiatorial shows still extant in Rome in 404, and the\nwanton Lupercalia, a sort of heathen carnival, the feast of Lupercus,\nthe god of herds, still celebrated with all its excesses in February,\n495. But, in general, it may be said that the Graeco-Roman heathenism, as\na system of worship, was buried under the ruins of the Western empire,\nwhich sank under the storms of the great migration. It is remarkable\nthat the northern barbarians labored with the same zeal in the\ndestruction of idolatry as in the destruction of the empire, and really\npromoted the victory of the Christian religion. The Gothic king Alaric,\non entering Rome, expressly ordered that the churches of the apostles\nPeter and Paul should be spared, as inviolable sanctuaries; and he\nshowed a humanity, which Augustin justly attributes to the influence of\nChristianity (even perverted Arian Christianity) on these barbarous\npeople. The Christian name, he says, which the heathens blaspheme, has\neffected not the destruction, but the salvation of the city. Odoacer,\nwho put an end to the Western Roman empire in 476, was incited to his\nexpedition into Italy by St. Severin, and, though himself an Arian,\nshowed great regard to the catholic bishops. The same is true of his\nconqueror and successor, Theodoric the Ostrogoth, who was recognized by\nthe East-Roman emperor Anastasius as king of Italy (A.D. 500), and was\nlikewise an Arian. Thus between the barbarians and the Romans, as\nbetween the Romans and the Greeks, and in a measure also the Jews, the\nconquered gave laws to the conquerors. Christianity triumphed over both.\n\nThis is the end of Graeco-Roman heathenism, with its power, wisdom, and\nbeauty. It fell a victim to a slow but steady process of incurable\nconsumption. Its downfall is a sublime tragedy which, with all our\nabhorrence of idolatry, we cannot witness without a certain sadness. At\nthe first appearance of Christianity it comprised all the wisdom,\nliterature, art, and political power of the civilized world, and led all\ninto the field against the weaponless religion of the crucified\nNazarene. After a conflict of four or five centuries it lay prostrate in\nthe dust without hope of resurrection. With the outward protection of\nthe state, it lost all power, and had not even the courage of martyrdom;\nwhile the Christian church showed countless hosts of confessors and\nblood-witnesses, and Judaism lives to-day in spite of all persecution.\nThe expectation that Christianity would fall about the year 398, after\nan existence of three hundred and sixty-five years, turned out in the\nfulfilment to relate to heathenism itself.\n\nThe last glimmer of life in the old religion was its pitiable prayer\nfor toleration and its lamentation over the ruin of the empire. Its best\nelements took refuge in the church, and became converted, or at least\ntook Christian names. Now the gods were dethroned, oracles and prodigies\nceased, sibylline books were burned, temples were destroyed, or\ntransformed into churches, or still stand as memorials of the victory of\nChristianity.\n\nBut although ancient Greece and Rome have fallen forever, the spirit of\nGraeco-Roman paganism is not extinct. It still lives in the natural heart\nof man, which at this day as much as ever needs regeneration by the\nspirit of God. It lives also in many idolatrous and superstitious usages\nof the Greek and Roman Churches, against which the pure spirit of\nChristianity has instinctively protested from the beginning, and will\nprotest, till all remains of gross and refined idolatry shall be\noutwardly as well as inwardly overcome, and baptized and sanctified not\nonly with water, but also with the spirit and fire of the gospel.\n\nFinally, the better genius of ancient Greece and Rome still lives in the\nimmortal productions of their poets, philosophers, historians, and\norators--yet no longer an enemy, but a friend and servant of Christ.\nWhat is truly great and noble and beautiful can never perish. The\nclassic literature had prepared the way for the gospel, in the sphere of\nnatural culture, and was to be turned thenceforth into a weapon for its\ndefence. It passed, like the Old Testament, as a rightful inheritance,\ninto the possession of the Christian church, which saved those precious\nworks of genius through the ravages of the migration of nations and the\ndarkness of the Middle Ages, and used them as material in the rearing of\nthe temple of modern civilization. The word of the great apostle of the\nGentiles was here fulfilled: 'All things are yours.' The ancient\nclassics, delivered from the daemoniacal possession of idolatry, have\ncome into the service of the only true and living God, once 'unknown' to\nthem, but now everywhere revealed, and are thus enabled to fulfil their\ntrue mission as the preparatory tutors of youth for Christian learning\nand culture. This is the noblest, the most worthy, and most complete\nvictory of Christianity, transforming the enemy into friend and ally.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[A] [Greek: Laboron], also [Greek: labouron]; derived, not from _labor_,\nnor from [Greek: laphuron], i.e., _praeda_, nor from [Greek: labein], but\nprobably from a barbarian root, otherwise unknown, and introduced into\nthe Roman terminology, even before Constantine, by the Celtic or\nGermanic recruits. Comp. Du Cange, Glossar., and Suicer, Thesaur. s.h.v.\nThe labarum, as described by Eusebius, who saw it himself (Vita Const.\ni. 30), consisted of a long spear overlaid with gold, and a cross piece\nof wood, from which hung a square flag of purple cloth, embroidered and\ncovered with precious stones. On the top of the shaft was a crown\ncomposed of gold and precious stones, and containing the monogram of\nChrist (see next note), and just under this crown was a likeness of the\nemperor and his sons in gold. The emperor told Eusebius (I. ii. c. 7)\nsome incredible things about this labarum, _e.g._ that none of its\nbearers was ever hurt by the darts of the enemy.\n\n[B] X and P, the first two letters of the name of Christ,\nso written upon one another as to make the form of the cross:\n[Illustration] (_i.e._ Christos--Alpha and Omega, the beginning and\nthe end), and similar forms, of which Muenter (Sinnbilder der Alten\nChristen, p. 36 sqq.) has collected from ancient coins, vessels, and\ntombstones more than twenty. The monogram, as well as the sign of the\ncross, was in use among the Christians long before Constantine, probably\nas early as the Antonines and Hadrian. Yea, the standards and trophies\nof victory generally had the appearance of a cross, as Minucius Felix,\nTertullian, Justin, and other apologists of the second century told the\nheathens. According to Killen (Ancient Church, p. 317, note), who quotes\nAringhus (Roma Subterranea, II. p. 567) as his authority, the famous\nmonogram (of course in a different sense) is found even before Christ on\ncoins of the Ptolemies. The only thing new, therefore, was the _union_\nof this symbol in its _Christian_ sense and application with the Roman\n_military standard_.\n\n[C] Cicero says, pro Raberio, c. 5: 'Nomen ipsum _crucis_ absit non modo\na corpore civium Romanorum, sed etiam a cogitatione, oculis, auribus.'\nWith other ancient heathens, however, the Egyptians, the Buddhists, and\neven the aborigines of Mexico, the cross seems to have been in use as a\nreligious symbol. Socrates relates (H.E. v. 17) that at the destruction\nof the temple of Serapis, among the hieroglyphic inscriptions, forms of\ncrosses were found which pagans and Christians alike referred to their\nrespective religions. Some of the heathen converts, conversant with\nhieroglyphic characters, interpreted the form of the cross to mean _the\nLife to come_. According to Prescott (Conquest of Mexico, iii. 338-340)\nthe Spaniards found the cross among the objects of worship in the idol\ntemples of Anahnac.\n\n\n\n\nCAUSES OF THE MINNESOTA MASSACRE.\n\n\nIf great public phenomena do not come by chance, then there were causes\nfor the Minnesota massacres, by the Sioux, in 1862-'3, quite apart from\nthe aboriginal cruelty and ferocity of the Indian nature. We all know\nthat the carnal Indian man is a bad enough fellow at the best, and\ncapable of dreadful crimes and misdemeanors, if only to gratify his whim\nor the caprice of the moment. And when he is bent upon satiating his\nrevenge for some real or imaginary wrong, I would back him in the\nhorrible ingenuity of his devices for torture, in the unrelenting malice\nof his vengeance, against any--the most fierce and diabolical--of all\nthe potentates in the kingdoms of eternal and immutable evil!\n\nBut the white man has always had the advantage of the red man. He was\nhis superior in knowledge, power, and intellect; and came, for the most\npart, of that lordly race, the issue of whose loins already occupy all\nthe chief countries within the zones of civilization. He knew,\ntherefore, when he first began to deal with the Indian, what manner of\nman he was, what his enlightenment was, and how far it reached out into\nthe darkness where all is night! He knew that this wild, savage,\nuntamable redskin could not be approached, reconciled, traded with, or\nstolen, from, by adopting, in his case, the usages and courtesies of\ncivil life, as we understand them, but that his own peculiar laws,\ncustoms, and manners must be studied and conformed to, if any headway\nwere to be made in his regard and confidence.\n\nAt no time, from the beginning to the present day and hour, has any\nwhite man been so fuddled in his wits as to suppose that the Indian\ncould either act or talk like a clergyman of any recognized Christian\ndenomination. It was too much, therefore, to expect from him that he\nshould exhibit any of the fine charities and warm affections which\ndistinguish the Christian character. He was a redskin, implacable in his\nhate, not altogether trustworthy even in his friendships, and jealous of\nhis reputation and the traditions of his race. Nor was he without\nmanhood either. A brave, bloody, mocking and defiant manhood! capable of\nthe endurances of the martyr, exhibiting sometimes the sublimest\nself-sacrifice and courage.\n\nWhether out of these wild and savage materials there lay anywhere, at\nany time, the human or divine power to mould a civilized community, does\nnot appear upon the record. It is certain, however, that after all the\nfar-too-late attempts to transfigure these savages into the likeness of\na down-East Yankee, or, better still, into the similitude of a Western\nfarmer, no permanent good results are likely to ensue.\n\nThe red man and the white are separated indeed by the prodigious\ndistances (ethnologically speaking) not only of race and language, but\nof noble tradition and glorious history. They could never amalgamate in\nblood, or in the so-called natural sympathies of man. They seem to be\nborn enemies! as their feelings and their instincts apparently reach\nthem when they come into contact with each other. They cannot exist side\nby side. A mightier than they holds the destinies of both in His hands.\nHe has tried the redskins. He has given them a good chance upon the\nearth, and they have failed to do anything but kill buffalo and breed\nlike rats--often burrowing like rats--refusing to dig and plant the\nteeming, beneficent earth which had been committed to their charge; and\npreferring, generally, the life of a vagabond loafer to that of a\nthrifty, careful husbandman.\n\nI do not blame them. They are as God made them, and man left them; for,\nI suppose, their forebears--somewhere afar off in Asia, perhaps, in the\ndim, immemorial ages--had all passed through the various phases of the\ncivilization of their time, and that they did not grow out of the tail\nof any gorilla. It is not for profane man to inquire what possible\nreason there could be for the perpetuation--let alone the creation--of\nsuch a useless, bootless race. There they are, occupiers of the soil for\nunknown centuries--before the white man ever saw their faces--many\nthousands of them still squatting there, cleaving, like bereaved\nAutochthons, to the bosom of the dear old mother who had whelped and so\nlong nurtured them; and trying to make themselves believe that they are\nstill masters of the continent.\n\nWhat they were made for at all, I do not pretend to divine. The\nDivine Maker of all knows best, and what He does is its own\njustification--satisfying the wellnigh insatiable cry of the universe\nfor universal justice. They are the saurians of humanity; and it is\nremarkable that the idea of 'progressive development'--if I may be\npardoned for making use of a term in modern philosophy about which there\nhas been so much assumption and canting--it is remarkable that this\nidea, which the name of _saurian_ suggests, should run through all\nnature, and be embodied in her finest forms and intelligences. There is\na considerable distance between the saurian and good Master Adam, the\ngardener of Eden; but it seems to me, after all, that this brutal, foul,\nobscene monster of the prime, was only Adam in the making. He came after\nhim, a long way, at all events; and if geology had been fashionable in\nhis time, and he a _savant_, he might have chalked out for himself a\nvery fine pedigree.\n\nFor this strange, eccentric Nature, who meant _man_ from the beginning,\nand failed to realize her ideal because of those horrible nightmare\ndreams of which these saurians, mastodons, mammoths were the visible\nrepresentatives, did, nevertheless, make, in every succeeding world (for\nevery crust of this planet is the crust of a dead world), higher and\nhigher organizations--until, at last, she gave to man his _inscrutable_\nbirth!\n\nThat was, no doubt, a great triumph of power and genius! Man is a noble\nanimal, the finest of all living fellows! _et cetera! et cetera!_ But\nwhat sort of a fellow was he when he came, in his spindles and\nshacklebones, from the womb of the All-mother? Was he a Caucasian, or a\nMongolian, a Negro, a Malay, or a Bosjesman?--this last being an effigy\nof man so abominable that no race that I have heard of will include him\neven as a lodger in the parish settlements!\n\nMark! what a sameness, and yet what an infinite variety, there is in all\nthe operations and purposes of Nature! She does not grow us _men_ out of\nour mothers, but babes--helpless, pitiably, tearfully helpless\n_babes_!--ignorant; who must _grow_ into the perfect stature and the\nmature mind of men. Is not this babe also a saurian in its little way?\nDoes a wider gap separate the saurian from the man, than that which\nseparates the tiny babe from some Bacon or Raleigh? The law of nature is\nprogress. It is often, nay, always, a very slow thing--but how sure! how\ninevitable! how beneficent in its results! She never makes worse after\nbad--and those weird opium monsters of the foreworlds were unspeakably\nbad!--but always she makes of bad better; and of better she has made her\nbest, at present. In the light of this law, _were any one mad enough to\ngrope_, he might come to the conclusion that the first man (or race of\nmen) was anything but a grandee in mind, person, or estate; and that our\nseemingly puzzled but at last most wonder-working mother, ycleped\nNature, made some very ugly attempts at man before she reached the\nclimax of her imagination and her power as it obtains in the man\nCaucasian!\n\nI regard all the colored races--and with no malice or evil of any sort\nin my heart toward them--as first experiments in the gamut of human\ncreation. Neither ethnology nor any other ology will pull out of my\nconsciousness--let alone my active intellect--the belief that these were\nthe oldest, the primordial races, or the descendants of such, and that\nthe white Caucasian man, with his noble brain and heart, his matchless\nperson, was an afterthought, the brightest since her birth-thought of\nthe earth's creation. Look into the face of any upgrown modern Indian!\nIt is an _old_ face, as if the accumulated wrinkles of, not 'forty,' but\na hundred 'centuries' had ploughed their marks there. They seem to\nbelong to the dawn of time; while our Caucasian man is ever young and\nbeautiful, the born master of all things.\n\nWe must deal with races according to their faculty, and credit them\naccording to their faculty. If we fail, we fail in wisdom--and in\nprudence, which is a valuable attribute of wisdom. Expect not grapes\nfrom thistles! Expect no virtue--unless it relates to his own\nselfishness or his own tribe--from an Indian, or from very many other\nmen!\n\nIt must not be forgotten, however, that Indians are people who, to say\nthe least of them, are fashioned in the likeness of men. Here, as\nelsewhere, Nature sticks to her old plan, and will not budge an inch. In\nthe chart of the Indian's nature are mapped out the same feelings,\ninstincts, passions, the same organs and dimensions as belong to the\nhighest race, or the highest race of the mixed races. She will have no\nnonsense about her red children, nor about her black. There they are, as\nshe (for purposes of her own, not particularly clear) intended them to\nbe--men, alive, oh!--not descendants of Monboddo's ape, nor of Du\nChaillu's gorilla, but men proper and absolute! with their duties,\nresponsibilities, and destinies.\n\nSeeing, therefore, that the Indian (our American Indian, with whom we\nhave now to do) has all the faculties--however defaced and blurred by\nlong centuries of bloody crimes, which they regard _not_ as crimes, but\nas virtues--seeing that these red, thriftless, bloody-minded Indians\nhave all the human faculties intact--although, it may be, not so bright\nas those of some of our own people who call themselves Americans--is it\nnot possible that by fair and manly dealing with them, by a just trade,\nand conscientious regard for the sanctity of treaty rights and\nobligations--that you, whom it may more particularly concern, might so\nwin their good will as to make them friends instead of enemies? The\ndevil that lies at the bottom of all savage natures is easily roused,\nnot at all so easily laid again, and as easily kept in his own place.\nIndians are not incapable of friendship, nor of good faith, although the\nbest require a great deal of looking after--and close looking, too! But\nwhat I want to urge is this: that if you always appeal to the worst\npassions of the redskin, rob him of his rights and property, cheat him\nby false promises, deceive him at all hands, and then mock him when he\nknocks at your door for credit or charity, that he and his may live, you\ncannot much wonder if, obeying his traditions, his religion, and the\ndictates of his savage nature--now maddened into fury and reckless of\nconsequences--he indulges in the frightful havoc, the relentless murders\nand burnings, which have so lately marked his trail in Minnesota.\n\nLet no one suppose for a moment, from what I have now said, that I\ndesign to offer any apology, any excuse for the nameless and\nunpunishable crimes which these miscreants have perpetrated. I have no\npity and no compassion for them, and surely no word either which I\ndesire should be construed, in this respect, to their favor. I go with\nthe old Scotch judge--a rigid Antinomian! who, having tried and\nconvicted a Calvinist as rigid as himself, asked him what he had to say\nwhy the sentence of the law should not be pronounced against him.\n\n'My lord,' said the prisoner, 'it's a bad job; but I was predestined to\ndo it!'\n\nWhereupon his lordship replied: 'Ay! ay! my cannie laddie! an' I was\npredestined to hang ye for't.'\n\nSo while I set forth the necessary, evil nature of the Indian, and the\nconsequent necessity of his bloody deeds, I also insist upon the\nnecessity of hanging him for it.\n\nI plead not for the Indian of Minnesota, after these most shocking, most\nappalling butcheries. I love my own race; and not a man, woman, or\nchild, who was sacrificed by these monsters, but their wounds were my\nwounds, and their agonies tore my heart to the very core. Henceforth I\nshall never see an Indian but I shall feel the 'goose flesh' of loathing\nand horror steal over my Adam's buff! But you, my beloved friends of\nMinnesota! you who have suffered so much in your families and homes\nduring the massacre, are you sure that you did all you could do as\ncitizens and rulers in this land to see even-handed justice dealt out\nbetween the corrupt Government agencies and storekeepers, and the\nhelpless Indians? Had these last no just and reasonable ground of\ncomplaint? complaint of the General Government, complaint of the delays\nin their payment, complaint of the swindling of the storekeepers and\ntraders?\n\nThey had sold their lands, and gone away to their reservations. But the\nmoney for their lands--promised so faithfully at such a time--where was\nthat money? _Non est!_ The Indians depended on it, trusted to the\ncertainty of its coming as the saint trusts in the promises. They came\nfor it--often, in their history, in the depth of winter, for hundred of\nmiles, through an inhospitable forest; their wives, children, and braves\nstarving--many of them left behind in the wilderness to die; their only\nweapon made of coarse nails, lashed with wire, and this they called a\ngun barrel, and with this they killed what game was killed by the way.\n\nThis did not happen in Minnesota, it is true; but events as horrible and\nsickening as this did happen, and brought with them consequences more\nhorrible still, which will never be forgotten while the State exists or\nthe language lasts. Scenes were enacted at that 'Lower Agency' which\nwere disgraceful to human nature, and the victims were invariably the\nredskins. Once when Red Iron came there, at the summons, or rather after\nthe repeated summons of Governor Ramsay, it turned out that nearly four\nhundred thousand dollars of the cash payment due to the Sioux, under the\ntreaties of 1851-'2, were paid to the traders on old indebtedness! How\nmuch of this enormous sum was really due to the traders it is bootless\nnow to inquire; although it is pretty certain, from what we know of\nsimilar transactions, that not a twentieth part of it was due to them.\nMr. Isaac V. D. Heard, who has written a 'History of the Sioux War and\nMassacres of 1862 and 1863,' who is an old resident of Minnesota of\ntwelve years' standing, acted with General Sibley in his expedition\nagainst the savages in 1862, and was recorder of the military commission\nwhich tried some four hundred of the participants in the outbreak--has\nnot been deterred by the just hatred which the Minnesota people nurture\nagainst the Indians, and which they will keep hot until their rifles\nhave exterminated the whole brood of them, from saying a brave word\nrespecting the iniquities perpetrated by rascal peddlers and official\nprigs against the Indians which were the immediate causes of the\nmassacre and the subsequent wars.\n\nThe Indian was subjected to all sorts of frauds, little and big--the\nsmaller thieves thinking that they also must live, no matter at whose\nexpense, although I demur to the proposition. Why should they stop at\nstealing a thousand or two, more or less, while that four hundred\nthousand swindle leered at them so wickedly over the left shoulder,\nmocking at all law and justice, and scot free from all punishment? These\n'traders' could charge what sums they liked against the Indian, and get\nthem too; for there was no one to defeat or check their rapacity. Mr.\nHeard tells us that no less a sum than fifty-five thousand dollars was\nclaimed by one Hugh Tyler, as due to him by the Indians, when the great\nswindle just alluded to was committed; and that he was paid out of the\naccruing funds. This man was a stranger in the country, an adventurer,\nwho went out into the wilderness 'for to seek his fortune;' and it is\ncurious to read the items of which his little bill, fifty-five thousand,\nis composed. Here they are: For getting the treaties through the Senate;\nfor '_necessary disbursements_' in securing the assent of the chiefs.\nVery curious and instructive items they are, to all who consider them.\nTo say nothing of the corruption of the Senate which the first item\nsignifies, if it has any meaning at all, there is the guilty record of\nthe 'necessary disbursements,' or, in other words, _bribes_, paid to\nchiefs for betraying their country and their race. This was a part of\nthe regular machinery of the Agencies. All their plans were cut and\ndried, and they had men to carry them out. They could not stir a peg\nwithout the assent of the chiefs; and when they found a man too noble to\nbe a traitor, they got the Governor to break him as a chief, and invest\na more pliable, accommodating redskin with his rank and title. Through\nthe influence of bad men, and by the forging of lying documents, which\nthe Indians could not read, and which were never interpreted to them\nexcept to cheat them as to their contents and meaning, they have always\nmanaged to get their treaties signed; after which the newly made chiefs\ncould not so much as take the liberty to beg a pipe of tobacco of them.\n\nAs a sample of their infamous dealings, we take the following excerpt\nfrom Mr. Heard's book, page 41:\n\n     'In 1857, a trader, pretending that he was getting them to sign a\n     power of attorney to get back the money which had gone to the\n     traders under the treaty of 1851 and 1852, obtained their\n     signatures to vouchers, by which he swindled them out of $12,000.\n     Shortly after, this trader secured the payment of $4,500 for goods\n     which he claimed (falsely, it is said) to have been stolen. About\n     the same time a man in Sioux City was allowed a claim of $5,000 for\n     horses, which he also alleged to have been stolen.\n\n     'In 1858, the chiefs were taken to Washington, and agreed to\n     treaties for the cession of all their reservations north of the\n     Minnesota, for which, as ratified by the Senate, they were to have\n     $166,000; but of this amount they never received a penny until four\n     years afterward, when $15,000, in goods, were sent to the Lower\n     Sioux, and these were deducted out of what was due them under\n     former treaties. The Indians, discovering the fraud, refused to\n     receive them for several weeks, and only consented to take them\n     after the Government had agreed to rectify the matter. _Most of the\n     large amount due under these treaties, went into the pockets of\n     traders, Government officials, and swindlers generally._\n\n     'The Indians were grievously disappointed with their bargains, and\n     from that time the control of affairs passed from the chiefs--who,\n     it was believed, had been bribed--to the young men. They had now\n     nearly disposed of all their lands, and received scarcely anything\n     for them. They were six thousand two hundred in number, and their\n     annuities, when paid in full, were hardly fifteen dollars apiece.\n\n     'Their sufferings,' continues Mr. Heard, 'were often severe,\n     especially during the winter and spring previous to the massacres.'\n\nTheir crops failed them; a heavy fall of snow, late in the season, came\nto increase their miseries, and delayed the spring hunts. The Sissetons,\nof Lac Traverse, had to eat their horses and dogs--and at least fifteen\nhundred of the old men, women, and children had to be supported by the\nGovernment at an extra expense; and this was so inadequately done that\nsome died of starvation.\n\nThe history of these iniquities is no new thing in Indian affairs. It\nis, from first to last, a record of the most shameless lying and fraud.\nThe Agency seems to have been established there as a sort of Jonathan\nWild's shop, for the purpose of carrying on the trade of thieving. What\ndid these storekeepers--who credited the Indians for tobacco and rum,\nfor bread and beef, for clothing, and such other luxuries as they had\ncome to regard as necessaries--care for the winter prospects of the\nwretched Indians, after they had lined their pockets with that four\nhundred thousand dollars? Not a dime! And when subsequently it was found\nthat only half the regular Government payment would be handed over to\nthe Indians during the next year, these storekeepers--on the 'Wild'\nplan--not only refused to give them credit for articles indispensable to\nlife in the wilderness, but insulted them to boot; and this so\nexasperated the proud, revengeful nature of the Indian, that he\nremembered it afterward in many a bloody murder which he committed, and\nthe innocent suffered for the guilty!\n\nMr. Heard acquits the Agency, and all connected with it, of being in\nany way the causes of this outbreak. But his own statements of their\ndealing with the Indians hardly bear him out in his judgment. I do not\nmean to say that the people of the Lower Agency were a whit worse in\nsuch dealings than those of the Upper, or any other similar Agency. It\nis an understood thing, and mercilessly practised, that the Indian shall\nbe fleeced whenever the white man has a chance to fleece him. It is the\nlaw and the gospel of these Agencies; and we must not allow ourselves to\nbe hoodwinked in this matter by the mistaken humanity of Mr. Heard.\n\nAnd yet, if we think of it, there could not have been devised a more\nevil scheme, either against the natives or the settlers, than these\nwellnigh irresponsible Agencies. From all parts of the Union, from every\ncountry of the Old World, emigrants had come to settle in the beautiful\nMinnesota State; they had built themselves good, substantial houses,\nploughed, fenced, and planted their rich and prosperous farms, conquered\nthe savage wilderness into blooming cornfields, orchards, and\ngardens--and here was their true El Dorado! where they hoped to live in\npeace, plenty, and security. They were not afraid of the savages, but\ntheir wont was to make friends of them, and to be their friends,\nentertaining them at their homes when they visited the settlements, and\ndoing all they could--with some exceptions--to perpetuate among them a\ngood feeling and an intelligent understanding.\n\nTo a certain extent, and in some cases, they succeeded in this\nstraight-forward diplomacy. But the predisposition of the reds to\nenmity with the whites was still there, slumbering only, not eradicated;\nnor could all the kindness and generosity of the whole Caucasian heart,\nheaped upon them in the most lavish profusion, ever root it out. Nature\nput it there--I wish she hadn't--for reasons of her own, just as she put\nmurder into the cruel heart and brain of the tiger in the jungle.\n\nThere was this 'original sin,' therefore, to contend against always,\nwithout reference to any tangible causes or provocations. All knew this.\nAll knew, from the youngest to the oldest, that the true policy of the\nwhites was to conciliate the Indians. They knew his inextinguishable\nmemory of wrongs, his dreadful vengeance, his power, and his constant\nopportunity to do irreparable mischief. And, as I said, the settlers\nwere, for the most part, anxious to smoke the pipe of peace and\nfriendship with him.\n\nBut what was the good of all this? What, think you, did it avail in the\ncouncils of the savages, when they sat over their fires discussing their\nwrongs and prospects? What the good-hearted settlers did in the way of\nreconciliation and good will was undone a thousandfold at the Agency. It\nis true that the Agency had become necessary to the subsistence of the\nIndian, and that this fact made him bear much which, under other\ncircumstances, he would instantly have resented and punished. But they\nwell knew how they were robbed; and when did a wrong of that, or any\nsort, pass muster upon the Indian's roll of vengeance? Every fraud\nagainst an Indian, every lie told him, every broken promise, every\nworthless article sold to him at the Agency, was more than a set-off to\nany act of kindness shown to him by the settlers. Add to these local\ncrimes, the great error of the Government in unduly withholding the\nIndian payment for their lands--and you have the Indian's _casus belli_,\nthe grounds, or some of them, on which he justified himself to his own\nbloody and remorseless conscience, for his inhuman deeds! For the Indian\nbeeps a conscience, such as it is; but of a truth, better no conscience\nthan an Indian's conscience! It is like an appeal to hell, one's appeal\nto this! all the accursed passions imprisoned there coming up from their\nlimbos, their eyes glaring with the malice of ineradicable hate, and\nbloodshot with murder, to support the conscience, and strengthen its\nresolution for an unspeakable vengeance.\n\nBut, after all, this poor devil is really to be pitied for his ignorance\nand brutality, and as really to be killed without mercy. He is in the\nway of civilization, and must go to the wall. I find that Nature herself\nis utterly pitiless; that she cares neither for white nor red, nor for\nany other color or person, but, like a horrible, crashing car of\nJuggernaut, she rolls steadily forward, astride the inevitable\nmachinery, crushing all who oppose her.\n\nBut this digression is no apology, in the matter of its argument, for\nthe Indian Agents, who must have been aware, long before the outbreak\ntook place, that their frauds were fast culminating in the Indian mind,\nand that every fresh wrong they did to them was only bringing nearer by\na step the indiscriminate massacre of the settlers.\n\nThere were other causes, however, besides these, to enrage and madden\nthem, which must not be lost sight of. Our Government had prohibited\ntheir sanguinary wars upon the Chippewas, and they regarded this as an\nact of wanton tyranny. They were bred in the faith that war is the true\ncondition of an Indian man, and that peace was made for women and\nchildren. War was the only outlet for their power, the only field in\nwhich they could distinguish themselves and win immortal renown. All the\ngreat kingdoms of knowledge and literature were shut against them as\nwith walls of brass. They could not read or write, and their leisure was\npassed in idle gossip, or in deliberations on infernal schemes against\nthe white man to revenge themselves for their wrongs.\n\nIt was not a wise thing to do, I think; although, no doubt, it was\nhumane enough, as we understand humanity. Did not the 'dragons of the\nprime tear other in their slime,' and so thin out the horrible race,\nuntil Nature herself put the final claws of annihilation upon them? Why,\nin mercy, then, do we try to prevent the inevitable? War is a great\nclearer of the atmosphere; and one of our poets, Coleridge, I believe,\nsays that 'Carnage is God's daughter'! a bold figure of rhetoric, not\nwithout its apparently sufficient apologies. Why not let the Sioux and\nChippewas, or any other of the wild, irreclaimable brood, fight their\nbloodiest, and do their prettiest to help Nature, who seems bent on the\nextermination of all inferior races? They have got to die, any\nway!--that is a great consolation!--and if the philanthropists at\nWashington had only left them to themselves, they would have died by\nmutual slaughter--great numbers of them--long ago, and saved said\nphilanthropists from the crime of killing them, which they are now\ndoing, by inches!--a far more cruel way of dying.\n\nI was much pleased, when last summer they were upbraided for doing a\nlittle war against the Chips, in spite of Washington, with the sarcastic\nreply of a chief, who said: 'Our Great Father, we know, has always told\nus it was wrong to make war; yet now he himself is making war, and\nkilling a great many. Will you explain this to us? We do not understand\nit!' This was a hit, a palpable hit, let who will reconcile it.\n\nMr. Heard gives us the following brief statement of the manner in which\ntreaties are made with the Indians; and I earnestly call the attention\nof the Government and all just citizens to its statements. He says:\n\n     'The traders, knowing for years before, that the whites will\n     purchase lands, sell the Indians goods on credit, expecting to\n     realize their pay from the consideration to be paid by the\n     Government. They thus become interested instruments to obtain the\n     consent of the Indians to the treaty. And by reason of their\n     familiarity with the language, and the associations of half-breed\n     relatives, are possessed of great facilities to accomplish their\n     object. The persons deputed by the Government to effect a treaty\n     are compelled to procure their cooperation, and this they do by\n     providing that their debts shall be paid. The traders obtain the\n     concurrence of the Indians by refusing to give them further credit,\n     and by representing to them that they will receive an immense\n     amount of money if they sell their lands, and thenceforth will live\n     at ease, with plenty to eat, and plenty to wear, and plenty of\n     powder and lead, and of whatever else they may request. After the\n     treaty is agreed to, the amount of ready money is absorbed by the\n     _exorbitant demands of the traders_, and _the expenses of the\n     removal of the Indians to their reservations_!\n\n     'After that the trader no longer looks to the Indian for his pay;\n     he gets it from their annuities. He, therefore, does not use the\n     same means to conciliate their good will that he did when he was\n     dependent upon their honesty. Claims for depredations upon white\n     settlers are also deducted out of their moneys before they leave\n     Washington, on _insufficient testimony_; and these are always, when\n     based on fact, _double the actual loss_; for the Indian Department\n     is notoriously corrupt, and the hand manipulating the machinery\n     _must be crossed with gold_! The 'expenses' of obtaining a claim\n     enter into the amount demanded and allowed. The demand is not only\n     generally unjust, but, instead of its being deducted from the\n     moneys of the wrong doer, _it is taken from the annuities of all_!\n     This course punishes the innocent and rewards the guilty, because\n     the property taken by the depredator is of more value than the\n     slight percentage he loses.\n\n     'Many of the stipulations as to establishing schools and furnishing\n     them with farming utensils, are never carried out. Building and\n     supply contracts are entered into without investigation at\n     outrageous prices, and goods belonging to the Indians are put into\n     the traders' stores, and _sold to their owners_, and the moneys\n     realized _shared by the trader and the Agent_!'\n\nBishop Whipple, of Minnesota, in his appeal for the red man, confirms\nthis statement beyond doubt or question:\n\n     'There is not a man in America,' he says,'who ever gave an hour's\n     calm reflection to this subject, who does not know that our Indian\n     system is an organized system of robbery, and has been for years a\n     disgrace to the nation. It has left savage men without Governmental\n     control; it has looked on unconcerned at every crime against the\n     laws of God and man; it has fostered savage life by wasting\n     thousands of dollars in the purchase of paint, beads, scalping\n     knives, and tomahawks; it has fostered a system of trade which\n     robbed the thrifty and virtuous to pay the debts of the indolent\n     and vicious; it has squandered the funds for civilization and\n     schools; it has connived at theft; it has winked at murder; and at\n     last, after dragging the savage down to a brutishness unknown to\n     his fathers, it has brought a harvest of blood to our door!'\n\nThe Bishop continues:\n\n     'It was under this Indian system that the fierce, warlike Sioux\n     were fitted and trained to be the actors in this bloody drama, _and\n     the same causes are to-day, slowly but surely, preparing the way\n     for a Chippewa war_. There is not, to-day, an old citizen of\n     Minnesota who will not shrug his shoulders as he speaks of the\n     dishonesty which accompanied the purchase of the lands of the\n     Sioux. It left in savage minds a deep sense of injustice. Then,\n     followed ten years of savage life, unchecked by law, uninfluenced\n     by good example. They were taught by white men that lying was no\n     disgrace, adultery no sin, and theft no crime. Their hunting\n     grounds were gone; the onward march of civilization crowded them on\n     every side. Their only possible hope of being saved from starvation\n     was the fidelity with which a great nation fulfilled its plighted\n     faith, which before God and man it had pledged to its heathen\n     wards. _The people here, on the border, and the rulers at\n     Washington, know how that faith has been broken._\n\n     'The constant irritations of such a system would, in time, have\n     secured an Indian massacre. It was hastened and precipitated by the\n     sale of nearly eight hundred thousand acres of land, for _which\n     they never received one farthing_; for it was all absorbed in\n     claims! Then came the story (and it was true) that half of their\n     annuity money had also been taken for claims. They waited two\n     months, mad, exasperated, hungry--the Agent utterly powerless to\n     undo the wrong committed at Washington--and they resolved on savage\n     vengeance. For every dollar of which they have been defrauded we\n     shall pay ten dollars in the cost of the war. It has been so for\n     fifty years; it will be so again. _God's retributive justice always\n     has compelled a people to reap exactly what they have permitted to\n     be sown!_'\n\nThese extracts from the Bishop's Plea confirm what I have stated in the\npreceding paragraphs; and the last sentence--which I have marked in\nitalics--is well worth the while of every reader to ponder well.\n\nMr. Heard dates the commencement of the massacre to the breaking of a\nstray nest of hen's eggs on the prairie, and what came of the\ntransaction; but the date lies farther back than that, so far as the\nresolution to seize the first favorable opportunity for slaughtering the\nwhites is concerned--and belongs to the era of the great crimes of our\nGovernment against them, as shown in the forcible seizure of their lands\nwithout their receiving any payment, even 'a farthing' for them; the\nhucksters, under the connivance of the Government agents, getting the\nwhole of it, and, in the instance alluded to a while ago, keeping back\nfrom them, as payment for old debts, about three hundred boxes of the\nmoney upon which they had depended to keep themselves alive during the\nwinter and the following year.\n\nSuch enormous crimes were sure to reap a bloody harvest. The Indian is\nno fool, although he can't do addition and subtraction. He knows when he\nis _about_ fairly dealt with, and he knows when he is mightily plucked.\nIn this case of the 'old debt payment' he knew that he was robbed\nwholesale, and through the mouth of Red Iron he proclaimed the fact to\nGovernor Ramsey, in council assembled. Alluding to this robbery, he\nsaid:\n\n'We don't think we owe them so much. We want to pay all our debts. We\nwant our Great Father to send three good men here, to tell us how much\nwe do owe; and whatever they say, we will pay; and (pointing to the\nIndians) that's what all these braves say; our chiefs and all our people\nsay this!'\n\nAt which all the Indians present responded:\n\n'Ho! ho!'\n\nThis Red Iron was the principal chief of the Sissetons, and his\nindignation at the wrongs done to his race made him so 'boisterous' that\nGovernor Ramsey was imprudent enough to break him of his chieftainship.\nThe scene and its results were by no means creditable to the Governor.\nThis latter personage had summoned Red Iron to meet him at a council,\nheld December, 1852, and he did not turn up as expected. So, I suppose,\nhe was sent for, and brought in by the soldiers. He is described by one\nwho was present, as about forty years old, tall and athletic; six feet\nhigh in his moccasons, with a large, well-developed head, aquiline nose,\nthin, compressed lips, and physiognomy beaming with intelligence and\nresolution. He was clad in the half military, half Indian costume of the\nDacotah chiefs, as he sat in the council room; and no one greeted or\nnoticed him. A very poor piece of revenge! In a few minutes the\nGovernor, turning to the chief in the midst of a breathless silence, by\nthe aid of an interpreter, opened council. The Governor asked the chief\nwhat excuse he had for not coming to the council when he sent for him.\n\nWhereupon Red Iron rose to his feet, 'with native grace and dignity,'\nsays Mr. Heard, his blanket falling from his shoulders, and, purposely\ndropping the pipe of peace, he stood erect before the Governor, with his\narms folded and his right hand pressed upon the sheath of his scalping\nknife. With the utmost coolness and self-possession, a defiant smile\nplaying upon his thin lips, and his eyes sternly fixed upon his\nexcellency, the Indian, with a firm voice, replied:\n\n'I started to come, but your braves drove me back.'\n\nGOVERNOR. 'What excuse have you for not coming the second time\nwhen I sent for you?'\n\nRED IRON. 'No other excuse than I have given you.'\n\nGOVERNOR. 'At the treaty, I thought you a good man; but since,\nyou have acted badly, and I am disposed to break you. I _do_ break you.'\n\nRed Iron looked at the Governor for a moment with a look of withering\ncontempt and scorn, and then burst out in a voice full of derisive\nmockery.\n\nRED IRON. '_You break me!_ My people made me a chief. My people\nlove me. I will still be their chief. I have done nothing wrong.'\n\nGOVERNOR. 'Red Iron, why did you get your braves together, and\nmarch around here for the purpose of intimidating other chiefs, and\nprevent their coming to council?'\n\nRED IRON. 'I did not get my braves together; they got\nthemselves together, to prevent _boys_ going to council to be made\n_chiefs_ to sign papers, and to prevent single chiefs going to council\nat night, to be _bribed_ to sign papers for _money_ we have never got.'\nAnd then the inexorable fellow continued, without any regard to his\nexcellency's nerves or conscience: 'We have heard how the M'Dewakantons\nwere served at Mendota; that by secret councils you got their names on\npaper, and took away their money. We don't want to be served so. My\nbraves wanted to come to council in the _daytime_, when the sun shines;\nand we want no councils in the dark. We want all our people to go to\ncouncil together, so that we can all know what is done.'\n\nThe Governor is nothing abashed at these damaging charges, but returns\nonce more to the assault.\n\nGOVERNOR. 'Why did you attempt to come to council with your\nbraves, when I had forbidden your braves coming to council?'\n\nTo which Red Iron, with the same masterful, defiant smile upon his 'thin\nlips,' answers:\n\nRED IRON. 'You invited the chiefs only, and would not let the\nbraves come too. This is not the way we have been treated before; this\nis not according to our customs; for among Dacotahs, chiefs and braves\ngo to council together. When you first sent for us there were two or\nthree chiefs here, and we waited, and we wanted to wait till the rest\nwould come, that we might all be in council together, and know what was\ndone, and so that we might all understand the papers, and know what we\nwere signing. When we signed the treaty, the _traders threw a blanket\nover our faces, and darkened our eyes; and made us sign papers which we\ndid not understand, and which were not explained or read to us_. We want\nour Great Father at Washington to know what has been done.'\n\nThis last speech--whose words hit like bullets--made the Governor wince,\nand he replied, with more sharpness than wit:\n\nGOVERNOR. 'Your Great Father has sent me to represent him; and\nwhat I say, he says. He wants you to pay your old debts, in accordance\nwith the papers you signed when the treaty was made' ['which we did not\nunderstand; which were never read nor explained to us; which we were\nforced to sign,' as Red Iron had just told the Governor!]. 'You must\nleave that money in my hands to pay those debts. If you refuse to do\nthat, I will take the money back.'\n\nThe Governor was getting deeper and deeper into the pit which he had dug\nfor the Indian. This last speech was most unhappy and impolitic for the\nside he was advocating. It put dreadful weapons into the hands of Red\nIron, which the crafty 'old man eloquent' did not fail to use against\nhis antagonist.\n\nHe makes this manly answer, not at all abashed in the presence of the\nchief magistrate:\n\nRED IRON. 'You can take back your money! We sold our land to\nyou, and you promised to pay us. If you don't give us the money, I will\nbe glad, and all our people will be glad; for we will have our land back\nif you don't give us the money. That paper was not interpreted or\nexplained to us. We are told it gives about three hundred boxes\n($300,000) of our money to some of the traders! We don't think we owe\nthem so much. We want to pay all our debts. We want our Great Father to\nsend three good men here to tell us how much we do owe, and whatever\nthey say, we will pay; and (pointing to the Indians) that's what all\nthese braves say. Our chiefs and all our people say this.'\n\nAnd the Indians responded with the usual 'Ho! ho!' of acquiescence.\n\nBut the Governor don't see it. A poor devil of an Indian, according to\nhis Christian conviction, ought to be content to pay unaudited, untaxed\nbills, wherein the margin is broad enough for any scoundrel to do his\nrobberies by tens of thousands. So his excellency told Red Iron:\n\nGOVERNOR. 'That can't be done!' [Nay, more confounding and\nappalling still, he added:] 'You owe more than your money will pay, and\nI am ready now to pay your annuity, and no more; and when you are ready\nto receive it, the Agent will pay it.'\n\nRed Iron replies in a speech full of pathos:\n\nRED IRON. 'We will receive our annuity, but we will sign no\npapers for anything else.' [You've swindled us enough, lied to us deep\nenough already, and we have no belief in your words or agreements.] 'The\nsnow is on the ground, and we have been waiting a long time to get our\nmoney. We are poor; you have plenty. Your fires are warm; your _tepees_\n(wigwams, tents) keep out the cold. We have nothing to eat. We have been\nwaiting a long time for our moneys. Our hunting season is past. A great\nmany of our people are sick for being hungry. We must die because you\nwon't pay us. We may die! but if we do' [hold on, reader! no curses on\nthe white men are coming next, as one might naturally expect, either\nfrom Christian or heathen orator, under the circumstances!]--'but if we\ndo,' he continues, 'we will leave our bones on the ground, that our\nGreat Father may see where his Dacotah children died!' [He has seen many\nsuch shambles, O thou eloquent Indian! eloquent to ears of flint and\nhearts of granite! and I never heard that the 'Great Father' ever shed a\nsingle tear over them.] He goes on: 'We are very poor. We have sold our\nhunting grounds, and with them the graves of our fathers. We have sold\nour own graves.' [Out of all those hundreds of thousands of acres, not\nsix feet of earth, which they could call their own, left for any one of\nthem!] 'We have no place to bury our dead, and you will not pay us the\nmoney for our lands.'\n\nI give this interview, and what transpired there, as a sample of the\ntreatment which the Indians were in the habit of receiving at the hands\nboth of the General Government and the State authorities. Not the wisest\nkind of treatment, one would think, this which Red Iron received, taking\nall the circumstances into account. The reader will be surprised,\nhowever, that Governor Ramsey, not content with 'breaking' the chief, as\nhe called it--the greatest dishonor which he could inflict upon an\nIndian of rank--sent him, when the council broke up, to the guard house,\nunder an escort of soldiers! This impolitic official ought to have\nremembered that the fire was even then ready for the kindling, which\nfinally burst out in such fearful devastation over his devoted State;\nthat it was enough to have cheated the Indians, without thus inflaming\ntheir already excited passions, by heaping so great an indignity upon\nthe person of their chief. But he was regardless of everything except\nthe display of his own power and authority. No doubt he thought he was\nacting for the best, and that the dirty redskins needed to be held with\na high hand. But it was bad thinking and doing, nevertheless; a most\nshortsighted and foolish policy, which came wellnigh, as it was, to an\nIndian outbreak.\n\nThe braves of Red Iron retired under the leadership of Lean Bear, a\ncrafty fellow, eloquent in his way, and now irreconcilably mad against\nthe whites; and when he had led them about a quarter of a mile from the\ncouncil house, they set up a simultaneous yell, the gathering signal of\nthe Dacotah. Ere the echoes died away, Indians were hurrying from their\n_tepees_ toward them, prepared for battle. They proceeded to an eminence\nnear the camp, where mouldered the bones of many warriors. It was the\nmemorable battle ground where their ancestors had fought, in a Waterloo\nconflict, the warlike Sacs and Foxes, thereby preserving their lands and\nnationality.\n\nA more favorable occasion, a more fitting locality for the display of\neloquence which should kindle the blood of the Indian into raging fire,\nand persuade him to any the most monstrous and inhuman deeds, could not\nhave been chosen even by Indian sagacity. An old battle ground, where\nthe Sioux had been victorious over their enemies; the whitened bones of\nthe ghastly skeletons of their ancestors who fought the battle,\nbleaching on the turf, or calling to them from their graves below to\ntake God's vengeance in their own hands; the memory of the old and new\nwrongs inflicted upon them by the whites; the infuriating insult just\noffered to their favorite chief--all conspired with the orator's cunning\nto give edge to his eloquence and obedience to his commands.\n\nGovernor Ramsey has a good deal to thank God for, that, stimulated by\nLean Bear's rhetoric, the Sioux did not that night attack the whites,\nand make an indiscriminate slaughter of the population, as they would\nhave done, if it had not been for the friendly Indians and half breeds.\nPerhaps he thought he was strong enough, for the hour, to defeat them in\nany attempt at an outbreak. But it is not strength so much as strategy\nwhich is needed in Indian warfare. To whip the Indians, we must become\nIndians in our plan and conduct of battle. The civilization and\nmathematics of war, as practised by cultivated people, are useless in\nthe wilderness, and all our proud and boasted tactics are mere foolish\ntoying and trifling--a waste of time, strength, and opportunity. No one\ndoubts that if our troops could meet the Indians in open field, they\nwould slaughter them like rats; but they know better than to be caught\non the open field, except they are pretty sure of an advantage. They\nsteal upon you like thieves, shod with moccasons which have no sound;\nthey think it equally brave to shoot a man from behind a tree as to\nsabre him in a hand-to-hand encounter.\n\nIt is dreadful to contemplate what an incarnate fiend we have roused in\nthis cheated, wronged, and despised Indian. I tremble to think of it. I\ntremble when I remember also what Bishop Whipple says in the 'Plea,'\nfrom which I have already quoted; they are words which ought to be\nthundered continually into the ears of the 'Great Father,' until he\ncompels a total revolution in our Indian affairs--words which all\nsettlers in those regions should keep forever present in their minds;\nand, with the Minnesota massacres still fresh in their memory, they\nshould be taught by them never for a moment to trust an Indian, and\nnever knowingly to give him just cause for complaint; to go always\narmed; to organize, in towns, districts, and counties, the yeomen of the\nsoil, who must be ready at any moment, by night or day, to meet the\ntreacherous, ubiquitous enemy. These last will be found of more value\nthan the 'thundering' suggestion contained in the first of these\nprecautionary propositions. For it is upon themselves that they must\nchiefly rely for defence, these hapless settlers! and upon no\nGovernment, and no soldiers.\n\nThink of it, our 'Great Father' at Washington! and you, his unruly\nchildren, you Senators and Congressmen! One of your most loyal citizens\nin the State of Minnesota, a Christian bishop, well acquainted with all\nthe facts, the dodges, lies, frauds, and all the ins and outs of your\nIndian administration, declares, with the fullest solemnity which his\noffice and functions can give to words, and with the voice, not of\nprophecy, but of logical deduction, that the same causes which brought\nabout the Sioux massacre, 'ARE TO-DAY, SLOWLY BUT SURELY, PREPARING\nTHE WAY FOR A CHIPPEWA WAR!' What a Chippewa war means, those who\ndid not know in 1861, found out through the Sioux in 1862 and 1863, to\ntheir perpetual sorrow. Like the Bourbons, however, our Government\neither cannot or will not learn lessons from experience. If they were\ncompelled to bear the penalties of their neglect and wanton\nmaladministration of affairs in the Indian districts, the loss would be\nsmall and the retribution just. But they sit at ease, far away from the\nscene of carnage, and 'get' nothing but the 'news,' which they read as\nthey would any other record of human passion and depravity. It is the\ninnocent settlers who pay the penalty for the guilt and transgressions\nof their rulers.\n\nIt is time somebody, or some vast numbers, banded as one man, began to\nthink upon this threatening question, and to act upon it. It concerns\nthe faith and honor of this great republic before all the world, that\nthe wrongs alluded to should be speedily righted. We are not, in\nreality, what our Indian legislation would almost seem to accuse and\nconvict us of, a nation of man-catchers, baiting our trap with fine\nfarms, and free government, and happy homes, and abundant prosperity of\nall sorts, that so we may inveigle the simple minded, and then hand them\nover to the tender mercies of the Indians! God forbid that such crimes\nshould be ours! But there is a coloring of truth about the whole\nprogramme. We invite settlers to populate our vast and wellnigh\nboundless wilderness, promising them protection from enemies abroad and\na happy peace at home; and in the same breath we cheat the savages, and\nstir them up to hatred and violence against every white man, woman, and\nchild in the country. This is like preaching security and peace while\nyour lighted match is applied to the powder barrel. It is a logic which\nconfutes itself, and needs no _sillygism_ to prove its lying.\n\nWhy should we not bravely and manfully, with all the wisdom we possess,\nconfront and reform the evils and iniquities of this system? It is a\npart and parcel of the work committed to our charge, that we shall\nwisely deal with this people, until God, by His own mysterious means and\nagencies, removes them finally from the continent and the planet. There\nis no room for the red man where the white man comes. He _must_ give\nway. It is destiny, and there is no help for it. He knows this as well\nas we do; and he gnaws the grim fact with the teeth of the hopeless\ndamned. But why imbitter him needlessly against us, against the\nGovernment, against the people among whom he resides, and over whose\ndear lives and properties he holds suspended the scalping knife and the\nflaming pine brand? We are unworthy of the sovereign possessions\nreserved for us from before the foundations of the world--making the\ntitle deeds, therefore, unusually sound and wellnigh unquestionable--if\nwe cannot deal like rational men with the hordes of savages, whose lands\nwe have robbed them of, whom we have reduced to mere pensioners upon\nour caprice--not bounty--and so satisfy them and their claims that the\nbusiness of human life may be carried on safely in their vicinity and\nactual presence. 'Who art thou that saith 'there is a lion in the way'?\nRise, sluggard, and slay the lion! The road has to be travelled.'\n\nWe are certainly not afraid of any lion, whether he be red or black;\nand, until lately, _both_ these monstrous red and black animals lay in\nthe direct path of the nation, on which it must travel or perish. We\nhave pretty well mauled and knuckled the black animal, and wellnigh\nsettled with his keepers, one and all! but this red lion is of a\ndifferent sort, and requires altogether another kind of treatment. We\nshall yet save the bruised and bleeding black to the service of\ncivilization and humanity. He never was half a bad fellow at the bottom\nof his leonine bowels, and he already takes to white civility and\ncustoms, like an educated, intelligent, and trusty dog of the 'poor dog\nTray' sort! And I, for one, have more than a sneaking affection for his\nold black mug, and a world of hope in his future behavior, if we don't\nspoil him for the field and for watch and guard at home, by our infernal\n'culture,' as the thing is called.\n\nIs this red lion a more terrible devil to combat, or harder to trick\ninto civility, or more impervious to the injunctions of the Ten\nCommandments? I suppose it will be said that he is; that the black\nfellow bolted the whole code at a gobble, and wagged his tail, as if the\nfeat must surely please his new masters; that he had long had the\nbenefit of civilized cooking, and knew a gentleman by his toggery; that,\nmoreover, he was of a teachable, plastic nature, and was meant to lie\ndown in due time upon the hearth rug before the fire, in any gentleman's\nsitting room in the land. It may be true. I believe all this myself, and\na good deal more, about him; and I take renewed hope also for this great\nrepublic--which is the hope of the world!--that it has thus, at last,\ntamed him, and fitted him for exhibition upon a nobler theatre than that\nof Barnum.\n\nBut the red lion, you say, is untamable--cannot be dealt with\nsuccessfully by the wit of white men; and that it is best, therefore, to\nrob him of the golden apples which he guards, and which are his only\nfood, and so starve him out. But you can't deal that way with the Indian\nlion, my friend, without feeling the taste of his claws. You have tried\nit long enough. Bishop Whipple says, 'for fifty years'! And I ask you\nhow much nearer are you to the taming of him now, than you were those\n'fifty years' ago? Echo answers: 'That's an impudent question!' and I\nreply, so be it! but you can't shuffle it off in that way. I have tried\nmy hand at suggesting how imminent dangers, calamities, and horrors may\neven yet be averted from the Western settlements; and if those who urge\nthat justice shall be done to them, equal to that which we here render,\nor try or pretend to render to each other--if those who urge this are\nnot listened to now, their plea will be remembered when it is all too\nlate, and thousands of innocent people are again murdered, and their\nhomes laid waste and desolate.\n\nI again say, let no one think by these statements that I am making a\nspecial pleading for the Indians, or that I sanction their butcheries.\nGod knows how far all this is from my thought or feeling! I am a white\nman right through all the inmost fibres of my being: too white, I often\nfear; for I find my love of race, and pride of blood and ancestry, often\nencroach too far upon the proper regions of my humanity, and threaten to\nblear my eyesight to the fair claims of the inferior races.\n\nBut I have to do with a thoughtful, reflective, and, at the bottom, just\nand humane people; and knowing this, I felt safe, or nearly so, against\nall misconstruction, in this my attempt to show that the late Indian\nmassacres were not instigated merely and solely by the passion of the\nIndian for blood, but that they had deeper, broader, more tangible\ncauses than this, some of which I have briefly hinted at. Woe to them by\nwhom these butcheries came! Woe also to them who, knowing what must\ninevitably result from their foul dealings, continued to deal foully\nwith the Indian--until the doomsday came!\n\nI have not put in a single tithe of the evidence which I might adduce to\nprove my case. It is of no use appealing to the higher powers for\nredress. 'I am sick at heart,' says the good Bishop Whipple; 'I fear the\nwords of one of our statesmen to me were true: 'Bishop, every word you\nsay of this Indian system is true; the nation knows it. It is useless;\nyou will not be heard. Your faith is only like that of the man that\nstood on the bank of the river, waiting for the water to run by, that he\nmight cross over dryshod!'' And then he continues, with solemn emphasis\nand pity: 'All I have to say is this, that if a nation, trembling on the\nbrink of anarchy and ruin, is so dead that it will not hear a plea to\nredress wrongs which the whole people admit call for reform, God in\nmercy pity us and our children!'\n\n\n\n\nBURIED ALIVE.\n\nA Dirge.\n\n                    \"There may be thought,\n  Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.\"\n\n  \"A document in madness, thoughts and remembrance fitted.\"\n\n\n   Deep, deep in the tender heart\n     Make a grave for the joys of the Past!\n   Let never a tear fall hot on their bier,\n     But hurry them in as fast\n As we bury the Beautiful out of our sight,\n Ere corruption and horror have saddened our light.\n\n   Deep, deep in the sinking heart\n     Make a grave for the dreams of the Past!\n   Let the shrill cries of pain still assail thee in vain,\n     Though they follow so wild and so fast:\n Through the fibres and sinews, and hot, bloody dew\n Let the sharp strokes fall piercing, unceasing, and true.\n\n   Call, call on the feverish brain\n     To bring aid to the gasping heart!\n   To sustain its quick throbs, to suppress its fierce sobs,\n     As it must with its idols part:\n While the ruthless spade in the grave it has made\n Hurries forever the beautiful Dead!\n\n Call, call on the tortured soul\n     To stand close by the sinking heart,\n   While the nervous mesh of the writhing flesh,\n     Shuddering and shivering in every part,\n Its strange anguish renews as the hot, bloody dews\n Follow the track of the rude spade through.\n\n     Call, call on the gifted brain\n     To send on in the funeral train\n Her fair children enwrought from the tissue of thought--\n     Though their wailing will all be in vain--\n   Yet shrouded in robes of funereal woe\n   Let them move on to monotones, solemn and slow!\n\n   Rouse, rouse the immortal soul\n     With its hopes and its visions so bright,\n   To send them in the train with the thoughts of the brain,\n     Though their vesture seemed woven of light,\n To sigh, wail, and weep o'er the pulse-rhythmed sleep\n       Of the Dead in their living urn!\n\n     Heave, heave the weird sculptured stone;\n       Press it deep on the throbbing grave!\n     With a wildering moan leave the Buried alone\n       In their tomb in the quivering heart:\n While it pours its wild blood in a hot lava flood\n Round its beautiful sepulchred Dead.\n\n       But my God, they are _not_ at rest!\n       Can they neither live nor die?\n   See, they writhe in their throbbing grave!\n While the nervous mesh of the quivering flesh\n Its strange anguish renews as the hot, bloody dews\n     Follow the track of my Beautiful back\n       As they rush into life again,\n       Bringing nought but a sense of pain!\n\n             We may bury deep the Past--\n             Vain is all our bitter task!\n It is throbbing, living still, for beyond all power to kill,\n It can never find a rest in a woman's stormful breast,\n It can never, never sleep rocked by anguish wild and deep,\n It can never quiet lie with shrill sobs for lullaby;\n And since woman cannot part from the idols of her heart,\n And as severed life is Hell for the souls that love too well,\n   Better far the tender form whose lorn life is only storm,\n         With the coffined dead should seek\n         To lie down in a dreamless sleep--\n       And find rest in the dust with the worm.\n\n Dig a quiet, lowly grave\n             In the earth where willows wave!\n Round the burning anguish deep wrap the cooling winding sheet,\n Shroud the children of the brain, and the soul's high-visioned train:\n     Ah, o'er the snowy sleep let no pitying mortal weep,\n         For the _weary seek repose_ with the worm!\n\n             Creeping pines and mosses grow\n             O'er the fragile form below!\n   Violets, bright-eyed pansies wave o'er the lowly, harmless grave;\n       Let the butterfly and bee all the summer flutter free,\n O'er the flowers grown from a heart which no wrongs could ever part,\n       Nor torture e'er remove from the creatures of its love;\n With the wild and feverish brain, and thought's bright but blighted train,\n With strong heart, but anguished soul, and pain's weird and heavy dole--\n       Let the weary, tired form, whose lost life was only storm,\n                    In the shroud's pure snow\n                    Find release from woe,\n         Nor hope, nor joy, nor love it e'er again would know!\n\n\n\n\nNEGRO TROOPS.\n\n\nThere was a time not long since when the serious consideration of a\nquestion like this would have met with little favor. We remember seeing,\nin this city of New York, one genial October day, not very many years\nago, a small company of negro soldiers. They were marching in Canal\nstreet, not in Broadway, and seemed to fear molestation even there. The\nwriter was a schoolboy then, cadet in a military school (one of the\nfirst established of those excellent institutions), and had, of course,\na particular interest in all military matters. So he stopped to look\nupon these black soldiers--marching with all the more pride (as it\nseemed to him) because they marched under the floating folds of the\nstars and stripes. His boy's heart was stirred by the spectacle, and\nfull of a big emotion; but the fashion of the times overpowered the\ngenerous impulse, and he treated the negro soldiers with contempt.\n\nThis was in the palmy days of the old _regime_. The stifling of that\ngenerous impulse was one of the glories of the old _regime_. Not a\ndecade of years went by, and the writer stood again in the streets of\nNew York city, and saw another sight of negro soldiers. It was, indeed,\nand in all respects, another sight. This time the black men marched in\nBroadway; this time they feared no molestation. It was a balmy day in\nspring, and God's sunshine glistened gladly from the bright bayonets of\nUnited States black soldiers. What a spectacle it was! There marched the\nretributive justice of the nation--'carrying the flag and keeping step\nto the music of the Union.' That march was a march of triumph, and its\nsublime watchword was: 'LIBERTY AND UNION, NOW AND FOREVER, ONE AND\nINSEPARABLE!'\n\nWhat a marvellous change in public opinion! Now, negro companies are\ntreated with respect, negro regiments are honored; because we honor the\ndefenders of our national ensign, which is the representative and symbol\nof our national life. The men who joined so gallantly in the assault on\nPort Hudson; who fell so nobly at Milliken's Bend, in repelling the\nattack of men whose blackness was not, like theirs, of the outside skin,\nbut of a blacker, deeper dye, the blackness of treason in their inner\nhearts; the men whose blood drenched the sands of Morris Island, and\nmade South Carolina more a sacred soil than it had ever been before,\nbecause it was blood poured out in defence of the nation's honor, and to\nwash out the stain of Carolina's dishonor; these men cannot be contemned\nnow. They have shown themselves noble men. They have made for themselves\na place in American history, along with their fathers at New Orleans,\nand their grandfathers under Washington. And the rebel epitaph of the\nbrave Colonel Shaw, who led them unflinchingly against the iron hail of\nWagner, is no reproach, but a badge of honor: 'We have buried him under\nhis niggers.'\n\nSince that memorable assault, another State has witnessed the patriotic\ngallantry of these despised 'niggers;' and in the first Virginia\ncampaign of Lieutenant-General Grant, negroes have borne an honorable\npart. There is a division of them attached to the old ninth corps, under\nBurnside, in the present organization of the Army of the Potomac. While\nthat noble army was fighting the battles of the Wilderness, this\ndivision was holding the fords of the Rapid Ann. When Grant swung his\nbase away from the river, after the disaster to his right wing, and\nmoved upon Lee's flank, the ninth corps, with its negro division, held\nan honorable post in the marching column; and at Spottsylvania Court\nHouse the correspondents tell us how, with the war cry of Fort Pillow in\ntheir mouths, these 'niggers' rushed valiantly to the assault, and\nelicited the highest praise for their steadiness and courage. Not less\nhonorable is the record of the negro troops attached to the cooeperating\nArmy of the Peninsula. The three extracts from official despatches,\nwhich follow, show what the record is.\n\nMay 5th, General Butler telegraphs to Secretary Stanton: 'We have seized\nWilson's Wharf Landing. A brigade of Wild's colored troops are there. At\nPowhatan Landing two regiments of the same brigade have landed.'\n\nMay 9th, General Butler telegraphs from Bermuda Landing: 'Our operations\nmay be summed up in a few words. With seventeen hundred cavalry we have\nadvanced up the Peninsula, forced the Chickahominy, and have safely\nbrought them to our present position. These are colored cavalry, and are\nnow holding position as our advance toward Richmond.'\n\nMay 25th, the War Department announced, in a bulletin, that 'General\nButler, in a despatch dated at headquarters in the field, at seven\no'clock this morning, reports that Major-General Fitzhugh Lee, lately\npromoted, made, with cavalry, infantry, and artillery, an attack upon my\npost at Wilson's Wharf, north side of James River, below Fort Powhatan,\ngarrisoned by two regiments, all negro troops, Brigadier-General Wild\ncommanding, and was handsomely repulsed. Before the attack, Lee sent a\nflag, stating that he had force enough to take the place, demanding its\nsurrender, and in that case the garrison should be turned over to the\nauthorities at Richmond as prisoners of war(!); but if this proposition\nwas rejected, he would not be answerable for the consequences when he\ntook the place. General Wild replied: 'We will try that.' Reinforcements\nwere at once sent, but the fight was over before their arrival.'\n\nIt has been not unfrequently said that negroes were cowards and would\nnot fight. The best answer that can be made to that charge is the\nofficial order, hereto annexed, of General 'Baldy' Smith. It will be\nremembered that Grant had just accomplished the transfer of his army\nfrom the swamps of the Chickahominy to the south side of the James\nRiver, and had immediately thereupon attacked the earthworks in front of\nPetersburg. The time was June--a month later than the official\ndespatches from Butler already quoted:\n\n     '_To the Eighteenth Army Corps_:\n\n     'The General commanding desires to express to his command his\n     appreciation of the soldierly qualities which have been displayed\n     during the campaign of the last seventeen days. Within that time\n     they have been constantly called upon to undergo all the hardships\n     of the soldier's life, and be exposed to all of its dangers.\n\n     'Marches under a hot sun have ended in severe battles, and, after\n     the battle, watchful nights in the trenches gallantly taken from\n     the enemy.\n\n     'But the crowning point of the honor they are entitled to has been\n     won since the morning of the 15th instant, when a series of\n     earthworks on most commanding positions and of formidable strength\n     have been carried, with all the guns and materials of war of the\n     enemy, including prisoners and colors. The works have all been\n     held, and the trophies remain in our hands.\n\n     'This victory is all the more important to us as the troops never\n     have been regularly organized in camps where time has been given\n     them to learn the discipline necessary to a well-organized _corps\n     d'armee_, but they had been hastily concentrated and suddenly\n     summoned to take part in the trying campaign of our country's\n     being. Such honor as they have won will remain imperishable.\n\n     '_To the colored troops comprising the division of General Hinks,\n     the General commanding would call the attention of his command_.\n     With the veterans of the Eighteenth Corps they have stormed the\n     works of the enemy and carried them, taking guns and prisoners, and\n     _in the whole affair they have displayed all the qualities of good\n     soldiers_.\n\n     'By command of\n         'W. F. SMITH, Major-General.\n\n     'WM. RUSSELL, JR.,\n         'Assistant Adjt.-General.\n\n     'Official: SOLON A. CARTER,\n         'Captain and A. A. A.-G.'\n\n\nIt may be added that 'Baldy' Smith has never been known as being\nparticularly partial to the use of negro troops. He is reported to have\nsaid, after the assault on Petersburg, that the war was virtually ended,\nbecause the negroes had now shown that they could fight, and so it was\nonly a question of time.\n\nThe man is not to be envied who can contemptuously disregard this\nrecord. And while we give unstinted honor to the heroes whose valor has\nmade the Army of the Potomac immortal in history, and made its campaign\nof the Wilderness and Spottsylvania a campaign of glory, let us not\nforget that negro troops in that army, and in other armies in the same\ncampaign, have borne their part faithfully, and deserve well of the\nrepublic. Nor let us forget the damning atrocities at Fort Pillow, where\nblack men in United States uniform were massacred in cold blood, because\nthey were willing rather to die freemen with their white comrades of the\nUnited States army, than live slaves to rebel masters:[D] thus\nvindicating their claim to freedom, and reflecting upon our country's\nflag the especial honor which such determined bravery has ever been\nawarded among men--reminding us of the Three Hundred at Thermopylae, and\nthe Old Guard at Waterloo, disdaining to surrender.\n\nSo strange are the events of history! So mysterious is the plan of\nProvidence, choosing now, as in the days of the apostle Paul, 'base\nthings of the world, and things which are despised, yea, and things\nwhich are not, to bring to nought things that are!' What a stinging\nexample of time's revenges, to be sure, that negroes should have a part\nin bringing to nought the rebellion of negro-holders! that they should\nbe found fighting for the very Government whose power had aided to keep\nthem in bondage to these negro-holders! In face of such facts, will any\none impiously declare that fate, or blind chance, rules the affairs of\nmen!\n\nWe might well pause at this point to consider the philosophy of\nrevolutions. It would be an interesting study to investigate the\nefficient or radical causes of these singular phenomena of God's\nprovidence--these crises in history, when 'the fountains of the great\ndeep are broken up,' and the experience of centuries is crowded into the\nlimits of a single year, and we see the old landmarks all swept away\nbefore the overwhelming tides of a new era. Then it is that precedents\navail us nothing, and we are driven to lay hold of those principles of\njustice and right which are alone eternal. For in the storm and wreck of\nrevolution those principles are our sure beacon lights, shining on, like\nthe stars, forever. Thus philosophizing, the question would be: Have\nrevolutions a fixed law? Is there a recurring sequence in the mighty\n'logic of events,' that will enable us to define a formula for the\nrevolutions of systems in society? So science has demonstrated a law for\nthe revolutions and changes of systems of worlds in infinite space. Or,\nare the revolutions of history, like the volcanic disturbances of our\nplanet earth, in a sort, abnormal? They seem to come, like the _deus ex\nmachina_ of the Roman poet, to cut the Gordian knots that perplex\nstatesmen and bewilder nations. The affairs of men get so tangled up\nsometimes, that to prevent anarchy and chaos, God sends revolutions,\nwhich sweep away the effete institutions and old, worn-out systems, to\nreplace them with new and living systems. And thus there is a perpetual\ngenesis, or new creation, of the world. Let any one read Carlyle's vivid\ndescription of the badness of the eighteenth century, 'bad in that bad\nway as never century before was, till the French Revolution came and put\nan end to it,' and he will understand something of this question of\nrevolutions. It suggests the old scholastic dispute of the free agency\nof man, and looks as though, granting that freedom, it were, after all,\ntoo great a gift for us. For history seems to teach, as its one grand\nlesson, confirming, as always, the revelation in Christ, that men cannot\ntake care of themselves; and that God leaves them to their own ways long\nenough to satisfy them that human agency is inadequate to solve the\nquestion of reform, and then, when the times are ripe, He takes the\nreins into His own hand, and starts society anew. It is the patient\nprocess of education by centuries, or by ages--only to be made perfect\nin the millennial age. So it is that the world moves. It moves by the\nfree agency of man, kept in its balance by the guiding hand of God.\n\n\nI. THE VEXED QUESTION OF THE NEGRO.\n\nThus it is that the second American revolution is settling for us the\nvexed question of the negro. What should be done with him, or for him,\nor to him, had been the disturbing element in our political system ever\nsince the African slave trade expired by limitation of the Constitution\nin 1808. The devices of human ingenuity (inspired, as we fervently\nbelieve, by the purest patriotism) to stave off the inevitable final\nsettlement of this account, innumerable as they were, and only limited\nby the predestined decree of Supreme Benevolence (which is Supreme\nJustice), were, at last, exhausted. The statesmanship of '50 had been\noutgrown. The giants of those days had gone, one by one, to their reward\nere yet the first breaths of the revolution that has opened the decade\nof '60. Nought remained to their lesser associates, who still survived,\nbut to bow reverently before the storm, 'as seeing in it Him who is\ninvisible.' Such recognition, indeed, is the measure of men's patriotism\nto-day. The man who so perverts his mind and reason as to shut out the\nevidence of the stars and his own consciousness (the German\nmetaphysician's proof of Deity), and deny that God is, is simply a fool;\nand every reflecting mind is ready to sanction and adopt the Psalmist's\nword: 'The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.' Equally a fool\nis he who shuts his eyes to the overwhelming facts of the last two\nyears, refusing to be taught by the Providence behind them. Such and so\nvast is the revolution by which God has intervened in our history. Such\nis the Providence that still guides and guards the nation ordained by\nHim to be. Such is the revolution that has swept away the slave system,\nand opened for us a new path, and given us a new power of progress.\n\nNow, these views need not make one a negro-enthusiast. Because the\nsystem of slavery has been swept away, it is not necessary to assert, as\nsome do, the negro's equality with the white man in those things wherein\nhe is plainly not his equal. Yet there is an equality that cannot be\ndenied. The negro is certainly a man, and not a brute animal; although\nso demoralized and corrupt had grown to be the tone of society that we\nhave actually heard the opinion avowed, in all seriousness, that the\nnegro had no soul. Shylock, in 'The Merchant of Venice,' pleads for\nhimself and his Jewish brethren, in one of the most pathetic passages of\neven Shakspeare's genius, as though the Hebrew race were considered less\nthan men. And such, indeed, was nearly the case in Shylock's time. On\nthe other hand, the Moor of Venice disdains to plead as to his\nsuperiors. His conscious equality in presence of the 'grave and reverend\nsigniors,' gives to his renowned address a consummate dignity, unknown\nelsewhere in literature. He felt, indeed, that his victories under the\nflag of the republic entitled him not only to equality, but especial\nhonor. Is it not singular that in this nineteenth century there should\nbe found men who gladly accord to the Jew, the descendant of Shem, that\nof which they refuse even the possibility to the dark descendant of Ham?\nSurely the republic of Venice was not so far behind our boasted\ncivilization. Our civilization still clings to the idea of privilege.\nThe privilege of caste is only exchanged for the privilege of color.\n\nNor need we commit ourselves to the doctrine of some, who would appear\nto think that the negro is to be the dominant race of the future; if not\nin himself, yet in virtue of his supplementing the composite Anglo-Saxon\nrace, and thus giving to it a completeness it is assumed not to have at\npresent. Such we understand to be the doctrine of what styles itself\nMiscegenation. It would be pertinent, and, perhaps, conclusive, to cite\non this point the Latin maxim, _De gustibus non disputandum_.\n\nThere are those who admire a certain new style of music, of which the\nmelody is chiefly hidden from the appreciation of common folk, and which\nhas received the title, 'Music of the Future;' looking forward to a time\nwhen, perhaps, men's senses will be preternaturally quickened to\ncomprehend its discordant harmonies. It is something akin to that vagary\nof religious sentiment, which, whatever may be its merits, whatever its\nsatisfaction for a spiritually illuminated chosen few, is, nevertheless,\nbeyond the present ken and comprehension and spiritual compass of most\nmortals, and may be called the Religion of the Future. The fatal defect\nof all these theories is that they serve no purpose of utility.\nConsidered as creations of ideal beauty, they may charm the fancy and\nquicken the imagination, and even exalt the mental habitudes, of a few\ndevotees. Or, allowing that they are a sort of morning twilight vision,\nthey _may_, we cannot dogmatically deny, hereafter develop into a\nsplendid fulness, in the perfect day. All this may be. But they do not\nmeet the practical needs of our working life, the wants of weary men and\nweary women.\n\nSo, what we want for the negro is not a metaphysical theory of his\nperfect equality with the white man. Nor, on the other hand, are we at\nliberty to say that he is, by virtue of any physical conformation and\nstructure, something inferior to the white man. Neither of these\npositions can be sustained. The one plainly contradicts our observation\nand experience; the other needs the proof of science that inferiority is\ndetermined by physical structure. We must face the fact of the negro's\npresent degraded condition; and we must accept the equal fact of his\nbeing a man, with a soul as precious, in the sight of God, as the soul\nof his white brother. For the day when the sublime exordium of the\nDeclaration of Independence could be stigmatized as a 'glittering\ngenerality,' is gone by. The basis of our American system of government,\nit is no longer doubted, is the equality of all men before the law, as\nthe basis of our Christian faith is the equality of all men before God.\nAccepting, then, the two undeniable facts above named, the question is,\nWhat shall we do now with the negro?\n\n\nII. THE NEGRO SLAVE AS A SOLDIER.\n\nWithout attempting to discuss this interesting question in all its\nvarious aspects, we may briefly advert to some of the problems in the\ndiscussion which would seem to be fairly solved in the employment of the\nnegro as a United States soldier.\n\nThus much is certainly true of the American negro, and herein he is\ndoubtless superior to the white man; namely, that he is docile, patient,\nbuoyant of spirit, full of affection, and endowed with a marvellous\napprehension of things spiritual. His _patience_ is shown by his long\nbondage, borne without serious murmuring; awaiting the day of\ndeliverance, confident that the year of jubilee was to come. This point\nis lucidly elaborated in a late article, of great interest, in _The\nEdinburgh Review_, said to have been written by a negro escaped from\nslavery. The negro's _docility_ appears in his aptitude to catch quickly\nthe tone of his master's mind, and guide himself by it; in the readiness\nwith which he yields to superior authority--which may or may not be due\nto his spirit-crushing bondage, but which certainly has in it little of\nthe stupidity we should expect to find if such were the case. The\n_buoyancy of his spirit_ overflows in the perpetual music of his laugh\nand song amid the hard fortunes of his race. The fulness of his\n_capacity of affection_ is attested by his remarkable devotion to master\nor mistress, surviving strong amid all vicissitudes, and rising above\nthe iniquitous injustice that holds him in bonds into that exalted\ntriumph of the apostle's doctrine: 'Be not overcome of evil, but\novercome evil with good.' As for his _readiness to apprehend spiritual\nthings_, the experience of every person who has lived at the South\nfurnishes abundant proof. Who that has stood on the banks of a Southern\nriver, when a negro was baptized, and heard the loud chorus of joy of\nhis brethren and sisters when the sign of the Church was put upon him,\nand seen the sympathy of eye and hand that welcomed him to the blessed\ncompany, has not felt that for this poor, despised race there are riches\nlaid up in that kingdom 'where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and\nwhere thieves do not break through nor steal'? Who that has stood in a\nSouthern forest on some Sunday afternoon, in the early Southern spring,\nwhen the woods are resonant with the songs of birds, and heard a negro\ncongregation of believers in their meeting-house near by, joining with\nall the fervor of their tropical temperament in this glad hymn of\nnature, in the immortal verse of Wesley and Whitfield, has not felt that\nto the negro the vision of the New Jerusalem is more of a reality than\nhas yet been granted to his worldly favored white brother and master?\nAh, no one who has witnessed such scenes all the years of his childhood\nand youth, can deny that among the disciples of Christ are to be\nreckoned especially the negro race; who bear His blessed cross in our\nday, amid the jeers of a sceptical world, just as in His own day upon\nearth the negro Simon of Cyrene bore to the Mount of Calvary the cross\non which the Saviour died.\n\nWhat these things prove is just this: the negro's capacity for freedom;\nhis capacity to know what is the 'perfect law of liberty,' keeping\nirresponsible license in check; his absolute freedom from the\nbloodthirstiness that seems to horrify so many unthinking persons, who\naffect to fear the consequences of putting a musket in a negro's hand.\nThe incontestable points above enumerated show the groundlessness of\nsuch an alleged fear. It needs only to consider them candidly to be\ndisabused on that score. No one who has seen and knows the tenderness of\nthe negro toward the children of his master, and his never-failing\nrespect toward his mistress, dares say he fears the negro's savageness.\nNo one who knows the negro's religious sensibility and his unshaken\nfaith in Christ, dares say he fears. No. Only those fear who know\nnothing at all about the negro. They fear whose creed is given them by\nmen thirsting for the negro's blood, that it may be coined into ungodly\ngold.\n\nThus much will suffice for objections to negro troops, on the ground of\ntheir incapacity. It is seen that the negro is capable to comprehend the\nlimitations of liberty; that his nature is not essentially savage, or,\nif so, has been softened and tempered into a gentle docility under the\nbenign influences of civilized society; that, above all, his Christian\neducation has elevated him to a dignity that despises mean revenge. If\nfurther proof is necessary, the regiments of negro slaves recruited in\nLouisiana and the Carolinas, acquiring a discipline that has stood them\nin good stead at Olustee (day of gloom) and elsewhere on their native\nsoil, may be cited in evidence of their capacity.\n\nBut what about our rights in the matter? For we are considering now the\ncase of the slaves, not the free negro? The proper and sufficient answer\nto that question is, What about the rights of slave-holders? What rights\nof theirs are we bound to respect now? They have taken the law into\ntheir own hands, and if they cannot enforce it, is it any part of our\nbusiness to aid them? Certainly and undoubtedly not. It is part of the\npenalty of treason; part of the price they are paying for their ignoble\nthrust at the nation's life; and a very light penalty, and cheap price\nit is, that they lose their right to hold slaves. Such rights as they\npossessed they held under the Constitution. We have been willing, for\nthe sake of peace (bearing in mind the apostle's injunction, 'If it be\npossible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men'), to\nprotect, under the sacred covenant of the nation, what they called their\nrights to property; albeit not willing ourselves to touch the 'accursed\nthing.' The history of the country is a witness to our good faith. But\nplainly the injunction of the apostle becomes impossible of obedience\nwhen men transform themselves into fiends, and hang up in their railway\ncars, as trophies, the ghastly skulls of such of us as have been slain\nin defence of the national covenant.[E] By their own acts the\nslave-holders have cancelled our obligations as to such permissive\nrights under the Constitution. We shall not probably hasten to incur any\nmore such obligations. They say that slavery is the strength of their\nsociety. Doubtless it is. Then, Samson-like, they have pulled down upon\nthemselves the pillars of their whole fabric, and they cannot complain\nif they and all their rights, immunities, and titles are buried in the\nruins. In other words, they have appealed from the Constitution, or the\nlaw civil, to the sword, or the law military; and they must abide the\nresult of that appeal. Such is a brief statement of the question of\nnegro troops, as affecting the slaves of the South and their traitor\nmasters.\n\n\nIII. THE FREE NEGRO AS A SOLDIER.\n\nThere is another phase of the question, less difficult of solution than\nthe preceding, perhaps, but by no means less important. It is the case\nof the free negro, and especially the free negro of the North. Here\nagain we need not stop to discuss abstract questions of equality, nor\ndeclare our adherence to the philosophy of Miscegenation. We need not\nstop to consider the nature, or justice, of the prejudice which prevails\nagainst the negro at the North. It is undeniable that there is such a\nprejudice. Accepting the undoubted fact, we see that it shuts nearly\nevery avenue of honest industry against the man with a black skin,\nrestricting him to the most menial offices; and that it is fostered in\nmany ways by the conventions and usages of our society, so as\npractically to put him in a worse condition than his bonded brother at\nthe South--always except as to his God-given right to his liberty and\nlabor. Experience has shown that even this is not always fully assured\nto the negro; and the July riots of New York indicate the uncertain\ntenure of his liberty and life, even under the protection of equal laws.\nWhat then? Shall we remand him to the servitude of the South? Shall we\nenact for him a sort of Napoleonic law of general safety, to deprive him\nof the poor liberty he has--however profitless the boon may seem to us\nto be? Certainly not. Every instinct of humanity rises up against so\nmonstrous a suggestion. Yet something very like it has a place in the\nlegislation of some States in the American Union.\n\nThen what a Providential solution of the question is offered in the\nemployment of the negro as a soldier! There cannot surely be any\nwell-founded objection to it. Such opposition as the plan has\nencountered seems to spring from the same unreasoning prejudice that\nkeeps the black man out of all decent industries in our free North. It\nis that very prejudice which this plan will overcome. For the first\nthing to be done is to raise the negro from his degradation; and to do\nthis we must obviously begin with teaching him a proper self-respect.\nThis will bear its fruit in making him respected by others. No one will\nsay that it is well to foster a feeling which outlaws any single class\nin the community from the respect of all. This would be to glorify the\nslave system of the South, and lay a basis for possible revolutions.\nThus the employment of the negro as a soldier, while it must inspire the\nbondman of the South with a truer sense of his worth and capacity, and\nthus tend to weaken the foundation of the whole rebel fabric, will also\ncorrect the unquestioned evil of a growing class of outlaws in the midst\nof our society. And if we clothe the negro in the uniform of a soldier\nof the United States, the respect of the nation for its brave defenders\nwill teach him self-respect; at the same time that it will teach the\nnation to put a new value upon its idea of loyalty.\n\nThe epitaph commemorative of the Spartan valor that has made Thermopylae\na name forever, serves to show the conclusion of our whole discussion:\n\n  'Go, stranger, and at Lacedaemon tell,\n  That here, obedient to her laws, we fell.'\n\nFor the man who is loyal to his flag will not quarrel with the color of\na comrade in arms who has shed blood, red like his own, in defending\nthat flag from dishonor; just as the man who is loyal to the altar feels\na fellowship for every one, however humble, who bears the name of their\ncommon Master, and is made in the image of their common Father.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[D] Late Southern newspapers speak of the obstinacy of the garrison at\nFort Pillow, and assert that Forrest would have stopped the massacre at\nany time after the capture, if our soldiers had manifested any\ndisposition to yield.\n\n[E] The writer's father saw these skulls hanging in the cars on a\nrailway in Georgia, after first Bull Run, and saw them handed through\nthe cars amid the jeers of passengers.\n\n\n\n\nCOLORS AND THEIR MEANING.\n\n\nIn order to a due understanding of the signification of colors, it is\nnecessary we should commence at the foundation. Accordingly I shall\nbegin by saying that colors are primary, secondary, and tertiary.\n\nPrimary colors are three: red, yellow, and blue.\n\nRED is the color of greatest heat.\n\nYELLOW is the color of greatest light.\n\nBLUE is the color of chemical change.\n\nIn accordance with this philosophical truth, we should naturally expect\nto find a preponderance of blue rays from the sun in the spring time,\nand so it is.\n\nThese rays preponderate at the time of ploughing, sowing, and\ngermination.\n\nIn the summer time, after the plant has started from the ground, and\nrequires vigorous leaves to bring it to perfection ere the cold winter\nrolls around once more, we have the yellow rays. 'Light, more light,' is\nthen the cry of nature, and as not even length of days affords this\nelement in sufficient completeness, the sun darts his brightest beams in\n'the leafy month of June.'\n\nLater still in the year, after germination is past and growth perfected,\ncomes the necessity of heat rays to ripen fruit, vegetables, and grain,\nand nature's behests are obeyed in the then preponderance of the red\nrays. Much of this effect may be due to the _media_ through which the\nsun's rays pass. A sensitized photographic paper is not colored as much\nat an altitude of three miles in half an hour as is a similar paper upon\nthe earth's surface in one moment. At any season of the year, gardeners\ncan either stimulate or retard germination as they place a blue or\nyellow glass over the nursling. That the growth of plants is not due\nalone to the rays of the sun we can, without experiment, convince\nourselves, as even ordinary observers are well aware that upon some days\nplants shoot up so rapidly as to grow almost visibly under their eyes,\nand in other conditions of the atmosphere seemingly remain dormant for\ndays.\n\nThe germinating influence, let it be due either to peculiar rays alone,\nor to atmospheric state, does not contain much coloring matter. The\nfirst spring flowers are of a pale color; as summer advances we have\nbrighter hues, but not until the approach of fall do we see Flora in all\nher gorgeousness of coloring. The paleness of mountain and arctic\nflowers, and the brilliancy of those of the tropics, point to the same\ncause which gives the temperate zones their brightest flowers when heat\nrays preponderate.\n\nAs depth of color seems connected with the red or heat rays; so perfume\nbelongs rightfully to the summer blossoms; when light is the strongest,\nthen we have our pinks, and roses, and lilies.\n\nThere are also in the spectrum four secondary colors: orange, green,\nindigo, and violet. The secondary colors are alternate with the primary\nin the spectrum, and are formed by a mixture of the two primary nearest\nthem--as orange, formed by a union of red and yellow; green, by a\nmixture of yellow and blue; indigo and violet, of blue and red. Thus:\n\nRed,\n\n_Orange_,\n\nYellow,\n\n_Green_,\n\nBlue,\n\n_Indigo_,\n\n_Violet_.\n\nTertiary colors are many more than both primary and secondary. They are\nhues not found in the spectrum. They are nature's stepchildren rather\nthan children, and many of them might not inappropriately be called\nchildren of art; yet although most of them are of inventions that man\nhas sought out, they are at best but shades, and must all look back to\nthe spectrum as their common parent.\n\nEach of the primary colors forms a simple contrast to the other two;\nthus blue is contrasted by yellow and by red, either of which forms a\nsimple contrast to it; but as it is a law of color that compound\ncontrasts are more effective than simple in the proportion of two to\none, it follows that a mixture of either two of the primitive colors is\nthe most powerful contrast possible with the other.\n\nRed and yellow form orange, the greatest and the most harmonious\ncontrast to blue; red and blue form violet or purple, so much admired in\ncontrast with yellow in the pansy; yellow and blue form green, the\ncontrast to red, and the color needed to restore the tone of the optic\nnerve when strained or fatigued by undue attention to red. This is the\nmost common and admirable contrast in the vegetable kingdom; the\nbrilliant red blossom or fruit, with green leaves, as instance the fiery\ntulip, the crimson rose, the scarlet verbena, the burning dahlia, the\ncherry and apple trees, the tomato or loveapple of my childhood, and the\nscarlet maple and sumach of our American October.\n\nThere are two distinct harmonies of color: the harmony of contrast, and\nthe harmony of shading. The former is the harmony of striking\ndiversities found in nature, and the other a mellowing of colors, or\nblending of similar hues, attributable to art.\n\nFrom this little synopsis of the effects and uses of the prismatic\ncolors, we shall be enabled the better to understand both the ancient\nand modern popular ideas as to colors as representatives and\ncorrespondences. Colors have a mental, moral, and physical\nsignificance--a good and a bad import. The one to which I shall first\ndirect your attention is that which most readily strikes the eye.\n\n\nRED.\n\nWhich Thoreau called the 'color of colors,' in the Hebrew signified to\nhave dominion, and in early art was symbolical or emblematic of Divine\nlove, creative power, etc. The word Adam, we have been taught, signifies\nred man; it does mean 'the blood,' which, of course, originated 'to be\nred,' as a secondary signification. Lanci, the great interpreter of\nSacred Philology at the Vatican, deems 'The Blusher,' to be the true\nmeaning of the word Adam. God created man, male and female created He\nthem, and called their name Adam. A blush, so becoming on the\ncountenance of feminine beauty, is generally deemed a sign of weakness\nwhen visible upon a man's face. But if the above interpretation be\ncorrect, a blush is a man's birthright, which no sense of false shame\nshould prevent him from modestly claiming. Red, as signifying\nperfection, dominion, fruition, was appropriately the name of our first\nparents, whether we regard the account of the creation to be literally\nunderstood, as the old theologians believe, or spiritually and\ntypically, as the modern ones insist.\n\nRed is the color of what is intense, be it love or hatred, kindness or\ncruelty. It denotes the fulness of strong emotions; alike the glowing of\nconscious love or the blazing of fierce anger, the fiery ardor of daring\nand valor, or the fierce cruelty of hatred and revenge. Of our own\nstar-spangled banner, we sing:\n\n  'The red is the blood of the brave.'\n\nThe red garments of cardinals, and especially their red hats, are\nsupposed to betoken their readiness to spill their blood for Jesus\nChrist.\n\nRed is the color of undeveloped ideas. It is the hue which most quickly\nattracts the attention of children and savages. All barbarous nations\nadmire red; many savages paint their faces vermilion before entering\nbattle, to which they look forward as the means of attaining enviable\nposition in their tribe; for with barbarians physical prowess is the\nonly superiority.\n\nSome animals are excited to madness by the sight of this color. The bull\nand the turkey take it as a signal of defiance, which they rush to meet.\n'Come, if you dare,' they read it, and impetuously hasten to the onset.\n\nWhen the bloody Jeffreys was in his bloodiest humor, he wore into court\na red cap, which was the sure death warrant of those about to be tried.\n\nThe death garment of Charlotte Corday was a red chemise--fit emblem of\nthe ungovernable instincts, the wild rioting in blood of that reign of\nterror.\n\nChrist was crucified in a scarlet robe, and in that color of love and\nperfection, perfected his offering of love for mankind.\n\n\nYELLOW.\n\nAnciently symbolized the sun, the goodness of God, marriage, faith, and\nfruitfulness. Old paintings of St. Peter represent him in a yellow\nmantle. The Venuses were clothed in saffron-colored tunics; Roman brides\nof an early day wore a veil of an orange tinge, called the _flameum_, a\nflame--a flame which, kindled at Hymen's torch, it is to be hoped was\never burning, never consuming. As every good has its antipodal evil, so\nevery color has its bad sense, which is contrary or opposite to its\nfirst or good signification.\n\nIn a bad sense, yellow means inconstancy, and the aesthetic Greeks, fully\ncarrying out this meaning, compelled their public courtesans to\ndistinguish themselves by mantles of saffron color. The radical sense of\nsaffron is to fail, to be hollow, to be exhausted. In tracing customs,\nit is easy to see the bias unknowingly received from natural\nsignifications, significations which take their rise in the spiritual\nworld. The _San Benito_ or _auto-da-fe_ dress of the Spanish Inquisition\nwas yellow, blazoned with a flaming cross; and, as a mark of contempt\nfor the race, the Jews of Catholic Spain were condemned to wear a yellow\ncap. Distinguishing colors in dress have ever been one of the most\ncommon methods of expressing distinction of class and differences of\nfaith, until thence has arisen the imperative adage: 'Show your colors;'\nand he who refuses to do so is despised as a hypocrite or changeling.\n\nYellow, as a color, finds but few admirers among modern enlightened\nnations; it is recognized as the color of shams; but in China, that\ncountry of contrarities, where printing, fish breeding, gas burning, and\nartesian wells have been known and stationary for centuries, where\nalmond-shaped eyes, club feet, and long cues are types of beauty, where\nold men laughingly fly kites, and little boys look gravely on, where\nwhite is mourning, and everything is different from elsewhere--there\nyellow is the most admired of colors, restricted to the use of royalty\nalone under penalty of death.\n\nYellow is the most searching of colors, as indeed it should be from its\ncorrespondence with light. It is gaudy, and does not inspire respect,\nfor it brings into view every imperfection. Every defect in form or\nmanner is rendered conspicuous by it, and we involuntarily scan the\nwhole person of the unfortunate and tasteless wearer of it.\n\n\nBLUE.\n\nIn early art, represented truth, honor, and fidelity, and even at this\nday we associate blue and truthfulness. Christ and the Virgin were\nformerly painted with blue mantles, and blue is especially recognized as\nthe Virgin's color. We can never turn our eyes upward without seeing\ntruth's emblematical color. How appropriate that the heavens should be\nblue! Of truthfulness and faithfulness it should be our constant\nreminder.\n\nPrimary blue enters as a compound into three other colors of the\nspectrum: green, indigo, and violet. As a primary color, it is much more\nrarely seen in nature than either red or yellow. We have few blue birds,\nfew blue flowers, few blue fruits. As one of a compound, it is oftener\nfound than red. The grass, the leaves, everywhere proclaim the marriage\nof good, as yellow anciently represented, and truth, as blue symbolized.\nThere is a deep significance in the change that has come over mankind's\nview of the meaning of the first of these colors. With the loss of\nfaith, the tearing apart of truth and goodness, has come a change of\ncorrespondence. Men have everywhere turned away from the light, though\nstill professing to strive for truth.\n\nEach color possesses a character of its own, which proclaims to the\nclose observer the peculiar qualities of that to which it belongs. The\nhorticulturist reads the peculiarities of the fruit as readily by its\ncolor as the phrenologist reads his by his 'bumps.' The red one, he will\ntell you, is sour, the white one sweet, the pale one flat, and the green\none alkaline; that one is a good table apple, this one a superior cider\napple; and if you further ask the characteristics of a good cider apple,\nhe will tell you again it is known by its color, not only of the skin,\nbut also of the pulp, and that it can be foretold whether cider will be\nweak, thin, and colorless, or possess strength, or richness, or color.\n\nThe botanist, too, regards color as indicative of quality, the yellow\nflower having a bitter taste and a fixed, unfading hue, the black, a\npoisonous, destructive property, etc., etc.\n\nTruth, of which we have seen blue was the correspondent, is never\nsuperficial, and, although apparent truths lie upon the surface, yet a\ncommon adage locates truth at the bottom of a well. Seamen acknowledge\ndeep indigo blue of water to be indicative of profound depth. Of the\nthree or primitive colors, the red or heat color, which has been termed\nlight felt, the yellow or light color, which has been called heat seen,\nand the blue, a color of chemical change, which is the color of growth,\nthese correspond in an unknown degree to the love, wisdom, and truth of\nthe Supreme One; heat to love, for love is heat; light to wisdom, for\nwisdom is light; and germination and growth to truth, for by truth souls\ngrow into wisdom and love. The more we explore the arcana of nature the\nmore we will be enabled to discover the correspondence of the natural\nwith the spiritual world.\n\n\nWHITE.\n\nIs the emblem of light, every white ray of light containing all the\nprismatic colors; and as it symbolizes innocence and purity, it is the\ncolor must appropriate for clothing infants, brides, and the dead. We\nthink of the angels as clothed in white. At the transfiguration of our\nLord and Master, his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow, as\nno fuller on earth can white them; and in one of the Evangelists his\nraiment is described as at that time as white as the light, and so our\nhighest comparison of whiteness is 'as white as the light.'\n\n\nBLACK.\n\nFormed by a combination in equal proportions of the three primitive\ncolors in equal intensity, is the color of despair. As mourning, it is\nonly suitable for those who despair of the future of their friends; but\nit is preeminently unsuitable to be worn for those who die in Christian\nfaith with a Christian hope. Despite its gloomy hue, it has almost\nbecome a sacred color among Christian nations, being worn as the dress\nof the priest in his ministerial office, and doubly hallowed from its\nassociation with the dead.\n\nBlack, as an ornamental color, should be below all others, for artistic\neffect. An artistic dressmaker places the dark or black plaids or\nstripes beneath the others. This natural correspondence is almost\nuniversally recognized among enlightened nations in clothing for the\nfeet. They not only look smaller and more tasteful in black shoes than\nin colored, but economy also sanctions them as more useful. The\nuniversal tendency of the nineteenth century is to utilitarianism; the\none question asked is: What is the use? and in use is beauty ever found.\n\nEthnological investigation shows that black or dark-colored races have\ninvariably preceded settlement by the whites. This is in accordance with\nthe law of color above laid down, viz., that, _artistically_, black is\nbelow the other colors (and now, in order that I may not be\nmisunderstood, I explicitly say that because, _artistically_, black is\nthe lowest color, it by no means follows that I deem black or olive or\nyellow races subjects for slavery, or unworthy of social and political\nrights). In accordance with the above axiom, savage and half-civilized\nraces are found to be at the present day black haired and black eyed. I\nwill also venture the assertion that nine tenths of all the people in\nthe world have black hair.\n\nThe Hindoo legend of the eighth incarnation of Vishnu under the name of\nCrishna, makes him then of a bluish-black color, which the name Crishna\nsignifies. His supposititious father, Wanda, said:\n\n     'When I named him Crishna, on account of his color, the priest told\n     me he must be the god who had taken different bodies, red, white,\n     yellow, and black, in his various incarnations, and now he had\n     assumed a black color again, since in black all colors are\n     absorbed.'\n\nAlthough among Caucasian nations, and especially in cosmopolitan\nAmerica, we do not adduce intellectual superiority from the shades or\ndegrees of whiteness, yet it is said of the Moors that the more the\ncolor approaches the _black_, the handsomer and of more decisive\ncharacter are the men.\n\nIt is a physiological fact brought to light partially through the\ncensus, that black-eyed races and black-eyed people are more subject to\nblindness than others. It has also been shown that black-eyed men are\nnot as good marksmen as blue-eyed or light-eyed men.\n\nNot only are different races of men subject to different diseases, but\nstatistics prove that among Caucasian nations, complexion and disease\nare in some way connected, as for instance, consumption is more rife\namong dark-haired and dark-eyed people than others, and more rapid with\nthose dark-haired and dark-eyed people who have very fair complexion. As\nthe difference between golden and black hair lies in that there is in\nthe one case an excess of sulphur and oxygen with a deficiency of\ncarbon, and in the other an excess of carbon and a deficiency of sulphur\nand oxygen, it can easily be seen why such deficiency or excess, if\narising from idiosyncrasy of the system, should predispose to dissimilar\ndiseases. But here a wide field yet lies open for experimental and\nphysiological research.\n\n\nGREEN.\n\nThere is scarcely a color but has been or is held sacred by some nation\nor religion. With Mahommedans green is the sacred hue. The prophet\noriginally wore a turban of that dye, and the sultan shows due\npreference for that color.\n\nThe tomb of David, which is in possession of the Mahommedans, and which\nwas at great hazard visited by a lady within the past few years, is\ncovered by a green satin tapestry, and over it hangs a satin canopy of\nred, blue, yellow, and green stripes, the three primitive and the\nsacred, compound color.\n\nGreen also seems to have been the sacred color in ancient Peru, virgins\nof the sun wearing robes of that hue. The ancient Mexican priests also,\nin the performance of their functions, wore crowns of green and yellow\nfeathers, and at their ears hung green jewels. Precious stones of a\ngreen color were held in higher estimation by the Aztecs than any other.\nWhen the Spaniards were first admitted to an audience with Montezuma, he\nwore no other ornament on his head than a _panache_ of plumes of royal\ngreen.\n\nGreen comes in the class of secondary colors, being a compound of yellow\nand blue, and signifies pale, new, fresh, growing, flourishing (like a\ngreen bay tree); and also unripe, when applied to either fruits or men,\nwhich, as far as the human is concerned, is a term of reproach. A person\nwithout experience, either in position, behavior, or use of anything, is\ntermed green, and laughed at. They are fresh, new, and, instead of the\nadmiring exclamation, How green it is! as applied to a plant, is the\nreproachful one, How green he is!\n\nAt different seasons of the year, different colors are appropriate in\ndress. Light green is the color of freshness, youth, and spring, and\nmore suitable to be worn in the spring of the year and by young persons,\nthan later in the season or by mature women. Dark green, like crimson\nand orange, is a warmer, more intensified color, with less of liveliness\nand freshness.\n\n\nPURPLE.\n\nIs the type of monarchical enlightenment. With Caucasian nations it has\nbeen the symbolic color of royalty, until 'invest with the purple,' in\nthe course of ages, comes to mean kingdom, government, power, to rule.\nPurple is formed by the union of blue and red, truth and valor. Happy\nthe people who are truly governed by truth and valor! The Tyrian purple\nwas famous in Homer's days, and our dreams of Tyre and its splendor are\nall colored by this most gorgeous of dyes, the manufacture of which from\na species of shell fish gave this ancient city a celebrity which all its\nother arts combined could not equal. This was one of the symbolic colors\nwith which the high priest's robe was wrought in figures of pomegranates\nupon its skirt; and when Solomon sent to Hiram, king of Tyre, for a\ncunning workman to assist in building the temple, he did not fail to\nrequire he should be skilled in purple. During the time of the Roman\nemperors, the Tyrian purple was valued so highly that a pound of cloth\ntwice dipped was sold for about one hundred and fifty dollars. Even a\npurple border about a robe was a mark of dignity.\n\n\nVIOLET.\n\nIs a color that has often been worn by martyrs; formed of a union of red\nand blue, it signifies love and truth, and their passion and suffering.\nIt is the court mourning color all over Europe, with the exception of\nEngland. It is the softest of the prismatic colors, and its very name\ncarries us in thought to the modest sweet flower which is Flora's emblem\nof humility.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOf one of the colors of the spectrum I have failed to speak, because\nthere was so little to say. Orange is a bright, warm color, not quite as\nintense as red, still one which the eye does not readily seek. Its\nsuitableness in dress is confined mainly to children. Upon them our eye\nnaturally seeks for bright, warm colors, and rests with a kind of\npleasure upon rich hues. There is nothing upon which the public taste\nrequires more education than upon the arrangement and modification of\ncolors. Gardeners need it in setting their plants and putting in their\nseeds; florists, in the arrangement of their bouquets; furnishers, in\nthe decoration of apartments; and especially the fashion leaders, who\ndecide what colors or shades must or must not be worn together.\nSometimes hues are conjoined by them, that, no matter how loudly\nproclaimed _au fait_, the height of style, or _a la mode_, are never\nartistic, and no _dicta_ can make them so. A fashion framer should needs\nbe a natural philosopher, and hold the rudiments of all science in her\ngrasp. Botany, mineralogy, conchology should walk as handmaidens to\nphilosophy; optics should steer the rudder of color's bark when launched\nupon the sea of taste.\n\nIf, when dressed, the aim is to present a light and graceful toilet,\nlight and delicate shades of color must be worn; no crimson, dark green,\npurple, or indigo, but rose, light green, azure, or lavender, with a due\nadmixture of white, must be the hues chosen. White serves as an\nadmirable break, and prevents the appearance of violent transition. It\nis none the less requisite in bouquets, where no two shades of the same\ncolor should be allowed without either white or green as a separator.\nVery handsome self-colored bouquets can be arranged by giving a finish\nof the complementary shade. One of the most beautiful I ever remember to\nhave seen was scarlet verbenas with a base of rose-geranium leaves, the\nwhole set in a small antique green-and-gold vase.\n\nAlthough the mature fall of the year clothes itself in gay colors, it is\ndeemed an evidence of immaturity for women in the fall time of life to\nsport crimson and scarlet and orange. Sober grays (which mean old,\nmature), quiet brown, and even sombre blacks, are rather what are looked\nfor. To dress young when people are old, deceives no one. There is a\nbeauty of age as well as a beauty of youth. Those who live to be old\nhave had their share of the former: why should they seek to deprive\nthemselves of the latter? Aside from the appropriateness of color as to\nage, there are yet others as to size and complexion. Light-haired men\nshould always wear _very dark_ cravats, in order to give tone and\nexpression to the face. Large women should wear warm colors, if they\nwish to create a pleasant impression. They cannot attain grace by any\naid of color, while they will lose the dignity they might naturally\nclaim if they confined themselves to warm, grave shades.\n\nAn unartistic arrangement of light or drapery in an apartment will\ntotally destroy the harmony of the most carefully prepared toilet. Rooms\ncan be toned warm or cold, but, unless some especial object is sought,\nneutral tints should predominate, and violent contrasts should be\navoided.\n\nWho has failed to notice the fantastic tricks played at times upon some\nbody of worshippers, where light to the church is admitted through\nstained glass windows? A lambent red flame lighting up the hair of a\nman's head, while at the same moment his beard is blue and luminous.\nOver the shoulders of another, the purple mantle of royalty seems about\nfalling, investing him for a moment with regal splendors, while perhaps\nthe cadaverous hue of his next neighbor's face well fits him to be some\nimagined victim of his new majesty's anger.\n\nColor ranks as one of the earliest arts. No nation is so low but it\nmakes some attempt at decorative color, and we may be well assured it\nwas one of the earliest, if not the earliest method employed in\ntransmitting intelligence. When this country was first discovered, the\nPeruvians were making use of small knotted cords of various colors,\ntermed _quippu_, as mediums of records and messages. Our own North\nAmerican savages employed wampum, made from various colored shells, for\na similar purpose. Color played its part in ancient Egyptian\nhieroglyphics. It speaks to the eye sooner than form. A black flag\nhoisted upon the battle field proclaims louder than words the demoniac\ncruelty that reigns, while a white signifies that submission has been\ndecided upon. Joseph's coat of many colors proclaimed the father's\nfavoritism to his brothers, and worked a mighty change in the history of\nthe race to which he belonged. This very instance, if we possessed no\nother, would prove to us the high estimation in which color was held,\nand its symbolic meaning, in the most ancient times.\n\nThe ermine is an animal of such spotless purity it will tolerate no\nstain on its fur, and by this symbolic name we designate the judge, who\nshould be stainless, unbiassed, and incorruptible.\n\nThe highest art of the florist is put forth to procure change of color.\nSelf tulips are valueless beside sports, and to induce this breaking\nvarious methods are put in requisition, as there is no sporting of\ncolors from natural causes among flowers. A green rose, a blue verbena,\nare hailed as triumphs, and secure the propagator an enviable name\neither as an amateur or professional florist.\n\nPerhaps the most curious thing connected with color is that some stars\ngive colored light; and in one instance, in a northern constellation, a\n_double_ star gives forth blue rays from one and red from the other. How\nour fancy might be permitted to soar away beyond the stars themselves in\nwondering fancies as to the meaning of this--truth and love united in a\nstar, not as a compound color, but each retaining its own hue of blue\nand red! What a happy abode of truthful, loving spirits we can imagine\nthis the dwelling place! And may there not here be a symbol of such a\nunion?\n\nThe art of color is yet in its infancy, and although Tyrian purple was\nmagnificent and famous, and the highly prized Turkey red unfading, yet\nmodern chemical discovery has opened a wide variety of hues unknown to\nthe ancients.\n\nColors obtained from vegetable substances have been the most numerous,\nthose from the animal kingdom the most brilliant, and from the mineral\nthe greatest variety from the same substance. A buff, a blue, and a\nblack, and again a red, a blue, a purple, and a violet, are produced\nfrom the same metal.\n\nThe recent discovery of aniline colors, to be extracted from coal\nrefuse, has given art new, beautiful, and durable shades of red, blue,\npurple, and violet. We know but by description what the lauded Tyrian\npurple was, for monopoly caused the art to be lost; but for softness,\nrichness, and beauty of purple we have none to approach that extracted\nfrom this refuse. Nature means nothing to be lost, and waste arises from\nignorance. She is a royal mistress when royally represented.\n\nTo the mineral kingdom we are indebted for most of the mordants which\nfix the hues derived from other sources. That in union is strength is\ntaught by the most common art.\n\nMuch is yet to be learned in regard to color. Men have understood its\ncorrespondence sufficiently to associate red and cruelty as its lowest\nexpression, so that the men of the bloody French Revolution received an\nundying name from the red cap of the Carmagnole costume--and yellow with\nshame, for a ruff of this color on the neck of a woman hanged drove this\nfashion out of England--and white with purity, as the ermine of the\njudge shows; although, thousands of years ago, the men of Tartary and\nThibet prized the wool of the Crimean sheep stained of a peculiar gray\nby its feeding upon the _centarina myriocephala_, and although modern\ngardeners deepen the hues of plants by feeding them judiciously, yet few\nattach the requisite importance to color as history. Writers for the\nmost part pass silently by this great aid to a correct understanding of\npast events. Color in costume is no less essential to a true description\nor representation than form; in some instances it is more so.\n\nThe _color_ of the silken sails of Cleopatra's vessel, as she sailed\ndown the Cydnus, proclaimed her royalty as no other could have done.\n\nA fairy could not be depicted without her green robe, or young Aurora\nunless tinted with the hues of morn.\n\nHere lies the great fault of all sun pictures. The distinctive hues of\ncomplexion, hair, and eyes are not preserved. The flaxen, the auburn,\nthe brown hair alike take black. Light eyes and dark are\nundistinguishable; the clearest complexion becomes muddy and full of\nlines if the color of the dress is such as to throw the shade upon it.\n\nA mixture of colors in dress in which either two of the primitives\npredominate, is a token of barbarism, even if occurring among so-called\nenlightened people.\n\nColor is an exponent of the degree of civilization.\n\nRED finds its fitness among savage races, and with undeveloped\nnatures.\n\nYELLOW indicates transition from barbarism to civilization.\n\nGREEN, advanced civilization.\n\nPURPLE, monarchical enlightenment, which is will individualized\nin but one.\n\nModification and harmony are only with people free to follow taste and\nselect for themselves. Among the most enlightened nations these five\nstates are all found. The highest type, shown by culture, discovery,\nart, literature, science, equity, and government, exists with but a few.\nThe mass are civilized, and continue 'the mass.' It is the natural\ntendency of enlightenment to individualize. In proportion to genius,\nculture, and _perseverance_, is one set apart, becomes a leader of the\nmasses, and should be a teacher of the harmony and correspondence of\ncolor, both by precept and example.\n\nStrong contrasts are admissible in what is designed to illustrate\nparticular things, and especially if to be viewed from a distance. To me\nno sight is ever more beautiful than the American flag, red, white, and\nblue, as the breeze opens every fold and waves it abroad for the gaze of\nmen; the blue signifying a league and covenant against oppression, to be\nmaintained in truth, by valor and purity; the very color proclaiming to\ndespots and tyrannized man that in one land on the broad face of the\nearth liberty of conscience prevails, and freedom of speech exists. We\nshall not want to change it when this war is over. It is the symbol of\nan idea which has never yet found its full utterance. When Liberty and\nUnion become one and indivisible, it will be the harmonious exponent of\nthose grand ideas rooted, budded, blossomed, and bearing fruit\nforevermore.\n\n\n\n\nBATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS.\n\n\n  Oh, how our pulses leaped and thrilled, when, at the dead of night,\n  We saw our legions mustering, and marching forth to fight!\n  Line after line comes surging on with martial pomp and pride,\n  And all the pageantries that gild the battle's crimson tide.\n  A forest of bright bayonets, like stars at midnight, gleam;\n  A hundred glittering standards flash above the silver stream.\n  We plunged into the Wilderness, and morning's early dawn\n  Disclosed our gallant army in line of battle drawn.\n  An early zephyr fresh and sweet breathed through the forest shade;\n  A thousand happy warblers, too, a pleasant music made;\n  And modest blossoms bathed in dew the morning light revealed:\n  Oh, who could deem those pleasant shades a savage foe concealed?\n  With lagging pace the morning hours dragged heavily away,\n  And yet we wait the coming strife, in battle's stern array.\n  A solemn stillness reigns around--but hark! a savage yell,\n  As if ten thousand angry fiends had burst the gates of hell,\n  Now thrills upon our startled ears. By heaven! the traitors come!\n  We see their gleaming banners, we hear the throbbing drum.\n  In solid ranks, their countless hordes from the dense woods emerge,\n  And roll upon our serried lines like ocean's angry surge.\n  Our ranks are silent--on each face the light of battle glows:\n  'Ready!' At once our polished tubes are levelled on our foes.\n  Now leaps a livid lightning up--from rank to rank it flies--\n  A fearful diapason rends the arches of the skies.\n  The wooded hills seem reeling before that fierce recoil;\n  With fire and smoke the valleys like Etna's craters boil:\n  From red volcanoes bursting, hissing, hurtling in the sky,\n  A thousand death-winged messengers like fiery meteors fly:\n  Within that seething vortex their shattered cohorts reel.\n  'Fix bayonets!' At once our lines bristle with burnished steel.\n  'Charge!' And our gallant regiments burst through the _feu d'enfer_.\n  Before their furious onset the rebel hosts give way;\n  And, surging backward, hide again within the forest's shade,\n  Whose mazes dark and intricate our charging columns stayed.\n\n  Now sinks the fiery orb of day, half hidden from our sight\n  Amid the sulphurous clouds of war dyed red in lurid light;\n  And soon the smoking Wilderness with gloom and darkness fills;\n  The dense, damp foliage on the sod a bloody dew distils.\n  Sleepless we rest upon our arms. Dim lights flit through the shade:\n  We hear the groans of dying men, the rattle of the spade.\n  And when the morning dawns at last, resounding from afar\n  We hear the crash of musketry, the rising din of war.\n  O comrades, comrades, rally round, close up your ranks again;\n  Weep not our brethren fallen upon the crimson plain;\n  For unborn ages shall their tombs with freshest laurels twine;\n  Their names in characters of light on history's page shall shine:\n  We all must die; but few may win a deathless prize of life--\n  Close up your ranks--again the foe renews the bloody strife.\n  Two days we struggled fiercely against our stubborn foes--\n  Two days from out the Wilderness the din of conflict rose.\n  But when the third aurora bathed the eastern sky in gold,\n  And to our soldiers' anxious gaze the field of death unrolled,\n  Lo! all was silent in our front. The rebel hosts had fled,\n  Abandoning in hasty flight their wounded and their dead.\n\n  Come, friends of freedom, gather round, loud shouts of triumph give:\n  The field of blood is won at last--let the republic live!\n  Our country, O our country, our hearts throb wild and high;\n  Your cause has triumphed. God be praised! Freedom shall never die.\n  Our eagle proudly soars to-day, his talons bathed in gore,\n  For treason's hydra head is crushed--its reign of terror o'er.\n  Wake, wake your shouts of triumph all through our mighty land,\n  From California's golden hills to proud Potomac's strand.\n  Atlantic's waves exulting Pacific's billows call,\n  And great Niagara's cataracts in louder thunders fall.\n  We've stayed the tempest black as night that on our country lowers,\n  And backward dashed its waves of blood. The victory is ours!\n\n  A light shines from the Wilderness--far up time's pathway streams--\n  Through death, and blood, and agony, on Calvary's cross it gleams;\n  It lights with radiance divine Mount Vernon's humble tomb,\n  And sparkles on Harmodius' sword bright flashing through the gloom.\n  Ho! slaves of yesterday, arise, now will your chains be riven.\n  Ho! tyrants, tremble, for behold a day of vengeance given.\n  Gaze on our banners stained with blood--think of your brethren slain;\n  Say, has not freedom, crushed to earth, sprung forth to life again?\n  Freedom, high freedom, friend of man, sheath not thy crimson steel;\n  Still let thy cannon thunder loud, still let thy trumpet peal;\n  Stay not the justice of thy wrath, stay not thy vengeful hand,\n  Till slavery and treason have been blotted from our land.\n\n\n\n\nTARDY TRUTHS.\n\n\nUnder the heading of 'Tardy Truths' _The New Nation_, of May 7th,\nrepublished a compendium of matter some time back given to the world by\nM. Emile de Girardin, in his paper _La Presse_, and in pamphlet form.\nThis matter purports to have been written by a so-called _ex-commandant_\nin the late Polish insurrection, a certain M. Fouquet, of Marseilles.\n\nPoland has no reason to fear truth. On the contrary, the difficulty has\nbeen to find means to set it forth, avenues to the public intelligence\nand sense of justice, whereby those might be reached who forget the\nLatin saying: _Audi et alteram partem_. The Poles are willing to hear\nreproaches, if such as may be profited by, or if the self-constituted\njudges be conscientious and unprejudiced.\n\nBut, may we not ask why it is that many of these _so-called_ truths,\nprofessedly founded upon personal acquaintance with Polish localities,\nmen, and institutions, spring from sources in many respects similar to\nthat of the recent publication in _La Presse_, from individuals who\nnever were in Poland beyond a few hours spent in Warsaw--who have seen\nnothing of the country, except as passing in a passenger car from Kracow\nto Mohilew, a distance of about seven hundred miles, traversed in about\ntwenty-four hours--who never understood one word of Polish, of Rossian,\nor of any of the cognate tongues--who have never conversed freely with\nthe inhabitants--who may have been entertained during a few hours by\nGovernment employes or by cautious and distrustful patriots--who were in\na hurry to see St. Petersburg and its _elephant_, and who learned Polish\nhistory in the Kremlin, in the saloons of some former prince from the\nAltay or the Caucasus, or, at best, in the work of M. Koydanoff?\n\n_La Presse_, in Paris, undertook the charge of saying things which her\nfranker sisters, _Le Nord_ and _La Nation_, the avowed organs of Rossian\nczarism, did not venture to propound. M. de Girardin, whose paper has,\nsince a certain period, taken a liberalistic, even socialistic,\ninfection, is a living example of sundry anomalous eccentricities, such\nas Alcibiades, Gracchus, Mirabeau, etc., who speak most liberally, and\nact in a contrary manner. He seems to have been adopted by Rossian\ndiplomatists, and those sanguine of Rossian _destiny_, as a most\nconvenient defender of czarish ambition--the more so that they found in\nhim a revealer of things never thought of by the czar; as for instance,\nliberality and even democracy in Great Rossia, on the plains of Okka and\nPetschora.\n\nWe might compare M. Fouquet's account of Poland with Neumann's account\nof Kosciusko, or Freneau's of Washington, but will content ourselves\nwith referring the reader to better European sources of knowledge, as\nthe _Breslau Zeitung_, _Ost Deutsche Zeitung_, _Czas_, _Wiek_, _La\nPologne_, etc.\n\nIndeed, it would not be worth our while to pay any attention to M.\nFouquet's allegations, had not the Paris letter of April 4th appeared in\nthe above-mentioned paper, and were it not likely to mislead many\nignorant of the facts.\n\nThe writer tells us that he has 'experienced a great temptation to tell\nwhat he has seen,' and to 'expose the result of experience acquired at\nhis own cost, with all attendant risk and danger.' Probably we do not\nunderstand the fear of the author of 'Tardy Truths,' and wish to give no\nextended explanation to his conclusion: 'A rare opportunity occurs at\n_present_, and he profits by it.' We have been taught that we must\nalways have courage to speak the truth. Surely no great amount of that\nnoble quality is required to make accusations in a paper far from the\nscene of action, and pronounce a verdict where there can be no adequate\ndefence, no judges, only the advantage of the fashion of the day, and\nthe craving for problematical benefits and friendship, to which we must\napply Moore's comparison:\n\n  'Like Dead Sea fruits, that tempt the eye,\n    But turn to ashes on the lips.'\n\nLet us never be deceived: a free nation in the embrace of absolutism\nmust, sooner or later, fall a prey to the cajoler's hypocrisy and greed.\n\nThe correspondent reports that the Polish Committee in Paris declined to\ngive him information or furnish means, and even said that they did not\nwish volunteers. All this may readily be explained by the consideration\nthat a man who thereafter proved to be so bitter an enemy was not\nsufficiently diplomatic to deceive even the obtuse perceptions of so\nundeserving a body as the author describes said committee. On the other\nhand, it would have been more prudent for the writer to have said less\non this topic, as such hesitation in accepting his services might induce\nthe reader to think that the Poles were not so anxious for external aid\nas he seemed to fancy. We also know that not only at present in Poland,\nbut in former ages, and in our own days, in the happiest of countries,\nthere can be no revolution, no war, which will not attract a host of men\ncovetous of rank or fortune. Lately, in Poland, by certain judicious\narrangements, this calamity has been prevented, to the great\ndissatisfaction of many.\n\nNo one can doubt or deny that the interest of various Governments, and\nthe sense of justice among nations, gave the Poles a right to expect\nforeign aid. The assurances of certain politicians and statesmen even\ngave _reasonable expectation_ of such a result. Such aid would of course\nneither be rejected nor treated with indifference. But the assertion\nthat the Poles relied _solely_ on such aid is (in the face of the\nmanifesto of January 22d and July 31st, 1863) either a proof of ill\nwill, or of entire ignorance of the resources upon which Poland was\nbound to rely, and which could not be intrusted to the discretion of\nevery volunteer or pretended well-wisher to the Polish nation.\n\nContinuing his imputations, the accuser says he only learned afterward\nwhy seven thousand Parisian workmen, registered at M. d'Harcourt's\ncommittee, 'were not sent forth.' The probable purport of this reproach\nis: 'They were not sent for fear of the introduction of liberal\nelements--and the _proletariat_--into Poland.' As to the latter, we may\nat once confidently answer that, were Poland free to-day, the condition\nof the laboring class in Western Europe need not be dreaded for a\nhundred years to come. As to the liberal element, does the author indeed\nthink that Poland has had no Liberalists similar to Voltaire, La\nMennais, Victor Hugo, L. Blanc, Mazzini, or Hertzen? Does he fancy that\nModzewski (in the sixteenth century), Skarga (a Catholic preacher in the\nseventeenth), Morsztyn, Jezierski, Andrew Zamoyski, Hugo Kollontay,\nLoyko (in the eighteenth), Staszye, Lelewel, Mochnacki, Ostrowski,\nCzynski, Mieroslawski, and a host of others, contented with the private\ngood they did, and forced to shun the jealous watchfulness of suspicious\nrulers--does he, we say, fancy that all these needed to be inspired by\nthe liberality of Parisian workmen, or even that all the aforesaid\nworkmen would apply themselves to the dissemination of liberal opinions?\nIt is indeed a great disadvantage to Polish Liberalists, philosophers,\nand poets, that they speak and write in a tongue unknown to the noble\nphilanthropists of the West. A greater amount of knowledge would have\nsaved hasty tourists, _veracious_ lecturers, and all-knowing\ndiplomatists many errors in statement and conception, and much aversion\ntoward a noble people, who, if vanquished, will not be crushed, and will\nalways reserve the _right_ of _protest_.\n\nAt all events, this last conclusion of our correspondent leads us to\nsuspect that he may perchance never have been in Poland--perhaps never\neven in Paris--since this _non-sending_ forth of seven thousand\nParisians was better understood by every _gamin du faubourg_ than\napparently by the _sincere_ narrator of 'Tardy Truths.'\n\nThe writer says further, that he expected to find in Kracow 'activity\nand infinite means.' Now, the author and the confidence of the Poles\nmust have been quite strangers to one another, or his imagination must\nhave misled him farther than was becoming in a man of knowledge and\nreflection. He does not mention the date of his journey, but we know\nabout the period referred to. It is true that at that time Kracow had\nnot yet been declared in a state of siege by M. Pouilly de Mensdorf,\nbut, as a personal friend of the Czar, he had then held Galicia and\nKracow during the past year under a more uncertain condition than even\nthe declaration of a state of siege would have produced. Twenty thousand\nchosen officers and soldiers, with discretionary and greatly enlarged\npowers, and almost as many policemen and spies, with early fed and\nincreasing covetousness for rewards, promotions, and orders, kept\nconstant watch over the ancient capital of Poland, the last remnant of\nPolish nationality which had been engulfed in the European peace of\n1846.\n\nWe may then safely assert that our author has given us sketches from his\nwhims and fancies, rather than the mature results of his judgment, and\nthat he has also neglected to direct his researches into the history of\nthe past. It is doubtless true that he was not desired as a volunteer,\nand that he found danger only, and not fortune, which, indeed, we think\nhis own sagacity might have taught him from the first.\n\nWe would be forced to doubt that any one understood the policy of the\nPolish Committee in Warsaw who should apply the epithet 'mercenary' to\nthe Polish soldiers. We would not ask our author how much he gave per\ndiem to those under his own command: we have no wish to rival the wit of\na Russian proclamation which appeared last winter in Warsaw, in which\nthe Poles in general, including those who fought at Orsza, Wielikie\nLuki, Kirchholm, Chocim, Smolensk, Vienna, Zurich, Hohenlinden,\nSamocierros, Pultusk, Grochow, Iganie, Zyzyny, Opatow, etc., etc., were\nstigmatized as poltroons and cowards!\n\nIt is certainly true that the battles of late have not represented a\nfile of twenty thousand men, but to call them on that account _frontier\ndemonstrations_, is to add subtle calumny to ungenerous irony; it is a\ndeviation even from the very 'tardy truths.' It is an assertion not made\nin an impartial spirit, but calculated in favor of, and determinately\nstated with the intention of sustaining those who are exerting\nthemselves to prove that Minsk, Grodno, Mohilew, Wolhynia, Podole,\nPlock, Augustow, Lithuania, Samogitia, Liefland, etc., were ancient\ndependencies of Russia, before she had herself an existence either in\nname or fact! If the originator of the term _frontier demonstrations_\nwould take the trouble to study the map, he would not be able to cherish\nthe delusion that his intelligent readers could believe that battles\nfought near Kowno, Oszmiana, Upita, Poniewiez, Lida, Ihumen, Dubno,\nPinsk, Mscislaw, etc., were really _frontier demonstrations_!\n\nThis declaration of the letter from Paris to America would not be of\nmuch service to _The Journal of St. Petersburg_ or _The Invalid_, of\nMoscow, or increase their exhilaration over the extermination of the\nPolish race, the destruction of Polish principles. There is nothing more\nnatural than that a rebuke to the _Siecle, Opinion Nationale, Patrie_,\nand perhaps even others, should follow such statements--their views\nundoubtedly stand in complete opposition to those held by M. de\nGirardin, and advocated in _La Presse_.\n\nThe assertion that the Polish National Government had no object in view\nbut to excite and await the intervention of France; that Galicia was the\nprincipal focus of the rebellion, and that the unknown Government had no\nactual existence, is, on the one hand, an unskilful attempt to justify\nthe Governments of Russia and Austria, and, on the other, by the\nignoring of all the reports of the Polish National Government--all its\nobvious facts, its printed documents, its acts everywhere known and\nseen, its seizures of papers and documents--and to portray it as a\nfraud, a myth, a dream of the imagination, a wild hallucination of a\ndisordered brain, it suggests to us the thought that the _tardy_ and\npresent truths here given us of Poland may perhaps have the same origin\nas that famous description in one of the St. Petersburg papers, of 'the\nat last truly discovered leader of the Polish insurrection,' which was\nbut a portraiture of a certain, not mentioned but easily guessed,\npersonage in Paris.\n\nWe have no reply to make to this reproach (we can only wonder that under\nthe circumstances they should ever have been made) that the Polish\nvolunteers were badly armed and illy managed--possibly they might have\nbeen better even in a partisan war. But as to the want of skill in the\nofficers, including such as Skarzynski, Bosak, Padlewski, we wonder that\nthe writer or his friend F. could not succeed in making their talents\nknown and valued, and become at least leaders among the blind. Of course\nhe had to contend with cross-eyed jealousy. Yet if, as a foreigner, and\na learned one too, he was, as he himself informs us, intimately admitted\ninto various chateaux, it seems almost impossible he should have had no\nopportunity to become major, colonel, or even general, since it is well\nknown, and every foreigner will bear witness to the fact, that in these\n_chateaux_ there has always been too much attention and too great\npreference shown to foreigners--a preference, however, in which the\nlower classes do not participate.\n\nAs to the easy chateau life led in Galicia, as in Russia, we have a\nremark to offer. In a country exposed during five or six centuries to\nincessant struggle against Asiatic craving for European allurements, or,\nto speak more definitely, after ninety-four Mongolian incursions, in\nwhich twenty millions of Polish people were carried off, and thousands\nof towns, bourgs, and villages were destroyed; after numberless wars,\nplunders, and devastations by Jazygs, Turks, Muscovites, Crusaders,\nWallachians, Transylvanians, Swedes, Brandenburgians, etc., etc.; after\na hundred years of the so-called _paternal_ spoliation of Russia,\nPrussia, and Austria--there could have been no opportunity, even under\nGraff Pouilly de Mensdorf, to build _comfortable_ chateaux on the\nmouldering ruins, or for the accumulation of means for an easy life\nunder the oppressions of an Austrian tariff, which exacted that goods\nmanufactured in Lemberg should be sent for inspection to the Vienna\ncustom house before being exposed to sale. There are, however, a few\nvery splendid chateaux, like oases in the Desert of Sahara; they can be\ncounted readily on one's fingers; among them few patriots; no\nconspirator, much less an insurgent or crippled invalid, ever called to\nask hospitality.\n\nThe calumny so often repeated, so urgently insisted upon, that the aim\nof the Polish insurrection was inconsistent, foolish, and wicked, might\nnot perhaps astonish the reader more than the report of the want of zeal\nand faith in the convictions of the Poles, a fact first revealed to the\nworld in 'Tardy Truths.' This warning with regard to the true character\nof the struggle on the shores of the Vistula might prove of service in\naiding the discrimination of the American people, and be useful in\nconfusing the judgment of the liberal men and newspapers, which, whether\nin Germany, Belgium, France, or England, are not too much inclined to\nfavor the cause of Polish independence; nay, it would spare France the\nuseless demonstration in the Chambers, made in consequence of the speech\nof November 5th. The late efforts of the Poles are also shown to have\nbeen inspired and incited by, and carried on for the benefit of, the\nCatholic clergy, stimulated by fanaticism against the liberal,\ncivilizing, enlightened, Rosso-Greek Church, a view which might and has\nproved very useful to modern lecturers and letter writers. The warning\ntherein given might also serve to degrade the Polish revolution to the\nlevel of some of the slave-holders' rebellion. Let us reflect but for\none single moment on the parallel attempted to be drawn, particularly in\nthe New York papers, after the unfortunate Mexican imbroglio and\nsubsequent visit of the Russian fleet, between things so utterly unlike.\nThe Poles fought for everything most dear to the heart of man, for every\nright which he can justly claim, for independence, national existence,\nthe right to use his own language, for the integrity of his\ncountry;--the States of the South had all these in full possession, nay,\neven the right to pass the law binding the North. These things might be\nshown to be essentially dissimilar in _every_ respect, but this short\nstatement is deemed sufficient to show the futility of the comparison.\n\nLet us now proceed to say a few words with regard to the plausible\narguments so generally set forth for the glorification of the Czar, in\nrespect to the emancipation of the Polish serfs. The Czar gave in 1864\nwhat had already been given by the Poles themselves in 1863; less the\nsoil, which indeed never belonged to him, but for which he exacts\npayment. Besides, he has confiscated, without regulations or laws, the\nincome from forests, rents, fields, and fisheries, belonging to old men,\nwomen, and children, whose only crime was that they had been born Poles,\nor whom it pleased the hungry throng of unscrupulous, greedy, and\nfanatical officials, unbounded in their zeal as in their power, to\ndenounce, accuse, or dislike. We could fully prove the fact that the\ngreater part of the peasants are now forced by bayonets to work for the\nexacted pay, and most of them venture to doubt entirely the propriety of\nthe pretended Russian gift. This one circumstance makes this gift in the\ngreater part of Poland and even, of Russia more burdensome than the old\nstate of regulated labor; for how is a peasant to procure money in\nprovinces distant from markets, rivers, and towns? Under what conditions\nwould it be possible to obtain it? And even in cases where the peasant\nmay be able to make a sale, the value received for eight bushels of\npotatoes will not be sufficient to buy him a common axe. How many\ncalves, cows, sheep, horses, and hogs are brought back from market from\nthe impossibility of finding purchasers, even at the lowest prices? Now,\nby the decree of January 22d, the Polish National Government gave\nfreedom, and land relieved from all claims, thus executing what was in\naccordance with the spirit and wishes of the Poles, without losing sight\nof the difficulties to be encountered. It was their imperative duty to\nsatisfy and adjust the exigencies of the national political economy.\nFortunately, it was found possible to harmonize the requirements of the\ncountry with the personal interests of the proprietors. The amount of\nland held by them was in general so large, that even after endowing the\npeasant with the allotted portion, considerable would still remain in\ntheir hands. Diminished in extent and value during the transitional\nphase, the remaining land would necessarily rise rapidly in value,\nbecause the emancipated peasant _would_ now _have_ the right to own and\nbuy land. The calculation might be sustained that it would quintuple in\nvalue in the course of fifty years. Small farms from their possessions\nwould soon be in the market, farms within the range of small purses and\nlimited means, and the proprietors did not fail to see the advantage\nwhich would accrue to them in the almost unlimited increase of\npurchasers which would soon be found among the enfranchised laborers.\nThe peasants gained freedom, land, and many advantages, nor were the\nproprietors ruined in their advancement. Hence the National Government\neffected what the Rossian never intended to do or ever will achieve:\ngain and loss were equalized in the national duty of sustaining the\ncountry in its progressive course, stimulating all to labor\nsimultaneously to support its public burdens, to aid in the general\nadvancement. The real freedom thus gained, in accordance with the\nfar-sighted policy of the Polish National Government, opened wide the\ndoor to liberty, trade, commerce, and exchange; a policy which czarism,\neven in its most liberal mood, can never admit, because it would condemn\nitself, and give the death blow to its own existence. There is another\nspecialty peculiar to the Rossian Government, never forgotten by those\nwho live under its rule, viz.: the late emancipation was begun about\nthree years ago by an ukase of no very decided purport, which was\nfollowed by many others of like uncertain character, according with the\nvarying views of those by whom they were dictated, by the partisans of\nemancipation or by those standing in opposition to it. These ukases are\nranged in their appropriate numerical titles, and there are at least\nfive hundred thousand of them--whether imperial or senatorial, all\nlegally binding. What memory could stand such a burden, or what might\nlegal cavil not find therein?\n\nIt is an easy thing to 'speak for Buncombe,' as we say in America; it is\nan easy thing to proclaim measures when we take no thought of how they\nmay be carried out; it is easy to excite the enthusiasm of the popular\nlecturer, always in search of novelty with which to feed his hearers; it\nmay be pleasant to furnish venom to wounded self-esteem or disappointed\nand petty ambition--but it will be found an exceedingly difficult task\nto reconcile absolutism with freedom, czarism with liberalism, the\ndivision of men into appointed castes and classes with the existence of\nliberty and political equality. We are assured, not only by the writer\nof the letter in question, but by the sages of New York, that the Polish\npeasants were not willing to fight for Poland, that they called their\ncountrymen now in arms against Rossia 'dogs of nobles,' and 'that it was\nreally their duty to rise against and denounce their former _masters_ to\nRossia and Austria!'\n\nIf these assertions are true, who then filled the ranks of the Polish\ninsurgents? Who furnished food to those who lived for months in the\ndepths of forests, the haunts of mountain gorges? How was it possible\nthat without the connivance of the peasants the insurgents should pass\nto and fro, or lie hidden in woods and fields? It was stated\nauthoritatively that the insurgents, were composed principally of\nHungarian refugees, about ten Frenchmen, a few strangers from other\nnations, but of the number of the lesser nobility, men, in short, in\nsearch of shelter and fortune. A strange fortune, a marvellous shelter\nindeed to reward the greed of the ambitious--exile, death, and torture!\nWere the testimony of such witnesses to be relied upon, we might well\nexclaim: 'Truth is indeed stranger than fiction.' Yet how is it that we\nfind among the seven hundred patriots who were hung so many Poles, less\nthan a half of whom were Catholics, many of whom were Jews, Protestants,\nand even Rosso-Greeks of various classes? Among the forty thousand known\ndeported, torn ruthlessly away from their native homes for centuries, we\nfind nearly five thousand Israelites, ten thousand peasants (known), and\nfrom four to six thousand of Greek and other creeds. The two villages\nnear Lida, two in the government of Grodno, the hundreds of villages and\nthousands of huts near Dwina, Rzezyca, Mohilew, Witebsk, burned, razed\nto the ground by an excited and hired rabble of Muscovite Muziks, who\nhad sought and found hospitality in Poland for hundreds of\nyears--certainly all these villages and huts were not inhabited even by\nthe 'lesser nobility.' And it is also certain that the dwellers were not\nso cruelly punished for denouncing the 'dogs of nobles'--an expression,\nif we are not mistaken, taken from the vocabulary of the corporal or\nsubaltern officials, and which has never reached the fourteenth\nclass--from which the Rossian begins to reckon humanity.\n\nThe allegation of the existence of unrooted feudalism in Poland, because\nsuch a system was known to the whole of Middle Europe, must be accounted\nfor by the evident ignorance of Polish history; and we assure both\nteachers and readers, notwithstanding the evident wish to find it in\nPoland, that it was unknown to her, nor could it subsist in the presence\nof Polish institutions, habits, customs, and geography.\n\nWe can scarcely suppose it possible that our author means to insinuate\nthat thousands of noble families bought and transported arms for the\npurpose of speculation. Notwithstanding the evidence he had of one such\nbad business transaction for the purpose of sustaining and upholding the\ninsurrection, his frequent intimations of the incorrigible and unruly\ncharacter of the few Poles left, would almost authorize us in believing\nthat such was the intention of the writer when speaking of the aforesaid\narms.\n\nOh, in the name of common sense, for the sake of the men whose country\nhas been torn from them, who may not speak their mothers' tongue in the\nland of their fathers, who are forbidden to worship in accordance with\nthe dictates of their conscience, whose sacred homes are desecrated by\nthe presence of privileged spies, who cannot sit down in peace in the\nholy quiet of evening, because they know that the morrow may see them\ndragged off to unknown and inaccessible dungeons, or summoned before\nbrutal judges without defenders, where they will find accusers, but will\nbe allowed to cite no witnesses; subjected to witness the horrible\nanxiety endured every spring and fall by Polish fathers and mothers lest\nthe sons of their love should be unexpectedly seized in the night and\nhurried off over the Caucasus, the Ural, or to the mouth of the Amour,\nto serve in the army of the oppressor for life, or longer than home\nmemories in such young bosoms could be expected to last, with no\nprospect of reward save such as may be reckoned in the number of\n_palkis_ and _pletnis_ (whips and lashes); sons, whether rich or poor,\nto be exposed to cavil, cunning, and vindictiveness, to the practices of\ngambling judges and a profligate soldiery, to a venal police, to\nfraudulent employes, themselves badly paid for service, but whose\nextortions and abuses always meet with approval, a single complaint\nagainst whom would expose the complainant to be sent through that\nhopeless gate always open on the route to Siberia;--oh, for the sake of\ncommon humanity, say not that men placed in such situations have, in\nspite of their glorious history, no rights, no claims on human sympathy,\nno cause to sacrifice life even when it has become a haunting horror!\n\nBelieve not that such complaints are inventions: the facts are known to\neverybody who will look upon them. They are no slanderous stories, but\noccurrences renewed with every morning, taking place under all\ncircumstances and with every transaction patent to the world. They were\nappreciated and described in Prussia, and even in Austria verified, not\nlong before the last campaign. Under such circumstances, what must be\nthought of the discoveries and conclusions of writers who assert that\n'the Polish nation is a mere chimera'? As no individual, mighty as he\nmay be, can by a blasphemous word suppress the existence of the Eternal\nFather, so neither passion nor love, favor nor animosity, interest nor\npurpose of the most talented or ambitious, can erase at pleasure a\nnationality which has a history of over a thousand years of existence, a\nnationality proved by the last hundred years of incessant struggle for\nindependence with three giants. This nation has marked its boundaries\nwith graveyards toward the Dniester, Dnieper, Niemen, and Dwina, where\nrest the beaten hordes of Batu or Nogays. Can the record be erased of\nthe power that broke the sword of the Osmanlis, and was it a _chimera_\nthat preserved Western Europe from such sights as Polowce and\nPietschiniegs, etc.? You may perhaps to-day designate as a _chimera_ the\nVienna saved in 1683, that very Vienna which in 1815 first conceived the\nidea of sowing the seeds of distrust between Galicians and\nLodomerians--an idea soon after adopted, perfected, and publicly\npropagated by Rossians, who applied the practice to Lithuanians,\nVolhynians, Podolans, Polans, Radymicians, etc.--an idea now held in the\nfierce grasp of Muraview, Anienkow, and probably at no very distant\nperiod to be recalled to the mind of the originator.\n\nThe gentleman's knowledge of Russians (the true name is Rossians, the\nother being assumed to effect a certain purpose in Western Europe),\nPrussians, and Austrians, to the exclusion of Poles, proves only that\nhis geographic and ethnographic researches in Poland went no farther\nthan those of the 'reliable gentleman' who described the Bunker Hill\nmonument under President Lafayette.\n\nIn addition to the above, let us consult simply the sound of the names\nof places, and we can form some idea of the extent of races and\nnationalities. Nowgorod, Kaluga, Pskow--are _Rossian_; Telsze, Szawle,\nRosienie--_Lithuanian_; Winszpilis, Gielgawa, Libosie--_Courland_;\nLublin, Ostrolenka, Plock--_Polish_; Wlodrimirz, Zytomirz,\nBerdyczev--_Volhynian_. In Austria, are the inhabitants of Venice,\nPrague, and Buda, Austrian? The name of Prussia is an old one of\nSlavonians living at the mouth of the Vistula, and has no etymology in\nthe Teutonic language. Those of Galicia and Lodomeria are unskilfully\ndisfigured from Halitsh (Halicz) and Wlodzimir. The name of Prussia was\nassumed by Frederic II., margrave of Brandenburg, when he took the title\nof king, at the same time giving solemn oaths never to pretend to the\nsovereignty of Dantzick (Gdansk), Thorn (Torun), etc.\n\nThe present empire of Alexander is not of _Russia_, but of _Rossia_, and\nthe name of Russia is imposed on Polans near Kiow, on Radymicians near\nNowogrodek, on Drewlans south of the river Pripec, etc.; and we must\nremember that Catharine II., in 1764, had solemnly declared by her\nambassadors, Kayserling and Repnin, that she had no right to Russias or\nRuthenias in Poland: 'Declaramus suam Imperatoriam Majestatem Dominam\nnostram clementissimam ex usu _tituli totius Rossiae_, nec sibi, nec\nsuccessoribus suis neque Imperio suo _jus ullum_ in ditiones et terrae\nquae _sub nomine Russiae_ a Regno Poloniae magnoque ducatu Lithuaniae\npossiduntur,' etc.\n\nThe prediction of the reestablishment of serfdom as a result aimed at in\nthe present Polish struggle, is not only rash but preposterous, and has\nno foundation except in a fixed purpose to direct all sympathy toward\nRossia.\n\nThe true bondage that tied man in Poland to the soil, began with the\nintroduction of police, passports, censors or _skaski_, recruiting,\nconscription, and taxation, introduced by Prussia, Austria, and Rossia,\nas so-called _improvements_. Poland had more free peasants, called\nZiemianin, Kmiec, Kozak, than there were in France during the _regime_\nof the Gabeles or Leibeigenschaft in Germany. That they entirely\ndisappeared after the fall of Poland was surely not her fault. The\npeasants on the estates attached to the clergy of all denominations, to\npublic schools, to the crown, and to the nation, were in a much better\ncondition, materially and morally, than are at present those in some\nparts of Hainault and Thuringen. Individual abuses by an unconscientious\nlord were to be seen as well in Connaught as near Debretschyn, near the\nSaone as on the Necker. Times--contemporary with independent Poland, and\nhence not very far back--beheld these sins against humanity committed on\na larger scale, and in lands in otherwise happier conditions. The phrase\n_bonded labor_ is known under the best institutions. But this excuses no\none. Poland, without any compulsive cause, in 1764 and 1768, took these\nquestions into consideration; in 1791, was even more explicit; and in\n1792, Kosciuszko distinctly settled the condition of the Polish peasant,\nand that without opposition from the Polish nobility--a measure\nimmediately overruled and suppressed by Prussia and Rossia, both\naccusing Poland of being a _dangerous_ nest of Jacobinism. In 1807, in\nthe grand duchy of Warsaw, after it was retaken from Prussia, the\ncondition of the peasantry was far more clear and protected than even\nnow promised by the Czar Alexander II., and was probably better\npreserved than it can be under the crowd of employes and magistrates,\nnominally elected by the peasants, but in fact imported from Saratow,\nKazan, Penza, etc., for the purpose of teaching liberty and Siberian\ncivilization in Warsaw and Wilna.\n\nCommon sense and the ordinary rules of logic force upon us the\nconviction that writings of the above stamp are gotten up to produce\ncertain effects. Can any be found simple enough to believe that a whole\npeople would be aroused, armed, and taught to what end and how to use\nthe given arms, as was done by the manifesto of the Polish National\nGovernment, January 22d, 1863, only to be deceived and in the end\ndeprived of that for which they had fought? By what right can bad faith\nbe imputed to land owners whom experience, a sense of justice, and even\ninterest, had already impelled to get rid of a useless and burdensome\nrelation? These land owners, even under the Rossian Government (in\n1818), had solemnly begged the uncle of the present czar, Alexander I.,\nto allow them to be freed from the onerous responsibilities caused by\nserfdom under Rossian surveillance and severity.\n\nThe letter from Paris further states, on what authority we know not,\nthat the condition of the peasant or serf in Poland was dreadful until\nthe seventeenth century. This is going very far back, and probably at\nthat period, if facts could be found to sustain the writer's allegation,\nthe condition of bondmen--_vilains regardants_--boors, _Lebeigenschaft_,\n_manans_, etc., was not better elsewhere. But here again we must differ\nin opinion, and beg leave to state, not only to the author of the\nletter, but to all other self-constituted authorities, whose knowledge\nof Poland is derived from _The London Times_, _Chambers's Magazine_, M.\nHilperding, Kattow, or M. Morny, etc., that, with all due respect to\ntheir social positions, we must deny them the title of well-informed\nhistorians and profound judges of Poland and the Slavonic races. Up to\nthe seventeenth century, the peasantry (Kmiec, Ziemiamin) had its\n_representatives in the diet_, and could find entrance into the ranks of\nthe nobility, which had no divisions into classes or titular\ndistinctions. Said nobility had the right to serve their country during\nwar, and a peasant providing himself with a horse and suitable arms, was\nnot excluded from that class. They could also take orders among the\nclergy, and hence rise to high dignities in the church. Public schools\nin Poland were never shut to the peasants, nor were any distinctions\ntherein authorized in favor of one or other class of pupils. In schools\nthen they enjoyed all privileges in common, and these were great--a\nseparate jurisdiction, and the facilities of reaching higher ranks.\nKromer, Janicki, Poniatowski, great names in Polish history, can show no\nother origin than one nearer to the Ziemianin than to any other class.\n\nIf the current of fashion did not warp all judgments in favor of Rossia,\nthe writers of 'Tardy Truths' from Paris and elsewhere would have\nreflected a little longer, and would soon have discovered that the\nignorance and poverty of the Polish peasantry were not due solely to the\nPoles themselves. Polish schools were formerly all completely free, and\neach school even had funds for the poor, called _purses_, foundations,\netc. Rossia, in the last fifty years, charged as high as $625 for\ninscription alone in the higher classes, and about $25 for elementary\nbeginners. How could a poor family rise in prosperity if this school was\noften the first cause of losing the favorite son; if they did send the\nchild to school they might lose him as a recruit for the army or navy,\nas designated by the whim of the treacherous teacher and recruiting\nofficer; and this did not exempt from public burdens, as they were still\nobliged to pay taxes for him during ten years, and contribute to all\npublic services, as stations (stoyki), wagons and teams (rozgony),\nrepairing and making public and private roads, extra post service,\nbesides innumerable services imposed for his own personal benefit by a\nspravnik, straptschy, zasiedatel, sotnik, etc. Add to this the thwarting\nof intercourse and commerce by every imaginable means under the system\nof the famous M. Kankrin.\n\nCould the peasant or the master become wealthy when a measure called _a\nton_, weighing about eight hundred and forty pounds, of wheat brought\nthe enormous sum of $4.25? a load of hay, drawn by one horse,\nseventy-five cents when well paid, and _nothing_ when wanted by ulans or\nhussars garrisoned in the neighborhood? A hen, with a dozen and a half\nwell-grown chickens, hardly brought enough to pay the value of the\ncommonest apron.\n\nSuch things as these were never known in ancient Poland, now so\nunanimously accused and condemned by fashionable philanthropy. Even\neighty years ago such abuses would have been vainly looked for. We\nremember, in our younger days, when conversing with an old sowietnik\n(counsellor), to have heard him relate his bewildered astonishment at\nthe comfort and well-being in Poland when sent under an escort of\nCossacks to introduce Rossian _improvements_. 'What has become of them?'\nwe asked innocently. 'Ha!' was his naive reply; 'St. Petersburg has\nsince then grown into a splendid city!'\n\nLet us call the attention of Russo-maniacs to the fact that eighty years\nago, soon after the second partition of Poland, flax in Riga brought\neight hundred and seventy florins, while in 1845 it hardly brought two\nhundred and forty florins; and the famous wheat of Sandomir sold, at the\nfirst-named period, at sixty, while in 1856 it brought barely\nthirty-five. Yet money now is cheaper than before 1800.\n\nDid the Polish nobleman, selfish and wicked as now seems the fashion to\ndescribe him, force the peasant of Samogitia to servile work, when the\nlatter had an opportunity of drawing a good profit from the results of\nhis labor in the neighboring marts of Memel, Liban, Riga, Mittau,\nVenden, etc.? No, must we answer to our readers. _There_ might have been\nseen a boor's wife dressed in sky blue lined with fox fur, and drawn to\nchurch in a comfortable kolaska, by two excellent, plump, Samogitian\nponies; and neither did the father of the family exhaust his strength in\nnight watches or day labor, as he had twenty teams to dispose of, and\ncould offer to an unexpected visitor a broiled chicken with milk sauce,\nand a couple of bottles of brown stout from Barclay, Perkins & Co., of\nLondon. Such prosperity, although then declining, was still to be found\nin 1830. Why does it not exist to-day? Let this question be answered by\ncivilizers and democrats from Tambow, Saratow, or Penza, and their\njealous apologists.\n\nOur writer seems to think he has made a wonderful discovery when he\nexultingly exclaims: 'How surprised these pretended _liberals_ would be\nto see that their efforts only tend toward reconstituting a monarchical\nPoland (was Poland really monarchical?--we may doubt) under the\nprotection of a _feudal_ and Catholic Church!' Such charges were also\nmade in the eighteenth century, and were suggested by similar motives. I\ndo not feel called upon to defend the Catholics of Poland. I would\nsimply retort upon the authors of such suggestions, by referring to\ncertain distinguished rabbis, as Heilprin, Meintzel, Jastrow, etc.; to\nProtestants, as Konarski, Potworowski, Kasaius, Krolikowski, Czynski,\nand hosts of others; and also to Mohammedans, as Baranowski, Mucha,\nBielak, etc. I cannot condemn a man because he is a Catholic, because I\nhave everywhere, and in every religious community, found both patriots\nand traitors to their country, to their origin, to principle, and to\ntheir religion. But this I must say, that of whatever denomination or\nsect be the minister or priest, he has a right to be a faithful son to\nhis fatherland and race. It happened that in Poland the Catholic priest\nstood opposed to the Rossian pope. If the latter can be a Rossian\npatriot, why should a like sentiment render guilty a Polish priest? This\nanimosity in certain circles proceeds from a partiality to the\nRosso-Greek Church, which, some years ago, during the visit of the\nemperor Nicholas to England, certain ignorant or du. By way of\nparenthesis, we may add that the Rosso-Greek Church separated long ago\nfrom the Eastern Greek Church, preserving, however, all its outward\nforms. Peter I. abolished the patriarchate, introduced his own classes\nand reforms, and made himself head of the church. He gave the name of\nsynod to a permanent council, nominated, appointed, dismissed,\ncontrolled, rewarded, and punished by himself, according to his own\njudgment, passion, or will. The Graeco-Rossian Church is kept under the\nsame discipline as the army, and an offending pope is sent, with the\nrank of private, to some remote regiment.\n\nThe author of the letter from Paris somewhat contradictorily asserts\nthat the women, being superior in Poland, govern the men, but are\nthemselves governed entirely by the priests. This scarcely tallies with\nstrict logic; but, for the sake of truth and of a just respect for our\nmothers, who taught us to love our country and freedom, who gave us\nstrength in exile, and faith through persecution, and who instructed us\nhow to think, and inspired us with those noble sentiments, seemingly\ndenied to the mothers of the 'fashionable civilization' (of St.\nPetersburg), among whom there is not one lady writer--we will thank this\nwriter for the refutation offered by him to an impudent slander,\nemanating from a contributor to _Chambers' Magazine_, of January last.\nWe repeat that we thank him for his just tribute to Polish women,\nhowever inimical he may be to the Polish cause, and however much he may\ndepreciate our sex. Yet it seems strange that, while accusing Polish\nwomen of being entirely under the control of the priests, and hence to\nhave been chiefly instrumental in fomenting the last insurrection, the\nauthor did not notice, or is purposely silent regarding, a fact which,\nas he appears to have been longer in a Galician chateau than elsewhere,\nmust have fallen under his notice, namely, that in Galicia, the Polish\npriest was the _most decided opponent_ to any insurrection. How, then,\ncould the active Polish women-patriots be instruments of the action\ncondemned by the apologists of the absolute government of Rossia?\n\nThe admonition to France, on the ground that, after the revolution of\n1789, she is committing a contradictory error by showing sympathy toward\na revolution gotten up by priests, is but a consequence of the first\njudgment, and we may leave to France and her sense of her own interests\nto do what she may think right and profitable. We will simply mention\nthat, for French glory, and for this error, as the author calls it, two\nhundred thousand Poles were slain in Egypt, Italy, San Domingo, Spain,\nGermany, Holland, and on the plains of Mozajsk, Kraslaw, Boryssow,\nEylau, Friedland, etc. The monument seen from the balcony of the\nTuileries has the names upon it, which we scarcely can suppose to have\nbeen inscribed for the sole purpose of filling space.\n\nThe friends of Poland believe that they serve the cause of progress by\naiding in the reestablishment of the Polish nation. We presume there are\nplenty of men in France who know that during the last thirty years\nRossia has spread her dominion in Asia over twice the area of Germany\nand France together, that she is only eighty miles from Peking, and as\nfar from India as Vienna is from the Black Sea. Moreover, Asiatic\npeople, always dreaming of plunder in Europe, once armed with European\nMinie rifles and rifled cannon, may repeat anew the incursions of\nAttila, Tamerlane, Battu, etc. The end to be gained and the booty will\ncreate the temptation, and offer superior inducements.\n\nThe effort to palliate Rossian cruelty, skilful as it is, by the alleged\nnecessities of war, by denials, or by asserting it to be mere revenge\nfor similar atrocities committed by Poles, must be appreciated according\nto the sources whence it emanates. What the letter writer or similar\ntwelve-hour visitors saw in Poland, particularly in Kracow, of people\nsharpening knives or preparing deadly poisons, need here be merely\nreferred to by saying that in times of general confusion we have no\nmeans to foresee or to control personal revenge, and also that we will\nnot here cite the reports of Polish papers or accounts of Germans. We\nwill take our data from the Moscow _Invalid_, the czar's _Universal\nJournal_ at Warsaw, and the _Journal de Petersbourg_. From these we find\nit stated that the number of men hanged in three hundred and sixty-five\ndays of insurrection was eight hundred and fifty, besides many others\nwhose names were not given because it was simpler and more profitable to\nignore their origin, class, and religion.\n\nFrom Kiow alone Anienkow sent away fourteen thousand men, chiefly of\nGreek or other non-Roman-Catholic religion, over whom the Catholic\npriest had neither control or influence. From Warsaw, every Saturday\nduring fifty-two weeks, an average of four hundred men, women, and\nchildren were deported, all separated from their natural guides and\nprotectors. From Liefland, north of the Dwina, were sent off, in one\nmonth, thirty-five hundred of the better educated and comfortable class\nof people. A Government paper rejoices that Polish and Catholic\nprinciples, growing there during five centuries, were in a fair way of\nextinction, since, as it itself admits, forty-five thousand men had been\ntransferred to the governments of Samara, Orenburg, Kazan, and similar\nlocalities. To burn the villages of Ibanie, Szarki, Hrodki, Smoloy,\nZabolocie, etc., to destroy the furniture, horses, cattle, and all other\nproperty, to send the inhabitants on foot, only allowing for the aged\nand young children a few small wagons, far away into a cold, strange,\nsavage country, without tools, means, etc.--was all this done merely as\na military necessity, and was it excusable, or, at most, merely\n_blamable_?\n\nNow, certain correspondents and lecturers, with other gentlemen, deny\nthe use of the lash or whip on the backs of women and ladies, because\nthe American people cannot countenance such barbarism. To say the least\nof such a denial--it is gratuitous. Austria daily publishes similar\njudgments as the result of police court trials. In Rossia, they are not\npublished, because the administration of lash, whip, and scourge is left\nto the _paternal_ discretion of every sergeant, lieutenant, police\ncommissary, and district constable, and is enjoyed by them to their\nhearts' content. It is the method employed for ages by Rossia, and\nconsidered as an indispensable appendage to patriarchal czarism and its\nlieutenants. We cannot wonder at such denials, for their authors have\nordinarily been brought up under a better state of things, and never\nlearned in their youth the possibility of resort to such practices: the\nless also can we wonder when we know that they met only similar denials\nin the higher Rossian society, and when we consider that such denials\ncame from a source one is naturally inclined to respect, when the man\ndenying seems respectable. How can we fancy a lie told by a gentleman in\ngolden uniform, or a lady in a lace dress? But if the defenders of the\ncivilization of Rossia and of the noble manners of its aristocracy knew\nall the cruel judgments of Rossian masters, the lewdness, recklessness,\nindecency, and shallowness often concealed beneath their artificial good\nbreeding and apparent courtesy, they would learn that laces may cover\ncoarse tissues, and gold hide corroded brass. The gaudy dress and\nuniform serve but to permit more daring deeds; the more they glitter,\nthe more impunity they confer. Under every Government, and more\nespecially under a despotism, subaltern officers may be sure of impunity\nto abuse, provided it is done under the guise of zeal and devotion.\n\nDuring the past year we have heard and read in lectures, newspapers,\ncorrespondences, etc., many flattering statements of the beauty of the\nRossian Government, and the czar's liberality--and as many accusations\nand imputations detrimental to the Polish cause. Why the same views were\nnot held and advocated during the Crimean war we will not ask, but\nmerely hint at. These statements come from organs whose purpose is\nreadily divined. If we turn to the paper that has opened its columns to\nthe Paris letter, we find close at hand the advertisement and\nrecommendation of a programme for our own great country, and the\npointing out of a new Garibaldi for the American Union. Now, neither\nsaid platform nor Garibaldi would be consistent with the condemnation,\nirony, and ridicule flung upon the champions for one thousand years of\nthe growing progress, prosperity, and Christianity of Western Europe.\n\nWe of this generation are grown fixedly into our ancient habits of\nthought, and now can make no change; but our successors, perchance, may\npossibly be reduced to undersign the manifesto of Rossian Liberalism,\npublished about a year ago in Moscow, and, in return for false promises\nand deceptions, consent to make common cause against Germany and the\nwhole of Western Europe. What _American_ liberties would gain by such an\neventuality, is not for us, nor for to-day, to say.\n\n\n\n\nAPHORISMS.--NO. XI.\n\n\n'A man who has no wants has attained great freedom, and firmness, and\neven dignity.'--BURKE.\n\n'Mad wants and mean endeavors,' as Carlyle expresses it, 'are among the\nsignal characteristics and great follies of our nature.'\n\nBut how can we attain to the freedom, firmness, and dignity of having no\nwants? Answer: By learning what our real necessities are, and limiting\nour sense of want by such knowledge. Otherwise there is little hope for\nus; for, as soon as we admit imaginary and factitious needs, we become\nthe slaves of mere fancy, the sport of mere human opinion, and devoid of\nall true dignity.\n\nHow sublime, as compared with the ordinary condition of men, is the\npossibility suggested by Burke! _Freedom_, instead of such slavery as\nthe love of pleasure occasions, or such as ambition entails upon men!\n_Firmness_, such as he has who does not feel compelled to ask how his\nconduct may affect the supply of his wants from day to day! _Dignity_,\nsuch as we see in every man who studies the great interests of his\nbeing, regardless of any harm that may thereby accrue to his earthly\nestate! So free, and firm, and dignified may each be that will.\n\nBut no such good is possible for men who allow their sense of want to be\nruled by the common opinions of men. If the good at which we aim can be\nsecured only by the possession of this world's favors, as they are\ndispensed by the wealthy or the powerful, or the suffrages of the\nmultitude (votes for office, and the like), then each one becomes the\nservant of his fellow men--a servant just as really as if he were hired\nto perform any menial office. The party politician, for example, is just\nas fully bound by the will of others as a coachman or foot servant. For\nhim neither freedom, firmness, or dignity is possible. He can do only as\nothers bid him: he can resist no solicitations to evil on the part of\nthose whom he would make his constituents: he has no dignity above that\nof a tool, in the hands, it may be, of a very unworthy master.\n\nSo in all cases where we allow ourselves to be dependent in such form\nand measure that in order to compass our own ends we must look to the\nwill and behests of others.\n\n\n\n\nAN ARMY: ITS ORGANIZATION AND MOVEMENTS.\n\n_THIRD PAPER._\n\n\nCavalry! At this word whose mind does not involuntarily recall pictures\nof mailed knights rushing upon each other with levelled lances, and of\nthe charging squadrons of Austerlitz, of Jena, of Marengo, of the\nPeninsula, and of Waterloo? Whose blood is not stirred with a throng of\nmemories connected with the noble achievements of the war horse and his\nrider? Who does not imagine a panorama of all that is gay and glorious\nin warfare--prancing coursers, gilded trappings, burnished sabres,\nwaving pennons, and glittering helmets--rank after rank of gallant\nriders--anon the blast of bugles, the drawing of sabres, the mighty\nrushing of a thousand steeds, the clash of steel, the shout, the\nvictory? The chief romance of war attaches itself to the deeds\naccomplished by the assistance of the power and endurance of man's\nnoblest servant. Every one has read so much poetry about valiant youths,\nmounted on fiery yet docile steeds, doing deeds of miraculous prowess in\nthe ranks of their enemies--our literature is so full of tapestried\nrepresentations of knightly retinues and charging squadrons--the\ntowering form of Murat is so conspicuous in the narratives of the\nNapoleonic wars--and history has so often repeated the deeds of those\nhorsemen who performed such illustrious feats in the combats of half a\ncentury ago, that we associate with the cavalry only ideas of splendor\nand glory, of wild freedom and dashing gallantry. But the cavalry\nservice is far different from such vague and fanciful imaginations.\nInstead of ease, there is constant labor; instead of freedom, there is a\ndifficult system of discipline and tactics; and instead of frequent\nopportunities for glorious charges, there is a constant routine of\ntoilsome duty in scouting and picketing, with rarely an opportunity for\nassisting prominently in the decision of a great battle, or of winning\nrenown in overthrowing the ranks of an enemy by the impetuous rush of a\nmass of horses against serried bayonets.\n\nIn many respects cavalry is the most difficult branch of military\nservice to maintain and to operate. It is exceedingly costly, on account\nof the great loss of horses by the carelessness of the men, by overwork,\nby disease, and by the fatalities of battle. The report of General\nHalleck, for the year 1863, stated that from May to October there were\nfrom ten thousand to fourteen thousand cavalry in the Army of the\nPotomac, while the number of horses furnished them for the same period\nwas thirty-five thousand; adding to these the horses taken by capture\nand used for mounting men, the number would be sufficient to give each\nman a horse every _two months_. There were two hundred and twenty-three\nregiments of cavalry in the service, which, at the same rate, would\nrequire four hundred and thirty-five thousand horses. This is an immense\nexpenditure of animals, and is attributable in part to the peculiarities\nof the volunteer service--such as the lack of care and knowledge on the\npart of the officers, and the disposition of the men to break down their\nhorses by improper riding, and sometimes out of mere wantonness, for the\npurpose of getting rid of animals they do not like, for the chance of\nobtaining better. A measure has recently been adopted to remedy these\nevils, by putting into the infantry cavalry officers and men who show\nthemselves incompetent to take proper care of their animals, and who\nneglect other essentials of cavalry service. The provision and\ntransportation of forage for cavalry horses also constitute items of\ngreat cost.\n\nTo attain proficiency and effectiveness, cavalry soldiers require much\nlonger instruction than those of any other arm. They must become expert\nswordsmen, and acquire such skill in equitation that horse and rider\nshall resemble the mythical centaurs of the ancients--shall be only one\nindividual in will. The horses should be as thoroughly trained as the\nriders. In European armies this is accomplished in training schools. The\nGovernments keep constantly on hand large supplies of animals, partly\npurchased and partly produced in public stables, and capable instructors\nare continually employed in fitting both men and horses for their\nduties.\n\nTo insure the provision of proper horses and to recuperate those which\nare sent from the army disabled or sick, an immense cavalry depot has\nbeen established at Giesboro', near Washington. Thousands of horses are\nkept there ready for service, and as fast as men in the army are\ndismounted by the loss of their animals, they are sent to this depot. It\nis one of the most useful and best-arranged affairs connected with our\nservice, and has greatly assisted in diminishing the expense attending\nthe provision of animals, and in increasing the efficiency of our\ncavalry.\n\nWe have had all the difficulties to contend with resulting from\ninexperienced riders and untrained horses. No one who has not beheld the\nscene, can imagine the awkward appearance of a troop of recruits mounted\non horses unaccustomed to the saddle. The sight is one of the most\nlaughable that can be witnessed. We have seen the attempt made to put\nsuch a troop into a gallop across a field. Fifty horses and fifty men\ninstantly became actuated by a hundred different wills, and dispersed in\nall directions--some of the riders hanging on to the pommels, with their\nfeet out of the stirrups, others tugging away at the bridles, and not a\nfew sprawling on the ground. After a few months' drills, however, a\ndifferent scene is presented, and an old troop horse becomes so\nhabituated to his exercises that not only will he perform all the\nevolutions without guidance, but will even refuse to leave the ranks,\nthough under the most vigorous incitements of whip and spur. An officer\nfriend was once acting as cavalier to a party of ladies on horseback at\na review, when, unfortunately, the troop in which his horse belonged\nhappening to pass by, the animal bolted from the group of ladies, and\ntook his accustomed place in the ranks, nor could all the efforts of his\nrider disengage him. Finally, our friend was obliged to dismount, and,\nholding the horse by the bit, _back_ him out of the troop to his station\nwith the party of ladies--a feat performed amid much provoking laughter.\n\nCavalry can operate in masses only when circumstances are favorable--the\ncountry open, and the ground free from obstructions. Yet it is in masses\nalone that it can be effective, and it can triumph against infantry only\nby a _shock_--from the precipitation of its weight upon the lines,\ncrushing them by the onset. Before the time of Frederic the Great, the\nPrussian horsemen resembled those to be seen at a militia review--they\nwere a sort of picture soldiers, incapable of a vigorous charge. He\nrevolutionized the service by teaching that cavalry must achieve success\nby a rapid onset, not stopping to fire themselves, and not regarding the\nfire of their opponents. By practising these lessons, they were able to\noverthrow the Austrian infantry. But if the force of a charge is\ndissipated by obstructions on the ground, or is broken by the fire of\nthe assailed, the effectiveness of cavalry, as a participant in the\nmanoeuvres of a battle field, is entirely destroyed.\n\nThe question of the future of cavalry is at present one of great\ninterest among military investigators; for notwithstanding its\nbrilliant achievements during our civil war, the fact is apparent that\nits sphere has been entirely changed, its old system has become\nobsolete, and former possibilities no longer lie within its scope. Since\nWaterloo there had not been, until our war commenced, any opportunity to\ntest the action of cavalry; for its operations in the Crimea and in\nItaly were insignificant. The art of warfare had, meanwhile, in many\nrespects, become revolutionized by the introduction of rifled arms.\nMilitary men waited, therefore, with interest, the experience of the war\nin this country, to judge from it as to the part cavalry was to perform\nin future warfare. That experience has shown that the day in which\ncavalry can successfully charge squares of infantry has passed. When the\nsmooth-bore muskets alone were used by infantry, cavalry could be formed\nin masses for charging at a distance of five hundred yards; now the\nformations must be made at the distance of nearly a mile, and that\nintervening space must be passed at speed under the constant fire of\ncannon and rifles; when the squares are reached, the horses are\nfrightened and blown, the ranks have been disordered by the\nimpossibility of preserving a correct front during such a length of time\nat rapid speed, and by the loss of men; the charge breaks weakly on the\nwall of bayonets, and retires baffled. Infantry, before it learns its\nown strength and the difficulty of forcing a horse against a bayonet--or\nrather to trample down a man--has an absurd and unfounded fear of\ncavalry. This feeling was in part the cause of the panic among our\ntroops at Bull Run--so much had been said about the Black Horse troop of\nthe rebels. The Waterloo achievements of the French were then thought\npossible of repetition. Now adays it is hardly probable that the veteran\ninfantry of either army would take the trouble to form squares to resist\ncavalry, but would expect to rout it by firing in line. Neither party in\nour war has been able to make its mounted forces effective in a general\nbattle. Nothing has occurred to parallel, upon the battle field, those\nexploits of the cavalry--French, Prussian, and English--in the great\nwars of the last century, extending to Waterloo.\n\nThe enthusiastic admirers of cavalry still maintain that it is possible\nto repeat those exploits, even in face of the improved firearms now in\nuse. All that is necessary, they say, is to have the cavalry\nsufficiently drilled. The ground to be crossed under a positively\ndangerous fire is only five hundred or six hundred yards, and once\ntaught to continue the charge through the bullets for this distance, and\nthen to throw themselves on the bayonets, horsemen will now, as\nheretofore, break the lines of infantry. All very true, _if_ cavalry to\nfulfil the conditions named can be obtained; but in _them_ lies the\ndifficulty. Occasional instances of splendid charges will undoubtedly\noccur in future warfare; but it seems to be an established fact that the\nday for the glory of cavalry has passed. Once the mailed knight, mounted\non his mailed charger, could overthrow by scores the poor, pusillanimous\npikemen and crossbow men who composed the infantry; he was invulnerable\nin his iron armor, and could ride them down like reeds. But gunpowder\nand the bayonet have changed this; and now the most confident and\ndomineering cavalryman will put spurs to his horse and fly at a gallop,\nif he sees the muzzle of an infantryman's rifle, with its glittering\nbayonet, pointed at him from the thicket.\n\nAnother revolution effected in the mounted service by the improvements\nin arms and the consequent changes of tactics, is the diminution of\nheavy and the increase of light cavalry--that is, the transfer of the\nformer into the latter. These two denominations really include all kinds\nof cavalry, although the non-military reader may have been puzzled by\nthe numerous subordinate denominations to be found in the accounts of\nEuropean warfare--such as dragoons, cuirassiers, hussars, lancers,\nchasseurs, hulans, etc.\n\nHeavy cavalry is composed of the heavier men and horses, and is usually\ndivided into dragoons and cuirassiers. It is designed to act in masses,\nand to break the lines of an enemy by the weight of its charge. Usually,\nalso, it has had some defensive armor, and is a direct descendant from\nthe knights of the Middle Ages. But the cuirasses, which were sufficient\nto resist the balls from smooth-bore muskets, are easily penetrated by\nrifles. Consequently the occupation of this kind of cavalry is gone, and\nit is likely to disappear gradually from the service. In this country we\nhave never had anything except light cavalry--the only kind adapted for\nuse in our Indian warfare. This kind of cavalry is intended to\naccomplish results by the celerity of its movements, and all its\nequipments should therefore be as light as possible. The chief\ndifficulty is to prevent the cavalry soldier from overloading his horse,\nas he has a propensity not only to carry a large wardrobe and a full\nsupply of kitchen utensils, but also to 'convey,' in the language of\nPistol, or, in army language, 'gobble up,' or, in plain English, steal\nanything that is capable of being fastened to his saddle.\n\nIt is evident that the efficiency of a cavalry soldier depends as much\nupon his horse as upon himself; and it is requisite, therefore, that the\nweight upon the horse should be as light as possible. The limit has been\nfixed at about two hundred pounds for light, and two hundred and fifty\nfor heavy cavalry; but both of these are too much. A cavalry soldier\nought not to weigh over one hundred and fifty to one hundred and sixty\npounds, and his accoutrements not over thirty pounds additional; but in\npractice, scarcely any horse--except where the rider is a very light\nweight--carries less than two hundred and twenty or two hundred and\nthirty pounds. One great cause of the evils incident to our cavalry\nservice is the excessive weight imposed on the horses. The French take\nparticular pains in this respect; while in England the cavalry is almost\nentirely 'heavy,' and, though well drilled, is clumsy. John Bull, with\nhis roast beef and plum pudding, makes a poor specimen of a light\ncavalryman. English officers are now endeavoring to revolutionize their\nmounted service, so as to diminish its weight and increase its celerity.\n\nThe _arms_ of cavalry have been various, but it is now well settled that\nits true weapon is the sabre, as its true form of operation is the\ncharge. A great deal of ingenuity has been expended in devising the best\nform of sabre. Different countries have different patterns, but the one\nadopted in our army is very highly considered. It is pointed, so as to\nbe used in thrusting; sharp on one edge for cutting; curved, so as to\ninflict a deeper wound; and the weight arranged, by a mathematical rule,\nso that the centres of percussion and of gravity are placed where the\nweapon may be most easily handled. The lance is a weapon very\nappropriate to light mounted troops, and is still used by some of the\nCossacks and Arab horsemen. But to wield it effectively requires\nprotracted training. For a long time in Europe it was the chief weapon\nfor horsemen; with the knights it was held in exclusive honor, and\ncontinued in use for a considerable period after firearms had destroyed\nthe prestige of the gentlemen of the golden spurs. Prince Maurice, of\nOrange, when he raised mounted regiments to defend the Netherlands\nagainst the Spanish, rejected it, and since his time it has become\nobsolete except in some regiments especially drilled to it. Such a\nregiment was raised in Philadelphia at the commencement of our war, but\nafter eighteen months' experience the lances were abandoned. Besides the\nsabre, cavalry-men are armed with pistols or carbines--the men having\nthe latter being employed particularly in skirmishing, sometimes on\nfoot.\n\nThe proportion of mounted troops in an army varies according to the\nnature of the country which is the theatre of military operations. In a\nlevel country it should be about one fourth or one fifth, while in one\nthat is mountainous, it should not be greater than a tenth. As a general\nrule, improvements in firearms have produced a decrease in the\nproportion of cavalry and lessened its importance. When artillery was\nintroduced, the cavaliers, who composed the Middle Age armies\nexclusively, commenced to disappear; knighthood passed out of existence,\nbeing superseded by mercenary bands. Infantry gradually assumed\nimportance, which has constantly increased, until it has now attained\nthe vast predominance. This has not only caused a general diminution of\nthe proportion of cavalry, but has entailed on the Governments of Europe\nthe necessity of keeping their cavalry service always at its maximum, so\nthat the mounted troops may be perfect in their drill; whereas infantry\ntroops can acquire comparative proficiency in a few months.\n\nWe will give a brief description of the different classes of cavalry,\nand close our subject by some remarks on the operation of this arm of\nservice in our civil war.\n\nThe regiments raised by Prince Maurice, of Orange, above referred to,\nwere the first known as _cuirassiers_, on account of the cuirasses which\nthey wore for defence. All defensive armor is now being laid aside.\n\n_Dragoons_ originally were a class of soldiers who operated both on foot\nand mounted. They are supposed to take their name from a kind of firearm\ncalled a 'dragon.' In modern practice dragoons are almost entirely used\nas cavalry, and rarely have recourse to any extended service on foot.\nThe denomination 'dragoons' has recently been abolished from our\nservice.\n\n_Carabineers_ were at first some Basque and Gascon horsemen in the\nFrench service, whose peculiarly distinguishing characteristic was a\nskilful use in the saddle of a short firearm.\n\n_Hussars_ originated in Hungary, taking their denomination from the word\n_husz_, which signifies twenty, and _ar_, pay--every twentieth man being\nrequired by the state to enter into service. From their origin they were\ndistinguished for the celerity of their movements and their devotion to\nfine costumes.\n\nThe _hulans_ were a species of Polish light cavalry, bearing lances, and\ntaking their name from their commander--a nobleman named Huland.\n\n_Chasseurs_ are French regiments, designed chiefly to act as scouts and\nskirmishers. The _chasseurs d'Afrique_ are cavalry which have been\ntrained in Algeria, and have become exceedingly expert through conflicts\nwith the Arabs. The _spahis_ are Arab cavalry, in the French service,\nand are such admirable riders that they will charge over all kinds of\nground, and dash upon a foe who judges himself secure amid rocks or\ntrees or ditches.\n\nAt the commencement of the war the rebel cavalry was superior to that\nfurnished by the North. For this there were many reasons. Southern\nplantation life had accustomed the aristocratic youth to the saddle, and\ngreat attention was bestowed on the training of horses. At the North the\nnumber of skilled riders was comparatively few. Gradually, however,\nNorthern energy, endurance, and patient discipline began to tell, and\nthe time soon arrived when the Southern cavalry were invariably driven,\nespecially in sabre charges, to which Southerners have great aversion.\nAt present, on account of the scarcity of horses, the difficulty of\nsupplying forage, and the loss of so many gay youths of the chivalry,\nthe Southern, cavalry has dwindled into such a condition as to be no\nlonger formidable.\n\nThe service of the cavalry in both armies during the war has been\nexclusively as light cavalry--scouting, picketing, raiding, etc. Its\ncombats have been with forces of its own arm. No commander has yet\nsucceeded in assisting to determine the issue of a pitched battle by the\ncharges of his mounted troops. Our cavalry have rendered, however,\nbrilliant and invaluable services in protecting the rear and flanks of\nthe armies, and by their magnificent raiding expeditions into the\nenemy's country, destroying his supplies, injuring his communications,\ndiverting his forces, and liberating his slaves. No sufficient accounts\nof such expeditions and of the numerous cavalry conflicts have been\npublished; yet they are very desirable. They would furnish most\ninteresting narratives, and be a valuable contribution not only to the\nhistory of the times, but to the history of warfare; for the operations\nof the cavalry in this war constitute a new era in the history of this\nbranch of military service. Unless care is exercised to procure such\nnarratives, our posterity will never know anything of many battle fields\nwhere fought and fell brave troopers from every Northern State.\n\nThe chief duties of officers belonging to the _corps of engineers_, when\nconnected with an army acting in the field, are the supervision of\nroutes of communication, the laying of bridges, the selection of\npositions for fortifications, and the indication of the proper character\nof works to be constructed. Should a siege occur, a new and very\nimportant class of duties devolves on them, relating to the trenches,\nsaps, batteries, etc.\n\nNot only is there in Virginia a lack of good roads, but the numerous\nstreams have few or no bridges. In many cases where bridges have\nexisted, one or the other of the contending armies has destroyed them to\nimpede the march of its opponents. Streams which have an average depth\nof three or four feet are, however, generally without bridges, except\nwhere crossed by some turnpike, the common country roads mostly leading\nto fords. The famous Bull Run is an example. There were but two or three\nbridges over this stream in the space of country penetrated by the roads\ngenerally pursued by our army in advancing or retreating, and these have\nbeen several times destroyed and rebuilt. The stream varies from two to\nsix feet in depth--the fords being at places of favorable depth, and\nwhere the bottom is gravelly and the banks sloping. Often such streams\nas this, and indeed smaller ones, become immensely swelled in volume by\nstorms, so that a comparatively insignificant rivulet might greatly\ndelay the march of an army, if means for quickly crossing should not be\nprovided. The general depth of a ford which a large force, with its\nappurtenances, can safely cross, is about three feet, and even then the\nbottom should be good and the current gentle. With a greater depth of\nwater, the men are likely to wet their cartridge boxes, or be swept off\ntheir feet. There is a small stream about three miles from Alexandria,\ncrossing the Little River turnpike, which has never been bridged, and\nwhich was once so suddenly swollen by rain that all the artillery and\nwagons of a corps were obliged to wait about twelve hours for its\nsubsidence. The mules of some wagons driven into it were swept away.\nFords, unless of the best bottom, are rendered impassable after a small\nportion of the wagons and artillery of an army have crossed them--the\ngravel being cut through into the underlying clay, and the banks\nconverted into sloughs by the dripping of water from the animals and\nwheels.\n\nA very amusing scene was presented at the crossing of Hazel River (a\nbranch of the Rappahannock) last fall, when the Army of the Potomac\nfirst marched to Culpepper. The stream was at least three feet deep,\nand at various places four--the current very rapid--the bottom filled\nwith large stones, and the banks steep, except where a narrow road had\nbeen cut for the wagons. The men adopted various expedients for\ncrossing. Some went in boldly all accoutred; some took off shoes and\nstockings, and carefully rolled up their trousers; others (and they were\nthe wisest) divested themselves of all their lower clothing. The long\ncolumn struggled as best it could through the water, and occasionally,\namid vociferous shouts, those who had been careful to roll up their\ntrousers would step into a hole up to the middle; others, who had taken\nstill more precautions, would stumble over a stone and pitch headlong\ninto the roaring waters, dropping their guns, and splashing vainly about\nwith their heavy knapsacks, in the endeavor to regain a footing, until\nsome of their comrades righted them; and others, after getting over\nsafely, would slip back from the sandy bank, and take an involuntary\nimmersion. Some clung to the rear of the wagons, but in the middle of\nthe stream the mules would become fractious, or the wagon would get\njammed against a stone, and the unfortunate passengers were compelled to\ndrop off and wade ashore, greeted by roars of derisive laughter. On such\noccasions soldiers give full play to their humor. They accept the\nhardships with good nature, and make the best of any ridiculous incident\nthat may happen. At the time referred to, many conscripts had just\njoined the ranks, and cries resounded everywhere among the old soldiers:\n'Hello, conscripts, how do you like this?' 'What d'ye think of sogering\nnow?' 'This is nothing. You'll have to go in up to yer neck next time.'\n\nGenerally, when the exigencies of the march will permit, bridges are\nmade over such streams, either by the engineers of the army, or\ndetachments from the various corps which are passing upon the roads.\nThey are simple 'corduroy bridges,' and can be laid very expeditiously.\nTwo or three piers of stones and logs are placed in the stream, string\npieces are stretched upon them, and cross pieces of small round logs\nlaid down for the flooring. The most extensive bridges of this kind used\nby the Army of the Potomac were those over the Chickahominy in the\nPeninsular campaign. 'Sumner's bridge,' by which reinforcements crossed\nat the battle of Fair Oaks, was laid in this manner. Of course such\nbridges are liable to be carried away and to be easily destroyed. Some\nof the bridges over the Chickahominy were laid much more thoroughly.\n'Cribs' of logs were piled in cob-house fashion, pinned together, and\nsunk vertically in the stream. Then string pieces and the flooring were\nlaid, the whole covered with brush and dirt. Men worked at these bridges\nup to the waist in water for many days in succession.\n\nMilitary art has devised many expedients for bridging streams, and use\nis made of any facilities that may be at hand for constructing the means\nof passage; but the only organized bridge trains which move with the\narmy are those which carry the pontoons. Of these there are various\nkinds, made of wood, of corrugated iron, and of india rubber stretched\nover frames. But the wooden pontoon boats are most in use. They can be\nplaced in a river and the flooring laid upon them with great rapidity.\nSeveral very fine bridges have been thus constructed--among them may be\nmentioned the one at the mouth of the Chickahominy, across which General\nMcClellan's army marched in retreating from Harrison's Landing. It was\nabout a mile long, and was constructed in a few hours.\n\nTo cross a river under the fire of an enemy is one of the most difficult\noperations in warfare. Yet it has been frequently accomplished by our\narmies. The crossing of the Rappahannock by General Burnside's army,\nprevious to the great battle of Fredericksburg, in December, 1862, is\none of the most remarkable instances of the kind during the war. The\nrebel rifle pits lined the southern bank, and the fire from them\nprevented our engineers from approaching--the river being only about\nseventy-five yards wide. For a long time our artillery failed to drive\nthe rebels away. About noon of the day on which the crossing was made,\nGeneral Burnside ordered a concentration of fire on Fredericksburg, in\nthe houses of which place the rebels had concealed their forces. A\nhundred guns, hurling shot and shell into every building and street of\nthe city, soon riddled it; but the obstinate foes hid themselves in the\ncellars till the storm was over, and then emerged defiantly. They were\nonly dislodged by sending over a battalion in boats to attack them in\nflank, when they retreated, and the bridges were laid.\n\nIt is impossible to explain in articles of this character the mysteries\nof intrenchment and fortification, so that they will be comprehensible.\nA few notes, however, on some of the principal terms constantly\nemployed, may be found useful and interesting.\n\n_Rifle pits_--as the term is now generally used--are small embankments,\nmade by throwing up dirt from an excavation _inside_. They can be\nerected quickly, for it will be seen that those behind them have the\nadvantage, not only of the height of the embankment, but also of the\ndepth of the ditch. Thus an excavation of two feet would give a\nprotection of _four_ feet. This is the ordinary rifle pit, but when time\npermits it receives many improvements.\n\n_Breastworks_ are any erections of logs, dirt, etc., raised breast high,\nto shelter the men behind them.\n\nAn _abatis_ consists of obstructions placed in front of a work to form\nobstacles to a storming party. The most convenient method of forming it\nis to cut down trees and allow them to lie helterskelter. When there is\ntime, the trees are laid with the butts toward the work, and the\nbranches outward--the small limbs being removed, and the ends of the\nremainder sharpened.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nA _redan_ is a letter V, with the point toward the enemy, and is used\ngenerally to cover the heads of bridges, etc.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nA _lunette_ is the redan with flanking wings.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nA _redoubt_ is an enclosed parallelogram.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThese works are very imperfect, because they have exposed points. The\nangles are not protected by the fire from the sides. To remedy this\ndifficulty, the next most usual work is the _star fort_, made in the\nform of a regular or irregular star. It will be perceived that the fire\nfrom the sides covers the angles.\n\nThe next and still more improved form of work is the bastioned fort,\nwhich consists of projecting bastions at the corners, the fire from\nwhich enfilades the ditches.\n\nThe following is a diagram of a vertical section of the parapet and\nditch used in all fully constructed field works:\n\n[Illustration:\n\n     A B is the slope of the banquette.\n\n     B C head of the banquette, or place where the men stand to deliver\n     their fire.\n\n     C D the interior slope of the parapet.\n\n     D E superior slope of the same.\n\n     F G the berme, or place left to prevent the parapet from washing\n     down into the ditch.\n\n     G H the scarp or interior wall of the ditch.\n\n     H I the bottom of the ditch.\n\n     I K the counterscarp.\n\n     L M N the glacis, which, except the abatis near the ditch, is left\n     free and open, so as to expose the assailants to the fire from the\n     parapet.\n\n     The proportions and angles of all the lines given are fixed\n     according to mathematical rules.]\n\nThe operations of a siege present many incidents of great interest; but\nwe can do nothing more in this article than illustrate the methods in\nwhich the approaches are made to the works the capture of which is\ndesigned. When reconnoissances have established the conclusion that the\nworks of an enemy cannot be carried by assault, the lines of the\ninvesting army are advanced as near to them as is compatible with\nsafety; advantage is then taken of the opportunities afforded by the\nground to cover working parties, which are thrown forward to the place\nfixed for the first parallel; sometimes these parties can commence their\nwork only at night. The parallel is only a deep trench with the dirt\nthrown toward the enemy; and after the excavation has progressed, the\ntrench is occupied by parties of troops to resist any sorties of the\nenemy, and to prevent attempts against the batteries established behind\nthe parallel.\n\nThe first parallel being completed, zigzag excavations are made toward\nthe front to cover the passage of men who proceed to dig the second\nparallel. Meanwhile the batteries have commenced to play, and riflemen\nhave been advanced in trenches at convenient places, whose fire annoys\nthe gunners of the enemy. The second parallel being made, the batteries\nare moved up to it, and the third parallel is proceeded with in a manner\nsimilar to that used for the second.\n\n\nWe give below a rough diagram of these operations:\n\n[Illustration:\n\nA B C D E is the work of the enemy to be besieged. The working parties\nadvance by the zigzag paths M N and O to the position chosen for the\nfirst parallel, K L. At the proper time they proceed by the zigzag paths\nto the second parallel, H I, and then to the third, F G. When this is\nreached, the enemy's work can generally be carried by storm, unless\nalready evacuated, for _ceteris paribus_ the advantages generally lie\nwith the besieging party. The zigzags are called _boyaux_, and they are\ndug in the form represented, so that the bank of earth thrown up may be\nalways in front of them. Were they in straight lines this could not be.\n\nThe above refers exclusively to the siege of a field work. The\nprinciples for besieging a walled fort or a fortified town are the same,\nbut the operations are much more complicated.]\n\n\n\n\nLITERARY NOTICES.\n\n\n     Popular Edition. RESULTS OF EMANCIPATION. By AUGUSTIN\n     COCHIN, Ex-Maire and Municipal Councillor of Paris. Work\n     crowned by the Institute of France (Academie Francaise). Translated\n     by MARY L. BOOTH, Translator of Count de Gasparin's work\n     on America, etc. Fourth thousand. Boston: Walker, Wise & Co., 245\n     Washington street. 1864.\n\nA remarkable book, indicative of a new era in the discussion of social,\nreligious, political, and economical questions. Prejudice, misstatement,\nand fanaticism are apparently so opposed to the clear, candid mind of\nthe author, that he has needed no effort to avoid them, and in their\nstead give us simple truth, broad views of men and things, and the\nhighest conceptions of duty and charity, together with the nicest\nconsideration of the rights and material interests, even the local\nprejudices and misconceptions, of our fellow mortals. He shows clearly\nthat a _moral_ wrong can never long tend to _material_ advantage, and\nthat the laws of _society_ cannot be made ultimately to triumph over the\nlaws of _nature_; neither, in general, can a wrong be righted without\nsome suffering by way of expiation.\n\nAlthough filled with statistical details, the work cannot fail to be\nintensely interesting to the general reader. Lofty, hopeful, rational,\nand yet progressive in its tone, it is calculated to do great good, not\nonly through the useful information and instructive generalizations it\nmakes known, but also as a model of right feeling, and consequent good\nbreeding, in its peculiar sphere.\n\nThe chapters upon the sugar question are wonderfully lucid and\nconvincing. Their bearing upon mooted points of political economy\nrecommend them to the study of all interested in that intricate subject.\nThe distressing relations necessarily existing between slavery and\nreligious instruction are also plainly set forth, and the general\nconclusion of the book (that 'emancipation' is not only possible, but\nmost expedient, and that, with certain care upon the part of the\nGovernment and of slave owners, an immediate and simultaneous liberation\nis likely to breed fewer disturbances and less evil than gradual\ndisenthralment) seems to be rapidly gaining ground in the convictions of\nour own countrymen. The conscience, and prophetic dreams of priests,\nwomen, and poets, have long given assurance of such results, but the\nworld, of course, required definite experience and practical essays\nbefore instituting any extensive course of action in that direction.\n\n     'A council held in the city of London in 1102, under the presidency\n     of St. Anselm, interdicted trade in slaves. This was eight hundred\n     years before the same object was debated in the same city before\n     Parliament. In 1780, Thomas Clarkson proposed to abolish the slave\n     trade. In 1787, Wilberforce renewed the proposition. Seven times\n     presented from 1793 to 1799, the bill seven times failed.\n     Successively laid over, it triumphed at length in 1806 and 1807.\n     All the Christian nations followed this memorable example. At the\n     Congress of Vienna, all the Powers pledged themselves to unite\n     their efforts to obtain _the entire and final abolition of a\n     traffic so odious and so loudly reproved by the laws of religion\n     and nature_. The slave trade was abolished in 1808 by the American\n     United States; in 1811, by Denmark, Portugal, and Chili; in 1813,\n     by Sweden; in 1814 and 1815, by Holland; in 1815, by France; in\n     1822, by Spain. In this same year, 1822, Wilberforce attacked\n     slavery after the slave trade, and won over public opinion by\n     appeals and repeated meetings, while his friend Mr. Buxton proposed\n     emancipation in Parliament. The Emancipation Bill was presented in\n     1833. On the 1st of August, 1834, slavery ceased to sully the soil\n     of the English colonies. In 1846, Sweden, in 1847, Denmark,\n     Uruguay, Wallachia, and Tunis, obeyed the same impulse, which\n     France followed in 1848, Portugal in 1856, and which Holland\n     promised to imitate in 1860. An earnest movement agitated Brazil.'\n\nIn Poland, the serfdom of the peasants was never sanctioned by law, but\nexisted in later times by reason of exception and abuse. Stanislas\nLeszczynski, King of Poland, in 1720 raised his voice in favor of the\npeasant population; the same principles were in 1768 defended, sword in\nhand, by the Confederation of Bar, discussed in the diets of 1776, 1780,\n1788, and finally adopted by the famous Constituent Assembly of 1791.\nThadeus Kosciuszko (May 7th, 1794), then Dictator of Poland, issued a\ndocument giving entire personal liberty to all serfs; and on the 22d of\nJanuary, 1863, the members of the 'National Polish Government' decreed\nthat the peasants were not only free, but were entitled to a certain\nportion of land, of which they should be the sole proprietors. In 1861,\nRussia emancipated all serfs within her borders. In the United States,\nthe stern 'logic of events' seems to be rapidly bringing about similar\nresults, although indeed 'slavery' and 'serfdom' should never be\nmentioned together, being so essentially different; the one the\npossession of the _man_, the other merely the ownership of his _labor_\nor of a _portion of its results_.\n\nWe cannot better conclude than by giving the following extract from the\nIntroduction of M. Cochin, who, by the way, is a man of good family and\nample fortune, an eminent publicist, and a Catholic of the school of\nLacordaire, Montalembert, Monseigneur d'Orleans, and the Prince de\nBroglie:\n\n     'It was once exclaimed, Perish the colonies, rather than a\n     principle! The principle has not perished, the colonies have not\n     perished.\n\n     'It is not correct that interests should yield to principles;\n     between legitimate interests and true principles, harmony is\n     infallible; this is truth. Those who look only to interests are\n     sooner or later deceived in their calculations; those who,\n     exclusively occupied with principles, are generous without being\n     practical, cease to be generous, for they lead the cause which they\n     serve to certain destruction. It is the will of God that realities\n     should mingle with ideas, and that material obstacles should compel\n     the purchase of progress by toil.'\n\nThe publishers tell us that, a large demand for this work having arisen,\nthey have issued this 'popular edition,' wherein the figures in the\noriginal are given as nearly as possible in the American currencies,\nmeasures, etc.\n\n     STUMBLING BLOCKS. By GAIL HAMILTON, Author of\n     'Country Living and Country Thinking,' 'Gala Days,' etc. Boston:\n     Ticknor & Fields, For sale by D. Appleton & Co., New York.\n\nGail Hamilton's religious position gives her vast advantages. She is\nthoroughly orthodox, Calvinistic, and Congregational, and being neither\nUnitarian nor Catholic, will not be regarded as one of the 'Suspect' by\nthe great community of the so-called evangelical Christians. But she is\na bold, independent thinker, and spurns the trammels of bigotry and\nprescription. No party spirit blinds her clear vision, no sectarian\nprejudice vitiates her statements of the creeds of others, or induces\nher to veil the faults and follies of those worshipping in the same\nchurch with herself. Ministers are by no means immaculate saints in her\neyes. Seating herself in the pews, she preaches better sermons to them\nthan they are in the habit of giving to their people; taking possession\nof their pulpits, she shows them what might and ought to be done from\nthat throne of power. Petty vanities, subjective experiences recorded in\nmorbid journals, religious frames of mind frequently dwelt upon until\nthe tortured self-watcher is driven into insanity, fall under her\nscathing rebuke.\n\nThis volume deals chiefly with the shortcomings of the orthodox\nreligious world. Its faults of temper, its repulsive manners, its custom\nof making home unlovely, its distaste of innocent amusement, its habits\nof censure, its self-sufficiency and pharisaical character, are touched\nwith a caustic but healing power. Only the hand of a friend could have\ndone this thing. No point of doctrine is questioned, no principle of\nfaith invaded, no charity wounded. She probes in love--her object is\ncure. This book is fresh and vigorous, worth thousands of lifeless\nsermons and unprofitable religious journals. No prejudice or falsehood\nis spared, though it may have taken refuge in the very sanctuary. Her\nevery shaft is well directed, every arrow powerfully sent, every shot\nstrikes the bull's eye in its centre. Her words are hailstones rattling\nfell and fast, but melt into and soften the heart on which they fall.\nDelusions disappear, cant and want of courtesy become odious, shams grow\nshameful, while all lovely things bloom lovelier in the light of truth\nemanating from this large brain, and poured through this living heart.\nWe bask in its sunshine, growing strong and happy as we read. Christian\nfervor and charity, love for Redeemer and redeemed, for saint and\nsinner, cheer us through all these well-deserved denunciations. Her\nstyle is clear and rapid, her matter of daily and urgent import, her\ncharacterizations of classes and types of men worthy of La Bruyere\nhimself, her satire melts into humor, her humor into pathos. She has\nbeen attacked by some of the religious papers, and has herein taken a\ntrue Christian and magnanimous revenge. O Gail! the clergy should open\nwide their hearts to take you in, their gifted child, the iconoclast\nwithin the temple, the faithful disciple of Christ, the lover of purity\nand truth!\n\nWe quote the following brave words from this remarkable book:\n\n     'We sometimes see religious newspapers charging each other with\n     acts which should exclude the perpetrators from the fraternity of\n     _honest_ men; for, through the medium of religious newspapers, one\n     church, or one fraction of a church, or one ecclesiastical body, or\n     one member of it, accuses another of an act, or a course of action,\n     which, in sober truth, amounts to nothing more or less than\n     _obvious, persistent deception, dishonesty and trickery_.... Can\n     such be correct transcripts of facts? Is it true that a church, or\n     any body corporate, whose very existence as such is professedly to\n     cultivate and disseminate the principles of sound morality and true\n     religion, does fall so far short of the faith delivered to the\n     saints--does so far forget its origin, and pervert its aims, as to\n     violate common law and common honesty, and persist in its\n     violation, deliberately, against repeated remonstrances, by sheer\n     force? Yet we see no convulsion in the community. Nothing intimates\n     that a great grief is fallen upon Israel. Everybody eats, drinks,\n     and sleeps as usual. The pulpits still stand, and the law and the\n     gospel are appealed to from that vantage ground. The sacramental\n     cup is still raised to devout lips. The gray heads of the culprits\n     still go in and out among the people with no diminishing of\n     honor--no odium is attached to their persons; no stigmas to their\n     names. What a state of things does this argue! A whole church\n     plunges into darkness, and the\n\n                     'Majestic heaven\n       Shines not the less for that one vanished star.'\n\n     'Can we wonder that the world will not let itself be converted? To\n     what should it be converted, if it were willing? Would it be an\n     advance for a community that sends its thieves to prison when it\n     catches them to merge itself in a community that is content to\n     print a few columns of _expose_ on the subject? If the stream where\n     you wish to drink is muddy, you will scarcely find clear waters by\n     descending. You want to go up, not down; up on the high lands where\n     threads of crystal cleave the gray old rocks, and gather purity\n     from earth's deep bosom and the sky's clear blue.\n\n     'If it is not so, if the acts only appear dishonest because we are\n     looking at one side, why do we not say so, or why do we say\n     anything about it? Every man is to be held innocent till he is\n     proved guilty. If there is any standpoint from which we can view\n     our opponent's position and find it not dishonest, we ought to\n     mention it. We have no right to look at him from _a_ standpoint,\n     and hold him up to view as a criminal, and ignore _another_, from\n     which he may be seen as simply mistaken, or deceived, or blameless.\n     Still less have we a right to take innocent facts and construct\n     upon them a guilty hypothesis to suit our foregone conclusion. A\n     _right_ to do it? _It is sin_. _It is more than murder_. It may rob\n     a man of what is more precious to him than his life. It attempts to\n     take away from a man what, taken, would leave him stripped of his\n     manhood, and a man's manhood is worth more to him and his friends\n     than his bone and muscle.'\n\nAh, Gail, thy keen aim has indeed struck the pupil of the bull's eye! If\nfalse statements of varying dogmas were held 'as criminal as they\nundoubtedly are,' if they were never viewed from 'foregone conclusions,'\nsects would perish in the death of misconceptions, and warring\nChristians would rush into each other's arms with the joy-cry,\n'Brothers!' Through the misstatements of centuries, the good Protestant\nminister regards the Catholic priest, ready as he may be to die for the\nfaith of his fathers, as a _wilful liar_, a _conscious deceiver_,\nselling the souls of his flock for a Judas bribe; while the equally good\npriest, in his turn, looks upon the conscientious minister as a despiser\nof authority, an enemy of the Church of Christ, refusing to hear what he\nbelieves to be its undoubted teachings, a blind man, leading the blind\ninto the pit of perdition. The men may be both right from the standpoint\nof their 'foregone conclusions,' both wrong from the standpoint of fact.\nAnd so it goes on, through all the lesser sectarian divisions.\nEverywhere misstatement, misconception, and smouldering hatred. The\nfirst step to reconciliation among the antagonistic members of Christ's\ntorn body, would be to put into instantaneous practice the wise, sound,\nand just maxims of Gail Hamilton. Let us begin it, lovers of truth and\njustice!\n\n     THE MAINE WOODS. By HENRY D. THOREAU, Author of\n     'A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers,' 'Walden,'\n     'Excursions,' etc. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. For sale by D.\n     Appleton & Co., New York.\n\nThe first of the papers contained in this book was published in 'The\nUnion Magazine;' the second, 'Chesuncook,' came out in the 'Atlantic\nMonthly,' in 1858; the last is now for the first time printed. The\ncontents of the volume are as follows: Ktaadn, Chesuncook, The Allegash\nand East Branch; in the Appendix we have Trees, Flowers, and Shrubs,\nList of Plants, List of Birds, Quadrupeds, Outfit for an Excursion, and\na List of Indian Words. Henry D. Thoreau was an enthusiastic lover of\nnature, but no blind adorer of her loveliness. He knew her in all her\nmoods, was familiar with all her caprices. He was a man of strong brain,\nand of accurate knowledge in such fields as it pleased him to study. The\nwoods have never before had such an accurate biographer, such a true\npainter. He saw them with the eye of the poet as well as that of the\nnaturalist. Scholarship and imagination roam with him in the primeval\nforests. After the most accurate and detailed description of a moose\nwhich had been killed by his Indian guide, this anti-sentimentalist, but\ntrue forest lover says: 'Here, just at the head of the murmuring rapids,\nJoe now proceeded to skin the moose with a pocket knife, while I looked\non; and a tragical business it was--to see that still warm and\npalpitating body pierced with a knife, to see the warm milk stream from\nthe rent udder, and the ghastly naked red carcass appearing from within\nits seemly robe, which was made to hide it.' There is no joy of the\nhunter here! The words are as 'tragical' and tender as were those of the\nmelancholy Jaques. That 'warm milk and rent udder' seems to make the\nstately creature half human. He proceeds:\n\n     'But on more accounts than one, I had had enough of moose hunting.\n     I had not come to the woods for this purpose, nor had I foreseen\n     it, though I had been willing to learn how the Indian manoeuvred;\n     but one moose killed was as good, if not as bad, as a dozen. The\n     afternoon's tragedy and my share in it, as it affected the\n     _innocence_, destroyed the _pleasure_ of my adventure. This hunting\n     of the moose merely for the satisfaction of killing him--not even\n     for the sake of his hide--without making any extraordinary exertion\n     or running any risk yourself, is too much like going out by night\n     to some woodside pasture and shooting your neighbor's horses. These\n     are God's own horses, poor timid creatures, that will run fast\n     enough as soon as they smell you, though they are _nine_ feet high\n     (often eleven, with the antlers).... You strip off its hide,\n     because that is the common trophy, and moreover you have heard it\n     may be sold for mocassons--cut a steak from its body, and leave the\n     huge carcass 'to smell to heaven' for you. It is no better, at\n     least, than to assist at a slaughter house. This afternoon's\n     experience suggested to me how base or coarse are the motives which\n     commonly carry men into the wilderness. The explorers and lumberers\n     generally are hirelings, paid so much a day for their labor, and as\n     such they have no more love for wild nature than wood sawyers have\n     for forests. Other white men and Indians who come here are for the\n     most part hunters, whose object is to slay as many moose and other\n     wild animals as possible. But pray, could not one spend some weeks\n     or years in the solitude of this vast wilderness with other\n     employments than these--employments perfectly sweet, innocent, and\n     ennobling? For one that comes with a pencil to sketch or sing, a\n     thousand come with an axe or rifle. What a coarse and imperfect use\n     Indians and hunters make of nature! No wonder that their race is so\n     soon exterminated. I already, and for weeks afterward, felt my\n     nature the coarser for this part of my woodland experience, and was\n     reminded that our life should be lived as tenderly and daintily as\n     one would pluck a flower.'\n\nAgain:\n\n     'As I sat before the fire on my fir-twig seat, without walls above\n     or around me, I remembered how far on every hand that wilderness\n     stretched, before you came to cleared or cultivated fields, and\n     wondered if any bear or moose was watching the light of my fire;\n     for nature looked sternly upon me on account of the _murder of the\n     moose_.\n\n     'Strange that so few ever come to the woods to see how the pine\n     lives and grows and spires, lifting its ever-green arms to the\n     light--to see its perfect success; but most are content to behold\n     it in the shape of many broad boards brought to market, and deem\n     _that_ its true success. But the pine is no more lumber than man\n     is, and to be made into boards and houses is no more its true and\n     highest use, than the truest use of a man is to be cut down and\n     made into manure. There is a higher law affecting our relation to\n     pines as well as to men. A pine cut down, a dead pine, is no more a\n     pine than a dead human carcass is a man. Can he who has discovered\n     only some of the values of whalebone and whale oil be said to have\n     discovered the true use of the whale? Can he who slays the elephant\n     for his ivory be said to have 'seen the elephant'? These are petty\n     and accidental uses; just as if a stronger race were to kill us in\n     order to make buttons and flageolets of our bones; for everything\n     may serve a lower as well as a higher use. Every creature is better\n     alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who\n     understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy\n     it.\n\n     'Is it the lumberman, then, who is the friend and lover of the\n     pine, stands nearest to it, and understands its nature best? Is it\n     the tanner who has barked it, or he who has boxed it for\n     turpentine, whom posterity will fable to have changed into a pine\n     at last? No! no! it is the poet; he it is who makes the truest use\n     of the pine--who does not fondle it with an axe, nor tickle it with\n     a saw, nor stroke it with a plane--who knows whether its heart is\n     false without cutting into it--who has not bought the stumpage of\n     the town on which its stands. All the pines shudder and heave a\n     sigh when _that_ man steps on the forest floor. No, it is the poet,\n     who loves them as his own shadow in the air, and lets them stand. I\n     have been into the lumber yard, the carpenter's shop, the tannery,\n     the lamp-black factory, and the turpentine clearing; but when at\n     length I saw the tops of the pines waving and reflecting the light\n     at a distance over all the rest of the forest, I realized that the\n     former were not the highest use of the pine. It is not their bones\n     or hide or tallow that I love most. It is the living spirit of the\n     tree, not its spirit of turpentine, with which I sympathize, and\n     which heals my cuts. It is as immortal as I am, and, perchance, may\n     go to as high a heaven, there to tower above me still.'\n\nReader, was not this man a nature lover, a nature limner, worthy to take\nhis place among our Giffords, Whittredges, McEntees, Bierstadts, and\nBeards? Truly original, natural, and American, who among our descriptive\nwriters can surpass H. D. Thoreau?\n\n     PRIMARY LESSONS FOR DEAF MUTES. By J. A. JACOBS,\n     A. M., Principal of the Kentucky Institution for the Education of\n     Deaf Mutes. New York: John F. Trow, Printer & Publisher, 50 Greene\n     street, between Broome & Grand. 1864.\n\nAn excellent little work, intended to impart some of the rudimentary\nbranches of learning to that interesting class of our fellow beings who\ncan neither speak nor hear. Every effort made for their instruction\nshould be cordially welcomed, for sad indeed is their position, and very\ndifficult the discovery of means to reach and develop their often very\nbright intelligence. These lessons can be used by parents, guardians, or\nelder brothers and sisters, before the deaf-mute child is old enough to\nsend to a regular institution. They are divided into two parts, bound in\nseparate little volumes, and _filled_ with cuts illustrating the\ntext--or rather, the text, as is proper in such a work, illustrates the\ncuts, which occupy the larger portion of the book. Teachers cannot but\nfind these aids of incalculable value.\n\n     THE RELATIONS OF THE INDUSTRY OF CANADA WITH THE MOTHER COUNTRY\n     AND THE UNITED STATES. Being a Speech by ISAAC\n     BUCHANAN, Esq., M. P., as delivered at the late Demonstration\n     to the Parliamentary Opposition at Toronto; together with a series\n     of Articles in defence of the National Sentiments contained\n     therein, which originally appeared in the columns of the _Hamilton\n     Spectator_, from the pen of Mr. Buchanan; to which is added a\n     Speech delivered by him at the Dinner given to the Pioneers of\n     Upper Canada, at London, Canada West, 10th December, 1863. Now\n     first published in complete and collected form, with copious Notes\n     and Annotations, besides an extended Introductory Explanation, and\n     an Appendix containing various valuable Documents. Edited by\n     HENRY J. MORGAN, Corresponding Member of the New York\n     Historical Society, and Author of 'Sketches of Celebrated\n     Canadians.' Montreal: Printed by John Lovell, St. Nicholas. 1864.\n\nWe recommend this book to such of our readers as may be interested in\npolitical economy, not as sound in theory, but as containing a vast\narray of facts and giving considerable information with regard to the\ninternal affairs of our neighbor Canada. The Reciprocity Treaty comes in\nfor its share of consideration. Mr. Buchanan is a Protectionist, and\nuses the arguments of his party with considerable ability. The question\nof annexation is also incidentally touched upon. We do not know that we\ncan give our readers a better idea of the contents and policy of this\nbook than by placing the dedication before them.\n\n     'To the leaders of the forthcoming Party of Order, I dedicate these\n     pages, because I feel that the province is at the winning or the\n     losing, and that we shall hereafter have to hail you as the honored\n     instruments of our Political and Industrial salvation.\n\n     'In Mr. Buchanan's Letter to the Editor of the Globe, assuring him\n     publicly that Mr. Buchanan and all his friends, as in the Past, so\n     in the Future, would be found opponents to the death of Annexation,\n     and not its friends, as that journal basely insinuated, he states\n     that he is of no party, though reluctantly compelled to be in\n     opposition to the present ministry in consequence of their acts,\n     Executive as well as Legislative; but that he is of a class far\n     more numerous than the 'thick and thin' adherents of either of the\n     present _soi-disant_ parties. Those alluded to by Mr. Buchanan will\n     form a new party--the Party of Order, which will probably be called\n     the 'Constitutional Party'--its platform being broad enough to hold\n     all who value and respect the time-honored Constitution, whether\n     they be original Reformers or Conservatives in name. The new Party\n     of Order will comprise these elements:\n\n     'First. Conservative Liberals, or old Reformers, who have been\n     taught by experience, and are willing now to adopt the word\n     'Conservative,' at least in its adjective sense.\n\n     'Secondly. Liberal Conservatives, or old Tories, or their\n     descendants, who have also been taught by experience, and are\n     willing to adopt the word 'Liberal,' at least in its adjective\n     sense.\n\n     'Thirdly. Conservatives, and Conservative Liberals, who have\n     unwittingly been mingled up with the incendiary party, composed of\n     'Clear Grits' and 'Rouges.'\n\n     'And that in your discussions on the great question of the\n     Reciprocity Law, now about to agitate both Canada and the United\n     States, these pages may be of some service, is the fond hope of\n     your obedient servant,\n                                                      'THE EDITOR.'\n\n     FAMILY PRIDE. By the Author of 'Pique.' Philadelphia: T.\n     B. Peterson & Brothers, 306 Chestnut street.\n\nFamily Pride is a novel of still greater interest than 'Pique.' The plot\nis well conceived, the characters skilfully developed, and the attention\nis fascinated even to the end. The moral is unexceptionable, the style\nfresh and pure. We must however enter an earnest protest against the\nmanifest injustice of the closing sentence, where the talented author\nhas gone out of his way to find a blot for his book, the only stain upon\nhis fair pages. It reads thus: 'After a variety of vicissitudes, she had\nembraced the Romish faith: that religion which relieves from all\npersonal responsibility in spiritual matters; and which teaches that\nearthly penance and ascetic observances will open the gates of heaven to\nthe vilest of criminals.' We have studied Westminster, Episcopal, and\nCatholic catechisms, the teachings in all three of which are that faith\nin Christ and sorrow for and renunciation of sin alone can open the\ngates of heaven. We regard it as the duty of a conscientious reviewer to\npoint out an erroneous statement wherever it occurs, whether in regard\nto the faith of Protestants, Catholics, Hebrews, Mohammedans, Fire\nWorshippers, or any other classes of men whatsoever. Misstatement has\ncaused an immense deal of bloodshed and bitterness among Christians. The\nwalls of Zion must be built of the stones of truth.\n\n     THE TANNER BOY, AND HOW HE BECAME LIEUTENANT-GENERAL. By\n     MAJOR PENNIMAN. 'The boy is father to the man.' Fifth\n     thousand. Boston: Roberts Brothers, publishers, 143 Washington\n     street. 1864.\n\nA lively account of the boyhood and subsequent career of one likely to\nbe famous in American history. The nation's eyes are at this moment\nturned hopefully upon the result of Gen. Grant's campaign in Virginia,\nand all will be glad to learn that his previous life offers so fair and\npleasant a record. One observation, however, we feel called upon to make\nto the entertaining Major: the youth of America should be taught to\nlove, to live for, and, if need be, to die for their country; but they\nshould also be taught to shun narrow exclusiveness and boastful vanity.\nA government of a whole people should in this respect set a noble\nexample to all other nations.\n\nThe 'Tanner Boy' has already reached its 'fifth thousand,' and will no\ndoubt be eagerly read by all the patriotic boys and girls in the land.\n\n     WAX FLOWERS. J. E. Tilton & Co., Boston. 1864.\n\nThis little book contains somewhat over a hundred pages, and is gotten\nup in the attractive style for which the publications of this firm have\nbecome noted. A prefatory chapter sets forth the object of the work, and\nthe claims of the art. The first part treats of Wax Fruit, giving the\nmethods of making moulds and casting therefrom, of preparing the wax, of\ncoloring the fruit and giving it the proper outward texture. The second\npart describes all the articles and materials required for making even\nthe most elaborate of WAX FLOWERS; gives the way of preparing\nthe wax, including its formation into sheets of any required thickness,\nwith all the minutiae relating to coloring, &c. The text is clearly and\nsimply written, and by the aid of ample illustrations everything is made\nplain to the learner.\n\nIt is wonderful how exquisitely flowers may be imitated--making one wish\na device for the secreting of the appropriate perfumes.\n\n  The wax once gathered by bees through many a bower,\n  Glows again in the form of a beautiful flower.\n\nThe artist in wax enjoys the best of opportunities for learning Botany,\nboth analytically and synthetically. A series of models in wax would\nmake the ocular study of botany possible throughout the year. The taste\nfor wax flowers is becoming widely extended, and high prices are brought\nby the finest specimens of the art. Humanity should heartily welcome an\nemployment which enables many to escape the suicide of the needle!\n\n     DENISE. By the Author of 'Mademoiselle Mori.' In two vols.\n     New York: James G. Gregory, 540 Broadway.\n\nThere is a strange charm about this book. The story is common enough,\nthe characters have nothing original in their conception, and yet we are\nfascinated by the detailed truth of the portraiture from the first page\nto the last. The scenes are laid in Farnoux, a town in the old Provencal\ndistricts. The ancient views and manners are still retained, and\ninterest us by the force of contrast with our own. Mademoiselle Le\nMarchand, an odd old maid, with a genius for painting, is really the\ncharacter of the book. Denise, the heroine, is quietly and faithfully\ndrawn. Various picturesque phases of the Catholic faith are artistically\nmanaged, while the faith itself is not treated with much courtesy. As a\ngeneral thing we do not like theological novels written from foregone\nconclusions. We can imagine however that such a subject might be made\nintensely interesting. If a master mind of perfect impartiality would\ngive us the effect produced upon two minds of equal mental power, of\nequal moral worth, by Protestantism or Catholicity--such a study would\nboth interest and instruct. All religious nicknames should be avoided,\nas offensive both to charity and refined taste. Episcopalians do not\nlike to be called Anglicans; Friends, Quakers; Baptists, Hardshells;\nUnitarians, Pantheists; nor Catholics, Romanists. Let us use courtesy to\nall men, that so we may have more weight when we attack erroneous\nprinciples.\n\nBy all means read Denise; its studies of the heart are close and\naccurate.\n\n\n\n\nEDITOR'S TABLE.\n\n\nTHE CAMPAIGN.\n\n[_Furnished by a Friend of the Editor of_ THE CONTINENTAL.]\n\nThree routes of operation are open to an army designing to proceed\nagainst Richmond: first, along the Orange and Alexandria Railroad to\nCharlottesville; second, along the railroad from Fredericksburg to\nHanover Court House; and third, by the way of Fortress Monroe. The first\nhas the disadvantage of presenting a long line of communication,\nconstantly exposed to inroads from guerillas, and for the purposes of\nwarfare may be considered as utterly impracticable. It would not, in\nfact, be worth considering, had not some critics of Gen. Grant's\nmovements absurdly insisted that he ought to have adopted this route.\nThe second route is far more advantageous, and had Gen. Grant's purposes\nbeen confined simply to putting his army before the rebel capital, and\nlying there to seize such opportunities as the developments of the\ncampaign should afford, it might have been expedient to maintain by this\nroute communications with the Potomac. But the intentions of our\nLieutenant-General were of a much more comprehensive character. While,\ntherefore, following this route in his march, because it gave the most\ndirect and shortest line to Richmond, he did not use the railroad as a\nmeans of communication. His aim was fixed on an ulterior object. He\ndesigned to put his army in such a position that it should be constantly\nassailing Richmond by its presence, although not a gun should be fired.\nHe, therefore, tried the strength of the rebel works, in passing, and\nfinding that time would be spent uselessly in attempting to overthrow\nthem either upon the north or the east, he proceeded to the new position\nsouth of the James, and adopted the third route mentioned for his\ncommunication with the North, having previously used it, also, for the\ntransportation to the ultimate scene of conflict of a part of his forces\nunder Gen. Butler.\n\nAmong military men, there have been, since the commencement of the war,\nmany advocates for an attack on Richmond from the position at\nPetersburg. It has many advantages. The facilities for transporting\nsupplies are easy, it isolates the capital of the Southern government\nfrom its southern and eastern connections, it interferes largely with\nthe internal trade of the confederacy, it confines the rebel army in a\nnarrow space, and it necessitates constant efforts on the part of the\nconfederate commanders to expel the Northern forces, thus constraining\nthem to leave their works and become assailants. In fine, the position\naffords more opportunities for strategically investing Richmond than any\nother which is accessible to our armies.\n\nA clear perception of these advantages determined Gen. Grant to adopt\nthe position at Petersburg. He was aware that Richmond could not be\ndirectly invested except with a very large army. He desired to\naccomplish the results which such an investment would give. He sought to\ncut off the city from its principal channels of communication--to\ndeprive it of its main resources. Have these purposes been effected? At\nthe time we write it is announced that the army occupies the railroad\nleading to Weldon, thus breaking the communication with North Carolina;\nthat our cavalry has destroyed a portion of the road leading to\nLynchburg; that the forces operating under Gen. Hunter have also\ndestroyed portions of the Virginia Central and the road between\nGordonsville and Lynchburg; they have also damaged the James River\nCanal. The only railroad communication now existing between Richmond and\nthe South is that by way of Danville. Before this reaches our readers we\ntrust that the effects of these efforts to isolate the capital of the\nconfederacy will become evident; that the rebel army will be forced to\nleave its intrenchments and meet our brave soldiers in the field, and\nthat the conflict may have resulted in victory for the cause of the\ncountry and of freedom.\n\nThe various steps of the process by which the army gained the position\nat Petersburg are already well known. From the time the camps at\nCulpepper Court House were broken up, until the lines were established\nsouth of the James river, the series of movements consisted in masterly\nmarches by the left, compelling the enemy constantly to fall back from\nhis intrenched positions to points farther in his rear. Such movements\nwere not, however made until after trials of the enemy in the front,\nsome of which resulted in splendid partial successes. They were,\nhowever, not conclusive. The flank movements of our army belong to that\nclass which are considered among the most difficult in warfare,\nrequiring great skill in commanders to arrange their details, and\nendurance and discipline in the troops to effect them. It is no easy\nmatter to change position in the face of a wary and vigorous enemy,\nready to fall upon any exposed point in the long array of a marching\ncolumn. Yet, several times, the manoeuvre has been skilfully and\nsuccessfully performed, and each time the rebels have learned it too\nlate to profit by the chances offered for a surprise.\n\nHundreds of miles distant from the principal point of attraction in\nVirginia, the other great army of the Union, under Gen. Sherman, has\nalso been performing similar feats--turning by well-directed marches,\none after another, the intrenched positions of the enemy in the\nmountainous district of Georgia. Atlanta, the object of its toils, is a\ngreat centre of railroad communication, and when our armies obtain\npossession of it, the confederacy will experience another severing\nstroke, almost as severe as that which cleft it in twain by the capture\nof Vicksburg and the reopening of the Mississippi. By such strokes the\npretentious imposture of a Southern nation must be broken into\nfragments, even should the armies supporting it remain for a time\norganized and defiant; for, under the appliances of modern civilization\nand commerce, the possession of a railroad or internal depot of trade is\nalmost equivalent to the destruction of an army.\n\nThe campaigns of 1863 produced great results, as well geographically as\nin the capture of men and munitions from the rebels. At the commencement\nof the year they held the Mississippi, they threatened Kentucky and the\nborders of the Ohio, they were able to draw supplies from Tennessee,\nArkansas, and Texas. They were, moreover, arrogantly defiant toward the\nNorth, and boasted of their ability to march to its great commercial\ncentres. At the close of the year they were driven to the confines of\nGeorgia, they were separated from the trans-Mississippi region, their\nboasting had been brought to humility at Gettysburg. The objects to be\naccomplished in the great campaign of 1864 are to drive in upon each\nother the two armies which resist our progress in Virginia and Georgia,\nand to compress the rebellion into the Southern Atlantic States. This\ndone, the existence of secession is practically at an end, though it may\nbrag as loudly as ever and keep on foot its armies. For without\nVirginia, and without the connections of Atlanta, the existence of an\nindependent government in the South is impossible: sufficient country\nwould not remain to support so magnificent an affair. The loss of\nVirginia in fact would be the fatal blow to the rebellion; for, however\nSouth Carolina may exalt herself, and however the other States of the\nSouth may aspire, yet it is Virginia which gives tone and respectability\nto the Southern confederacy. It is for this, far more than because it is\nthe rebel capital, that the capture of Richmond is desirable.\n\nBut should it happen--which fortunately is not a reasonable\nsurmise--that the objects of this year's campaign should not be\nattained, we consider that the Southern confederacy exists only in\npretence. Should its ports be to-day opened, should our armies fall back\nto their primary bases of operation, should European Powers formally\ndeclare that a slave republic exists, yet the new nation would be\npractically a nonentity. Does any one suppose that the United States\nwould yield Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas, New Orleans, and\nthe Mississippi; that the freemen of Western Virginia would be forsaken;\nthat Fortress Monroe and Port Royal would be abandoned? How long would a\nnation so surrounded, so intersected, exist, or how could it achieve any\nprosperity, character, and stability? Constant war, in the effort to\nexpand and perfect its borders, would be its necessity; but such a\nnecessity would be its destruction. There is no possibility of\ncompromise or arrangement in the contest in which we are engaged, except\nwith the parallel of the Potomac and the Ohio as the dividing border;\nbut such an arrangement is impossible; entire reconquest becomes the\nimperative; it may be delayed, our present hopes may be disappointed,\nbut the march of our armies thus far has trodden out the life from the\nSouthern attempt at independence, and any future existence it may have\nwill be merely muscular paroxysms--not the steady, regular, automatic\nmovements of freedom and spontaneity.\n\nAny notice of the operations of our armies would be incomplete without\ntributes to the ability of commanders and the valor of our soldiers. In\nno previous period of the war have these been more strikingly\nexemplified. The capacity of man to endure and his ability to exert\nhimself continuously without exhausting his energy, are very wonderful.\nThe reader of military history is constantly struck with this, in\nperusing accounts of sieges and marches and battles. War is always\naccompanied with a host of terrors--exposures to heat, cold, and\ntempests, marches through swamps and snows, suffering by hunger and\nthirst and fatigue, lying with bleeding wounds for days and nights\nbetween the lines of friends and foes, toil, danger, privation, pain, in\nevery form. But among the memorable campaigns in the history of war,\nnone is more marked for its incessant activity and the cheerful alacrity\nwith which every hardship was endured, than that in which our army\nmarched from the Rapidan to the James. From Georgia, too, we have\nsimilar accounts of difficulties met only to be surmounted. Heaven bless\nour gallant soldiers everywhere! A nation's hopes and prayers are with\nthem. May they know the soldier's dearest delight--victory!","title":"The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 2,  August, 1864: Devoted to Literature and National Policy","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":77261}