Chapter VIII: Part 8

Also, have you already forgotten the foremost among heroes and patriots, and whose loss is more telling now than it was in 1861. Forgotten one of the purest and noblest victims of Washington blindness, of General Scott's unmilitary policy and conduct. Forgotten the true son of the people? But O Lyons! thy name will be venerated by coming generations.

_August 4: L. B._--_The Cliques._

_a_ The worst, and the womb of all evils is the Weed-Seward clique. Around it group contractors, jobbers, shoddy, and all kinds of other social impurities.

_b_ The ambitious, intriguing, selfish, narrow-minded West Point clique.

_c_ The not brave, not patriotic, and freedom-hating, unintelligent McClellan clique.

_d_ Copperheads of various hues and gradations.

Cliques _a_, _b_, and _c_, generated and fostered Copperheads, and facilitated their expansion.

_e_ Imbeciles, lickspittles, politicians, etc.

_f_ The Lincolnites, closely intertwined with the _genus e_; the Blair men, etc.

_g_ The partisans of Chase. This clique is the most variously and most curiously composed. Honest imbeciles, makers of phrases, rhetors, heavy and narrow-minded, office-hunters, office expectants, politicians, contractors, admirers of pompousness and of would-be radicalism, all who turn round and round, and see not beyond their noses, etc.

Several minor cliques exist, but deserve not to be mentioned. Behind these mud-hills rises the true people, as the Himalayas rise above the plains of Asia.

_August 4._--Why could not Everett, that good and true patriot, preside over our relations with Europe; or why is that thorough American statesman, Governor Marcy, dead! How different, how respected, how truly American would have been the character of our relations with Europe! No prophecies, no lies would have been told, no gross ignorance displayed!

_August 4. L. B._--In the columns of the _Times_ a friend of Halleck tries to make a great man of the General-in-chief. Halleck repudiates Burnside and Hooker, but claims the victory at Gettysburgh, because Meade, being a good disciplinarian, executed Halleck's orders. So from his room in G street Washington, Halleck directed the repulse of the furiously attacking columns. Bravo! more bravo as no telegraph connects Washington with Gettysburgh!

Meade being a good disciplinarian, the crime of Williamsport falls upon Halleck; the commander-in-chief is the more responsible, as the crime was perpetrated under his nose; about four hours' drive could have brought him to our army, and then Halleck in person could have directed the attack upon the enemy.

From all that transpires about Williamsport one must conclude that Lee must have known that he would not be seriously attacked, and that he was not much afraid of the combined disciplinarian generalship.

Further: Halleck claims for himself Grant's success, because Grant obeyed orders, and Rosecrans did the same. How astonishing, therefore, that their campaigns ended in victories and not in such shame as Halleck at Corinth, in 1862. Rosecrans was inspired by telegraph to change defeat into victory; the indomitable Grant received by telegraph the fertility of resources shown by him at Vicksburgh. Oh! Halleck! you cannot succeed in thus belittling the two heroes, and you may tell your little story to the marines.

_August 4._--The Proclamation on retaliation is a well-written document; but like all Mr. Lincoln's acts it is done almost too late, only when the poor President was so cornered by events, that shifting and escape became impossible. If I am well informed Stanton long ago demanded such a Proclamation, but Lincoln's familiar demons prevented it. Nevertheless Lincoln will be credited for what intrinsically is not his.

_August 5: L. B._--Thomas--not Paul--Lincoln's pet, returns to the Mississippi to organise Africo-American regiments. For six months they organize, organize and have not yet fifteen thousand in field. If Stanton had been left alone, we would have to-day in battle order at least fifty thousand Africo-Americans.

_August 5: L. B._--All computed together, among all Western Continental European nations, the Germans, both here and in Germany, behave the best towards the North. I mean the genuine German people. Thinkers and rationalists are seldom, if ever, found on the wrong side. I rejoice to see the Germans behave so nobly.

_August 5._--The Peterhoff condemned, notwithstanding all the efforts to the contrary of our brilliant, versatile and highly erudite in international laws Secretary of state. But Mr. Seward will not understand the lesson. How could he?

_August 5: L. B._--At least for the fiftieth time, Seward insinuates to the public that we are on the eve of a breach with England--but Seward will prevent it. Oh, Oh! Yes, O Seward! when backed by the iron clads and by twenty-two millions of a brave and stubborn people!

_August 5: L. B._--Poor Stanton, I pity him! After Weed comes the "little villain," with his puffs. Happily, the _World_ abuses Stanton, and this alone makes up even for the applause of Weed and his consorts.

_August 7: L. B._--COFFEY, Assistant Attorney-General, published a legal, official opinion on maritime, commercial _copperheadism_; that is, when an American vessel, from an American port, is sent in ballast to a neutral port to load there, afterwards to run the blockade, Coffey proves it to be treason and criminality. The document is clear, logical, precise and not wordy: not in the style of the State Department logomachy. Why, O why cannot such younger men be at the head! Emancipation would have been carried out, slavery destroyed, the Union restored, rebels crushed, and the French murderers and imperial lackeys would cut very respectful capers to please a great people.

_August 8: L. B._--I shudder as I pass in review what little is done at such an enormous expenditure of human limbs and of human life, not to speak of squandered time, labor and money.

It seems that the prevailing rule is to reach the smallest results at the greatest possible cost. General Scott, Seward and Lincoln early laid down that rule. McClellan, that quintessence of all unsoldierlike capacities, faithfully continued what was already inaugurated. Halleck almost perfected it; and so it became a chronic disease of the leading spirits in the Administration, Stanton and Welles excepted. That sacrilegious, murderous method and rule, at times was forcibly violated by Grant, by Rosecrans, by Banks, by the glorious Farragut, by Admiral Porter. The would-be statesmen either see nothing or do not wish to see what ill-disposed minds could consider to be an almost premeditated slaughter.

I know too well that every initiation is with sacrifice or blood. It is a law of progress, absolute, not made by man, but cut out for him by fate or providence. In a stream of his mother's life-blood man enters this world; by the blood of the Redeemer the Christian becomes initiated to another, called a better world. Sacrifice and blood prevail throughout the eons of the initiation of human societies and religions. Through sacrifice and blood the Reformation became a redeemer. Great results are reached at great cost. I am an atom in a generation which, to assert her deep, earnest convictions, never caved in before blood and sacrifice; a generation that has labored and still labors, spreads seed and begins to harvest; a generation which regrets nothing, and cheerfully takes the responsibility of its actions. And with all this, the men of convictions and of undaunted revolutionary courage in Europe, bestowed and bestow more care upon any unnecessary sacrifice of human life than I witness here. By heavens! Marat, Saint Just, Robespierre, could be considered lambs when compared with the _faiseurs_ here. And Marat, Saint Just, and Robespierre were fanatics of ideas: here they are _fanaticised_ by selfishness, intrigue, helplessness and imbecility.

_August 9: L. B._--For the last few months men of sound and dispassionate judgment tried to convince me that there is somewhere, in high regions, a settled purpose to prolong the war until the next presidential election. I always disbelieved such assertions; but now, considering all this criminal sluggishness, I begin to believe in the existence of such a criminal purpose.

_August 9: L. B._--All the open and secret Copperhead organs raise a shrill cry on account of what they pervert into McClellan's general Report of his unmilitary campaigns. When a commander is in the field, he is in duty bound, as soon as possible, that is, in the next few weeks, to send to his superior or to the Government, a Report of each of his military movements and operations. McClellan ought to have immediately made a Report to the Government after his _bloodless victory_ at Centreville and Manassas; a victory crowned with maple trophies! Then McClellan ought to have sent another Report after the great success at Yorktown, and so on. Every period of his campaign ought to have been separately reported. It is done in all well organized governments and armies, and it is the duty of the staff of the army to prepare such periodical, successive Reports. Even if the sovereign himself takes the field, the staff of the army sends such Reports to the Secretary of War. Nobody stood in the way of McClellan's doing what it was his imperative duty to do, and to do immediately.

But it is unheard of that a commander during a year at the head of an army, should take another year to prepare his Report. No self-respecting government would allow such an insubordination, or accept such a tardy Report. If a government should act upon such a Report, it would be rather by dismissing from service, etc., the sluggish--if not worse--commander.

The so-called "McClellan's Report," concocted by a board of choice Copperheads in New York, and of which the _World's_ hireling was an amanuensis, that production is certainly an elaborate essay on McClellan's campaigns, is certainly bristling with afterthoughts and _post facta_, as pedestals for the fetish's altar. It must have on its face the mark of combination, but not of truth. Such a Report--not written on the spot, in the atmosphere of activity, not written by officers of the staff, not by the Chief-of-staff--such a Report cannot command or inspire any confidence; it has not, and ought not to have any worth in the Government's archives. McClellan may publish his memoirs, or essays, or anything else, and therein may shine this labor of a _dasippus_ assisted by vipers.

_August 11: L. B._--In Washington they seem to insist that Grant shall take the command of the Potomac Army. If Grant accepts, he will be a ruined man. Grant ought to have Pope in memory. Grant soon will see stained his glorious and matchless military record. He will not withstand the cliques and the underground intrigues of craving, selfish and unsatisfied ambitions.

If Halleck could only know what in a European army any tyro knows, Halleck would make Mr. Lincoln understand that such an appointment must produce confusion, as no regular staffs exist in our army. (I spoke somewhere about it.)

_August 13: L. B._--Can it be possible that several from among the Republicans, honest leaders, gravitate towards Lincoln, and already begin to agitate for Lincoln's re-election? If it is so--if the people submit to such an imposition--O, then, genius of history, go in mourning!

_August 13: L. B._--The Board appointed by Stanton to investigate into the condition of the Africo-Americans, has published its dissertation--very poor--in the shape of a Report. Stanton intended to do a good thing by appointing that Board. It did not turn out so well as Stanton expected. What is the use of expatiating--as do the three wise men in their Report--on certain psychological qualities and _non-qualities_ of the Africo-American? The paramount question is how to organize the emancipated in their condition of freedom. When Stanton appointed that Board he wished to have elucidated, if not settled, the way and manner in which to deal with the new citizens or semi-citizens; but Stanton was the last man to look for an old psychological re-hash, without any social or moral signification whatever; a re-hash whose axioms and apothegms are, at least, a quarter of a century _behind_ the scientific elucidations on races, on Africans, even on Anglo-Saxons.

_August 15: L. B._--Weeks ago Grant sent his Report, embracing the various operations connected with the fall of Vicksburgh. Grant did not want a year to make a school-boy like composition, as did McClellan with his quill-holders. Every word of Grant's Report resounds with military spirit and simplicity. Grant has not to put truth on the rack and throw dust into people's eyes. Three cheers for McClellan! Grant has confidence in the volunteers; not so McClellan, who had only confidence in shams. Grant and his army, at the best, were the second sons of the Administration--not of the people; to the last day McClellan was the pet, the spoiled child, and as such he disgraced his parents, tutors, etc., and ruined his parent's house.

_August 15._--A letter published by the Honorable W. Whiting, (who is now traveling,) occasions much noise. The letter is pointed and keen, but the writer knows mighty little about international laws. Almost _a priori_ he recognizes in the rebels, as he says, "only the rights of belligerents." Only the rights of belligerents! Such rights are very ample, and for this reason they belong in their plenitude exclusively to absolutely independent nations. To recognize _a priori_ such rights in the rebels, is equivalent to recognizing them as an independent nation. In pure and absolute principle of modern (not Roman) _jus gentium_, rebels have not only no belligerent rights, but not any rights at all. Rebels are _ipso facto_ outlaws in full. Writers like Abbe Galiano, Vatel, etc., for the sake of humanity and expediency, recommend to the lawful sovereign to use mercy, to treat rebels _in parte_ as belligerents, and not as _a priori_ condemned criminals.

_August 16: L. B._--Seward is to promenade the diplomats over the country. He is Barnum, the diplomats are the menagerie. Poor Lord Lyons. Very probably it is Seward's last rocket to draw upon himself the attention of the people.

_August 16. L. B._--The probabilities of a rupture with France are upon the public mind. I still misbelieve it. I have not the slightest doubt that the _Decembriseur_ is full of treachery towards the North, and that his Imperialist lackeys blow brimstone against the Northern principles. But are the French people so debased as to submit? We shall see. Let that crowned conspirator begin a war of treason against the North. Before long the French people will put an end to the war and to the Decembriseur.

_August 16. L. B._--I learn that Watson has very gravely injured his health by labor, that is, by being the most faithful servant of the country and of its cause. I never, anywhere in my life, met a public officer so undaunted at his duties, so unassuming, so quiet as Watson, in his duties of Assistant Secretary of War, which are as thorny as can be imagined. Watson was, and I hope will be for the future, the terror of lobbyists, of bad contractors, of jobbers--in one word, the terror of all the leeches of the people's pocket. And it honors Stanton to have brought into his Department such a man as Watson. I heard and hear, and read a great many accusations against Stanton; but I never found any proofs which could virtually diminish my confidence. To use a classical, stupid, rhetorical figure: Stanton is not of antique mould. And who is now? But he is a sincere, devoted and ardent patriot; he broadly comprehends the task and the duty to save the country, and he sees clearly and distinctly the ways and means to reach the sacred aim. Stanton may have, and very many assert that he has, numerous bristles in his character, in his deportment. Let it be so. It is the worse for him, but not for the cause he serves.

_August 16. L. B._--Are the people again to receive a President from the hand of intriguers, from politicians, or from honest imbeciles? If the people will stand it, then they deserve to be kept in leading strings by all that medley.

_August 16. L. B._--Rosecrans wants mounted infantry. The men of the day, the men who understand and comprehend the exigencies, the necessities of the war, they pierce through the rotten crust of fogyism. That is promise and hope. The great organizers of the army--the McClellans and the Hallecks--could never have found out that mounted infantry is necessary, and will render good service. Mounted infantry was not considered a necessity in the West Point halls, and Jomini mentions it not. How should a Halleck do so?

_August 17. L. B._--A defender of slavery, a Copperhead, and a traitor, differ so little from each other, that a microscope magnifying ten thousand times would not disclose the difference. A proslaveryist, a Copperhead, and a traitor, are the most perfect _tres in unum_.

_August 18. L. B._--General Meade is absent from the army, and Humphreys, his chief-of-staff, is temporarily in command. I notice this fact as a proof that a more rational, intelligent comprehension prevails in the military service. A chief-of-staff is the only man to be the _locum-tenens_ of the commander. At Williamsport Humphreys voted for fight. It would be well if Meade should not return to again take the command.

_August 18._--A patriotic gentlewoman asked me why I write a diary? "To give conscientious evidence before the jury appointed by history."

_August 20._--On the first day of the draft, I had occasion to visit New York. All was quiet. In Broadway and around the City Hall I saw less soldiers than I expected. The people are quiet; the true conspirators are thunderstruck. Before long, the names will be known of the genuine instigators of arson and of murder in July last. The tools are in the hands of justice, but the main spirits are hidden. Smart and keen wretches as are the leading Copperheads, they successfully screen their names; nevertheless before long their names will be nailed to the gallows. The _World_--which, for weeks and weeks, so devotedly, so ardently poisoned the minds, and thus prepared the way for any riot--the _World_ was and is a tool in the hands of the hidden traitors. The _World_ is a hireling, and does the work by order.

_August 21. L. B._--The final destiny of the Potomac Army seems to be to keep Lee at bay but not to attack him. Oh! the disgraced soldiers and officers! Chickahominy, Antietam, Fredericksburgh, Gettysburgh, are the indestructible evidences of the mettle of the army, and of the poverty or total eclipse of generalship.

_August 21._--Impressionable, excitable, wave-like agitated as are my dear American countrymen, they altogether forget _the yesterday_, and shout the last success. Further: the people cannot see clearly through the stultifying or the dirty dust blown in the peoples' eyes; 1st, by the politicians of all hues, from the Woods, Weeds, Forneys, to the Greeleys, by the simon-pures or the lobby-impures; 2d, by the press of all parties and shades of parties. The people may again make a mistake. Is not Lincoln hailed as the new Moses? as the man for the times, as the only one God sent to direct the people, and to grapple with the stern, earnest emergencies and perils? Emancipation is not Lincoln's, is not Sumner's, is not anybody's personal special work. The necessities, the emergencies of the times and of the hour did it. Their current drifted Mr. Lincoln irresistibly along, and to a shore where he must land or perish.

_August 23. L. B._--From the tone of certain papers, and from private letters, I perceive that Weed-Seward are hard at work to pacify, to reunite, to save slavery and to leave unnoticed humanity and national honor. The unterrified Democrats become Weed's allies, and the alliance is to carry Seward into the White House. _Nous verrons._

Chase is to overturn Seward-Weed and to secure the prize. Oh, the intriguers.

On the authority of the published "DIARY," I am asked, even by letters, "Where is Stanton?" "I do not know, and I do not care," is my answer. I would however, like to be sure that Stanton is not in that dirty path. I am Stanton's man, as they call it; but only as long as I find him to be _a man_.

_August 24. L. B._--The Democrats are arrogant in asserting their superior capacity for government, for carrying on the war, and for other great things. However, I am sure that the so-called Northern Democrats would have managed the affairs even worse than do now those sham representatives of the principles of the Republican party. No faith in a fundamental human, broad principle ever actuated the hard shell Democrats. McClellan and the immense majority of generals, have been, or are full-blooded Democrats, and their warlike prowess dragged the people into deep, deep mire. Democrats have to thank God for not being in power; in this way their incapacity to cope with such gigantic events is not exposed. The other fortunate occurrence for the Democrats is that the power-holders for the Republican party are--what everybody sees.

_August 24. L. B._--I very strongly and urgently advised Gen. Wadsworth to resign. No one in the country has fulfilled more nobly his civic and patriotic duty. I urged upon his mind that when the war is finished, the cause of right, of justice, the interests of a genuine self-government will require true men to rescue the people from the hands of the politicians. Vainly I remonstrated. Wadsworth prefers to remain in the service, and to fight the monster.

_August 24. L. B._--_Chasiana._ The New York leaders of the Chase scheme make all possible efforts and platitudes to _conciliate_ Weed and win him over. What dregs all around!

The immaculate Chase! to look for support to a Weed! To Weed-Seward, who for twenty-five years fanned the anti-slavery flame! Seward, whom the anti-slavery wave elevated where he is, and who now kicks and spits upon the men most ardent in the cause of emancipation! O dregs! O dregs!

_August 24: L. B._--The question of confiscation drags itself slowly on, and soon it may resound in the courts of the whole country. If confiscation is ever stringently executed, it will generate law-suits _ad libitum_ and _ad infinitum_. From the first day when the banner of rebellion was unfolded, _each State_ became an _outlaw_ in its relations with the Union. Such a rebel State has not a legal existence, and any legal act whatever between individual members--or rather, politically, sovereigns in and of the State--such acts are valueless in relation to the lawful sovereign, as is the Union.

The Confiscation Act is based on a wrong principle--the right to confiscate the whole rebel property in America. This right is derived from the public law. A conqueror of a country becomes _ipso facto_ the proprietor of all that belonged to the conquered sovereign and what is called public property, as domains, taxes, revenues, public institutions, etc. The rebels claim to be sovereigns--that is each freeman in each respective State is a respective sovereign. The area of such revolted State, with all the lands, cultivated or uncultivated, with the farms, and all industrial, mercantile or mining establishments whatever, is the property of the sovereign, or of the sovereigns. Property of a, or of many sovereigns, is in its whole nature a public property, and as such, _ipso facto_, is liable to be confiscated by the conqueror.

_August 24: L. B._--The massacre at Lawrence, Kansas, must exclusively be credited to those who appointed for that region a pro-slavery military commander. But the power-holders are not troubled by more or less blood, by more or less victims of their incapacity and double-dealing!

_August 25: L. B._--Any future historian must beware not to seek light in the newspapers of this epoch. The so-called good press throws no light on events; that press is not in the hands of statesmen or of thinkers, or of ardent students of human events, or of men having for their aim any pursuits of science or knowledge. The luminaries of the press are no beacons for the people during this bloody and deadly tempest! For the sake of what is called political capital, the most simple fact often becomes distorted and upturned by this political, short-sighted, and selfishly envious press.

_August 26: L. B._--All things considered, the inflation of the currency and the rise in gold has proved to be beneficial to the country. The agricultural interest, above all, in the West, was particularly sustained thereby. Wheat and grain would have fallen to prices ruinous for the farmers. When the gold fell, the farmer felt it by the reduction of the price of his produce. The agriculturist, the backbone and marrow of the country, spends less money for manufactured products than he netted clear profits by the rise in gold. If the farmer sold now his wheat for six shillings, without inflation the price might have been four shillings, and then the farmer would have been bankrupt, unable to pay the taxes. The inflation saved the greatest interest in the country. And thus agriculture and industry flourish, the country is not ruined, is not bankrupt, as the European wiseacres took great pleasure in foreboding that it would be. So much for _absolute_ laws of political economy.

_August 27: L. B._--The New York Republican papers insinuate that a Mr. Evarts, who was sent to Europe by Mr. Seward, has given assurances to European governments that slavery will be abolished. If such declaration was needed, why not make it through the regular representatives of the country, as are Mr. Adams and Mr. Dayton? Mr. Seward is incorrigible. I am curious to know where he learned this original mode of _diplomatizing_. Such unofficial, confidential, semi-confidential agents confuse European governments. They inspire very little, if any respect for our statesmanship, and are offensive to our regularly appointed ministers. What must the crown lawyers in England have thought of Mr. Evart's great mastery of international laws?

_August 30._--Our military powers in Washington, led on and inspired by Halleck, cannot put an end to guerrillas, or rather to those highwaymen who rob, so to speak, at the military gates of Washington. Lieber-Halleck-Hitchcock's treatise frightened not the guerrillas, but most assuredly the gallows will do it. Everywhere else the like banditti would be summarily treated; and these would-be guerrillas here are evidences of the uttermost social dissolution. They are no soldiers, no guerrillas, and deserve no mercy.

_August 31: L. B._--According to the _Tribune_, Mr. Lincoln deserves all the credit for General Gilmore's success before Charleston. There we have it! Mr. Lincoln, outdoing Carnot for military sagacity and capacity, Mr. Lincoln approved Gilmore's plans. Mr. Lincoln-Halleck aiding--at once understood the laws of ballistics, and other _et ceteras_ which underlay the plan of every siege. And now to doubt that Lincoln, with his Halleck, are military geniuses! O _Tribune_!

_August 31: L. B._--I learned that Grant most positively refused to accept the command of the Potomac Army. They cannot ruin Grant--they will neutralize him.

SEPTEMBER, 1863.

Jeff Davis -- Incubuerunt -- O, Youth! -- Lucubrations -- Genuine
Europe -- It is forgotten -- Fremont -- Prof. Draper -- New
Yorkers -- Senator Sumner's Gauntlet -- Prince Gortschakoff --
Governor Andrew -- New Englanders -- Re-elections -- Loyalty --
Cruizers -- Matamoras -- Hurrah for Lincoln -- Rosecrans --
Strategy -- Sabine Pass, etc., etc., etc.

_September 1: L. B._--Jeff Davis is to emancipate eight hundred thousand slaves--calls them to arms, and promises fifty acres of land to each. Prodigious, marvellous, wonderful--if true. Jeff Davis will become immortal! With eight hundred thousand Africo-Americans in arms, Secession becomes consolidated--and Emancipation a fixed fact, as the eight hundred thousand armed will emancipate themselves and their kindred. Lincoln emancipates by tenths of an inch, Jeff Davis by the wholesale. But it is impossible, as--after all--such a step of the rebel chiefs is as much or even more, a death-warrant of their political existence, as the eventual and definitive victory of the Union armies would be. If the above news has any foundation in truth, then the sacredness of the principle of right and of liberty is victoriously asserted in such a way as never before was any great principle. The most criminal and ignominious enterprise recorded in history, the attempt to make human bondage the corner-stone of an independent polity, this attempt ending in breaking the corner-stone to atoms, and by the hands of the architects and builders themselves. Satan's revolt was virtuous, when compared with that of the Southern slavers, and Satan's revolt ended not in transforming Hell into an Eden, as will be the South for the slaves when their emancipation is accomplished. Emancipation, _n'importe par qui_, must end in the reconstruction of the Union.

_September 2: L. B._--Garibaldi to Lincoln. The letter, if genuine, is well-intentioned trash. I am afraid that this prolific letter-writing will use up Garibaldi. It seems that in letter-writing Garibaldi intends to rival Lincoln or Seward.

_September 3: L. B._--More and more manifestations in favor of Lincoln's re-election. All the New York Republican papers begin to be lined with Lincoln. And thus politicians in and out of the press will--

_Incubuerunt mare (people) totumque a sedibus imis._

_September 3: L. B._--In the great Barnum diplomatic tour, Seward killed under him nearly all the diplomats, and returned to Washington in company with one. Poor Europe, and its representatives, to be used up in such a way! But it is only the official Europe, the crowned privileged stratum patched up with rotten relics of massacre (December 2d,) of official, regal heartlessness and of servile cunning. That crust presses down the genuine Europe, the marrow of mankind. The genuine Europe is ardent, noble, progressive and coruscant; and from Cadiz to the White Sea, that genuine Europe is on the side of freedom, on the side of the North.

_September 3: L. B._--Lincoln to Grant, July 13. This letter shows how the President dabbles in military operations. It clearly establishes Mr. Lincoln's right to be considered at least a Carnot, if not a Napoleon, _vide_ the Republican newspapers.

_September 3: L. B._--State Conventions, and the old party-hacks under arms. Will not the younger generation rise in its might, break the chains of this intellectual subserviency, scatter the hacks to the winds, take the lead, enlighten the masses, find out new, not used-up men, brains and hearts, for the sacred duty of serving the people. To witness so much intelligence, knowledge, ardor, elasticity, clear-sightedness as animate the American youth, to witness all this subdued, curbed by the hacks!--O, youth, awake!

It is the most sacred duty of the younger generation, to rescue the country from the hands of the old politicians of every kind; to call to political paramount activity the better and purer agencies. It is a task as emphatically, nay, even more, urgent and meritorious than emancipation of the Africo-Americans.

_September 4: L. B._--In their official or unofficial quality, numerous Americans amorously dabble in International questions and laws. How much the _rights of war_, etc., have been discussed; how many letters, signed, anonymous, official and unofficial, have been published--and very little, if any light thrown on these questions. What a cruel fate of a future historian, who, if conscientious, will be obliged to read all these darkness-spreading lucubrations!

_September 5: L. B._--Mr. Lincoln's letter to the Illinois Convention stirs up the whole country. It is a very, _very_ good manifesto,--had it not a terrible YESTERDAY. It is a heavy bid for re-election and may secure it. The Americans forget the _yesterday_, and Mr. Lincoln's _yesterday!_ ... is full of shiftings, hesitations, mistakes which draw out the people's life-blood. The people will forget that a man of energy and of firm purpose in the White House, such a man would have at once clearly seen his way, and then a year ago rebellion and slavery would have been crushed.

A man of energy would not have had for his familiar demons, the Scotts, the Sewards, the Blairs, the border-state politicians, the Weeds, etc.

_September 5: L. B._--The siege of Charleston _tire en longueur_; it has cost thousand of lives and millions upon millions, and will still cost more. And it is already forgotten that when nearly two years ago Sherman and Dupont took Port Royal, Charleston and Savannah were defenceless; it is forgotten that Sherman asked for orders to siege the two cities, _but such were not given_ from Washington, because Mr. Lincoln-Seward (literally) was afraid to get possession of the focuses of rebellion, and General McClellan, with one hundred and fifty thousand men in Washington, could not bear the idea that the rebels should be disturbed either in Centerville or in their _chivalric_ homes in South Carolina. It is forgotten that civil and military leaders and chiefs then and there refused to deal a death blow to the rebellion.

And as I am _en train_ to recall to memory what is already forgotten, and what the Illinois letter intends to wholly erase from the people's memory; I go on.

In the first days and months after the explosion of the rebellion, Mr. Lincoln was as innocent of any wish to emancipate the slaves, as could be a Seward, or a Yancey, or McClellan, or a Magruder or a Wise or a Halleck. All this is forgotten. It is forgotten that General Butler is the earliest initiator of emancipation, and that to him exclusively belongs the word and the fact of an emancipated _contraband_. It is forgotten that when Butler began to emancipate the contrabands, the _big men_ in the Administration, Lincoln, General Scott, and Seward, became almost frantic against Butler for thus introducing the "nigger" into the struggle. The fate of Fremont is forgotten. Fremont was ahead of the times. Fremont emancipated when Lincoln-Seward-Scott-Blair, etc., heartily wished to save and preserve slavery. Down went Fremont.

Early in the summer of 1861 General Fremont wished to do what was now accomplished by the, until yet, _sans pareil_ Grant--that is, to clear the Mississippi at a time when neither Island No. 10, nor Vicksburgh, nor Port Hudson nor any other port was fortified. But the plan displeased and frightened the powers in Washington. Fremont was never to be pardoned for having shown farsightedness when _the great men_ deliberately blindfolded themselves. Fremont might not be a Napoleon, not a captain; Fremont committed military mistakes,--other generals commit military crimes.

The angel of justice very easily will white-wash Fremont from military responsibility for the unnecessary waste of human life; and with all his various faults Fremont's aspirations are patriotic and lofty, and he is by far a better and nobler man than all his revilers put together. But all this seems to be forgotten.

It is, or will be forgotten, what a bloody trail over the North is left, and has been imprinted by the half measures, the indecisions, and the vascillations of the Administration.

The medley composed of politicians, jobbers, contractors, and newspapers, already scream "Hosanna," and attempt to spatter with lies and dust the road to the White House, and thus to prepare the way. And the medley already shakes hands, and enemies kiss each other, because if their _elect_ succeeds, there will be peace over, and pickings for all the world. But the justice of history will overtake them all, and the better, younger generation will crush them to atoms.

_September 6. L. B._--Wilkes' _Spirit of the Times_ maintains its paramount, independent position in the American press. I cannot detect any shadow of a politician in its columns. It is all over independent and patriotic. The _Spirit_ fights the miscreants.

"_Principles not men_," is an axiom, but the axiom must be well understood and applied, and it has its limitations. Are bad, worthless, insincere, selfish men to be the agencies and the factors of great and lofty principles? Is such a thing possible? Is the example of Judas forgotten? O, you Bible-reading people, can Judases and rotten consciences carry out good principles? The press that teaches and preaches _principles not men_, that never dares to attack bad men in its own ranks, such a press betrays the confidence of the people, and degrades below expression the elevated and noble position which the press ought to occupy in the development of the progress of human society.

_September 6._--Computing together and comparing the mental and intellectual characteristics, the manifestations and utterances of passions in the Africo American and in the Irish of the Iro-Roman nursery, the anthropologist, the psychologist and the philosopher must give the palm to the Africo-American. And nevertheless Doctors of Divinity and many truly religious men plead in favor of slavery, that is, of brute force. I ask all such to meditate the words of Professor J. W. DRAPER, in his great and profound _History of the Intellectual Development of Europe: That brute force must give way to intellect, and that even the meanest human being has rights in the sight of God._

_September 10: New York._--Head-quarters of all kinds of politicians, of schemers, of perpetrators of treasonable attempts, of falsifiers, of poisoners of the people's mind. The rendezvous of those who devour the vitals of the country--who, as contractors, jobbers, brokers, stock and gold speculators, _agioteurs_, etc. are the most ardent patriots, and wish that the war may be indefinitely continued. In the columns of the _Herald_ the future historian will find the best information concerning all that--not-blessed race. The race deserves to be recorded and _scavenged_ in the _Herald_.

And nevertheless New York contains the most pure and the most devoted patriots. New York and New Yorkers have been foremost in coming to the rescue when the matricide rebels dealt their first blow. From New York came the best and the most energetic urgings on the gasping and vascillating Administration.

The New Yorkers originated the Sanitary Commission, for which I can find no words of sufficiently warm praise. New York contains many young, fresh, elevated and noble minds and intellects. Why, O why do some of them disappear in the muddy part of the great city, and others are overawed and overleaped by the hacks and by the politicians, or the so-called wire-pullers.

_September 10. New York._--It is the place to ascertain the manoeuvres of political schemers. Those who know, most emphatically assure me of the existence of the following _Sewardiana_.

1. Seward has given up in despair all dreams of finding people to back him for the next Presidency.

2. Seward hesitated between McClellan and Banks,

3. And finally settled on Lincoln;

4. And although afraid of being finally shelved by Lincoln, he advocates Lincoln's re-election--

5. As being the paramount means to politically murder Chase.

Oh American people! Oh American people! how those foul political pilferers dice for thy blood and thy destinies!

Years ago, I justified the existence and asserted the necessity of politicians in the political public life of America. I considered them an unavoidable and harmless result of free democratic institutions. [See "America and Europe."] At that time I observed the politician from a distance, and reasoned on him altogether metaphysically, after the so-called German fashion. Since 1861 I have come into personal contact with the genus politician--and oh! what a monstrous breed they are!

_September 10. New York._--Senator Sumner on our foreign relations. The Senator enumerates all the violations of good comity, of international duties, of the obligations of neutrals, violations so deliberately and so maliciously perpetrated by England and by France. But why has the Senator forgotten to ascend to one of the paramount causes? Previous to England or France, the State Department in Washington and Mr. Lincoln recognized in the rebels _the condition of belligerents_. It was done by the Proclamation instituting the blockade. The _Blue Book_ fully proves that already months before Mr. Lincoln's inauguration the English Government had a perfect knowledge of the vascillating policy which was to be inaugurated after March 1, 1861. At the same time, the English Government knew well that already previous to March 4, the rebel conspirators were fully decided on carrying out their treacherous aim across streams of blood. A long war was imminent, and a recognition of the rebels as _in parte_ belligerents, could not have been avoided. A part of the English nation, a part of the English Cabinet, was and is overflowing with the most malicious ill will, and such ones crave for an occasion to satisfy their hatred. But our domestic and foreign policy singularly served our English ill-wishers.

I deeply regret that the Senator preferred the halls of the Cooper Institute to the hall of the United States Senate; that he threw the gauntlet to Europe as a lecturer, when for days and months he could have done it so authoritatively as a Senator of the United States; could have done it from his senatorial chair, and in the fulfilment of the most sacred public and patriotic duty. How could the Senator thus belittle one of the most elevated political positions in the world, that of a Senator of the United States?

Not so happy is the part of the lecture concerning _Intervention_. It is rather sentimental than statesmanlike. _Intervention_ is, and will remain, an act of physical, material force, and history largely teaches that _Intervention_, even for higher moral purposes, was always exercised by the strong against the weak, the strong always invoking "higher motives." Thus did the Romans; and about a century ago, the Powers which partitioned Poland began by an _Intervention_, justified on "higher moral, etc. grounds."

_September 11: New York._--Prince Gortschakoff's answer to the demonstration of lying, hypocritical, official diplomatic sympathies made in favor of the Poles by the cabinets of France, of England, and of Austria. The Gortschakoff notes are masterpieces for their clear, quiet, but bold and decided exposition and argument, and in the records of diplomacy those notes will occupy the most prominent place. O, why cannot Mr. Seward learn from Gortschakoff how not to put gas in such weighty documents? Could Seward learn how to be earnest, precise and clear, without spread-eagleism? The greater and stronger a nation, the less empty phraseology is needed when one speaks in the nation's name.

_September 15._--Returned to Washington. From what I see and hear, Mr. Lincoln is earnestly and hard at work to secure his re-election. I hope that Mr. Lincoln is as earnest in his efforts to destroy Lee's army and to put an end to the guerrillas who rob to the right and to the left, and under the nose of the supreme military authorities.

Governor Andrew, of Massachusetts, always the same--active, intelligent, clear and far-sighted. Andrew is the man to act for, and in the name of the most intelligent community on the globe, which the State of Massachusetts undoubtedly is. As I have observed several times, Andrew is among the leading (_Americanize_, tip-top,) men of the younger generation, is no politician, and never was one. If a civilian is to be elected to the Presidency, Andrew ought to be the choice of the people, if the people will be emancipated from the politicians.

I learn that that monster, the politician, has almost wholly disappeared from New England, above all from Massachusetts. The New England people are too earnest and too intelligent to be the prey of the monster. Sound reason throttled the politician. All hail to this result of the bloody storm! I hope the other States will soon follow the example of Massachusetts.

The State of Massachusetts and the city of Boston noiselessly spend millions for their coast and harbor defences. Governor Andrew has the confidence of the people, and is untiring in procuring the best war material. He sent an agent to England to buy heavy guns.

If the English government take in sail, if it come to its senses and cease to be the rebels' army and navy arsenal, then all this will be due to such quiet and decisive active demonstrations as that above mentioned in Boston, in Massachusetts, and the similar activity of the New Yorkers, and not at all to any persuasive arguments of Mr. Seward's dispatches.

_September 16._--Mr. Seward is slightly mending his ways. His last circular for the foreign market is considerably sobered, and almost barren of prophecy. Almost no spread-eagleism, no perversion, although geography and history, of course, are a little maltreated.

And so, Mr. Prophet, you at least recognize the utility of arming the Africo-Americans. And who is it that openly and by secret advice and influence in the cabinet and out of it, who, during more than a year, did his utmost to counteract all the efforts to emancipate and to arm the oppressed?

_September 16._--The draft is seriously complained of, and the drafted desert in all directions. To tell the truth, drafting is odious to every nation, whatever be its government. But it is a dire necessity, and it is impossible to avoid or to turn it. The draft became here imperatively necessary by the long uninterrupted chain of helplessness and mismanagement of events, the sacrifice of blood and of time. But for the advice of the Scotts, of the Sewards, of the Blairs, but for the military prowess of McClellan and his _minions_, but for the high military science of a Halleck, Mr. Lincoln would not have been obliged to draft.

In the West, everything is action, operation and victory. Grant, Rosecrans, Banks, their officers and soldiers honor the American name; even good Burnside acts and succeeds;--but here the Army of the Potomac is observing and watching Lee's brow! McClellan's spirit seems still to permeate these blessed generals, and then Halleckiana, and then God knows what. The fear of losing won laurels probably palsies the brains of the commanders; at any rate it is certain that the inactivity of the Potomac army throws unsurpassed splendor on the annals of this war. O, the brave, brave soldiers and officers! how they are maltreated!

_September 16._--Matamoras will fall into the hands of the _Decembriseur's_ freebooters, and then Texas will be almost lost. Matamoras ought long ago to have been seized by us, or at least very closely blockaded and surrounded; then all the war-contraband to Texas would have had an end.

In 1861, when microscopical specks began to loom over Mexico's destinies, when the _Decembriseur_ began to feel the pulse of Spain and of England, I most respectfully suggested to Mr. Seward to blockade Matamoras. No foreign country or government could call us to account for such a step, if the Mexican government would not protest. And it was so easy to satisfy and hush the Mexican liberals. Besides, a paragraph in the treaty of Mexico expressly stipulates that any violation of the respective territory will not be considered as a _casus belli_, but the case will be peacefully investigated, etc., etc. Surely the Mexican government would have preferred to see Matamoras in our hands, than in those of that bloody Forey's bands.

_September 17._--"Loyalty," "loyalty," resounds from all sides. Loyalty to principles? Why, no. Loyalty to Mr. Lincoln and to his official crew. If such maxims mark not the downfall of manhood, then I am at loss to find what does. Such a construction of loyalty brings many otherwise honest and intelligent men to foster Mr. Lincoln's re-election.

_September 17._--At the beginning of the war, Lord John Russell issued orders for the regulation of the English ports in cases of belligerents. Our great Doctor of International Law in the State Department mistook such municipal, English regulations; he considers them to be absolute international rules and principles, and concocts instructions for our cruisers, instructions which smell as if written under Lord Lyons' dictation. As always, Neptune stands up for the national interests and for the interests of his tars, because the instructions concocted by the Doctor make it impossible for our cruisers to fulfill their duties. As always, Mr. Lincoln bends rather towards the Doctor, who in his world-embracing _humanitarianism_ defends the interests of all the neutrals at the cost of the interests of the country and of our brave navy. The Doctor was right when, some time ago, he compared himself to Christ.

_September 17._--The border-State politicians establish that the revolted States are not out of the Union. The States are no abstractions, no metaphysical notions, but geographical and political entities. They are States because they are peopled with individuals, free, intelligent, and who, to give a legality to their rebellion, claim to be sovereigns. It is not the soil constituting a State that represents a sovereignty, but the soil or State acquires political signification through the population dwelling in or on it. When the population revolted, the State revolted. From Jeff Davis to the lowest "clay-eater," each rebel who took up arms claims to have done this in the exercise of his sovereign will and choice. The revolt quashed all privileges conceded by the Union to a State, and the Union reconquers its property in reconquering the former States.

_September 18._--Hurrah for Lincoln! He sends an expedition to Texas, say his admirers. He forgets nothing. Well, why has Lincoln forgotten Texas all this time? Notwithstanding all the prayers of the Texans and of the northern patriots, I am not sure that at this moment it is expedient to break up our armies into smaller expeditions instead of concentrating them in Tennessee, Georgia, and here. Strike on the head or at the heart if you wish to kill the monster, but not at its extremities. But perhaps the Government and Halleck have men enough to do the one and the other. But why not put at the head of the Texan expedition a noble, high-minded, devoted patriot, such as General Hamilton, instead of putting a Franklin, unknown to the Texans, who can inspire no confidence, and of whom the best that can be said is, that he never succeeded in anything, and disorganized everything. See Pope in Virginia, Burnside at Fredericksburgh.

If Hamilton, the Texan, is to participate in this expedition, not Lincoln and his advisers put Hamilton there--the pressure exercised by the combined efforts of the governors of New England States did the work.

Hurrah for Lincoln and for his crew.

_September 19._--Governor Andrew's activity and initiative are admirable. More than any body in the country, Andrew has done to clear up, and to firmly establish the condition of Africo-Americans as soldiers, and to push them up to the level with other men.

_September 19._--_Hurrah for Lincoln_, who hurries the organization of Africo-American regiments! Oh yes! he hurries them; _festina lente_. And how many regiments have been organized in Norfolk, which ought to have been established as _the_ central point to attract and to organize contrabands? Is not Virginia the first in the slave States for the number of slaves? In the hands of a clear-sighted man, Norfolk ought to have been used as a glue to which the slaves would have wandered from all parts of Virginia, and even from North Carolina. Norfolk ought to have to-day an army of fifty thousand Africo-Americans born in Virginia, and not a few regiments of them raised in the North. An Africo-American army in Norfolk doubtless would have more impressed Jeff Davis and Lee, than they are impressed by the marches of the commanders of the Potomac army. And what is done? Oh, hurrah for Lincoln! A General Naglee, or of some other name, appointed by Halleck, sustained by Lincoln, and by, who knows whom--commands in Norfolk. This general so appointed, and so sustained is the most devoted worshipper of slavery. This favored general hob-nobs with the slave-making, slave-breeding and slave-selling aristocracy of Norfolk and of the vicinity, looks down upon the _nigger_ with all the haughtiness of a plantation whip, and haughtily snubs off the not slave-breeding Union men in Norfolk, the mechanics, and the small farmers. Mr. Lincoln knows this all and keeps the general. Rhetors roar, Hurrah for Lincoln.

_September 19._--Massachusetts and New England men and women! you true apostles! your names are unknown but they are recorded by the genius of humanity. These men and women feel what is the true apostolate. They follow our armies, take care of the contrabands, take care of poor whites, establish schools for the children and for the grown up of both hues, and thus they reorganize society. O sneer at them you fashionables, you flirts, you ...; but such men and women, and not you, make one believe in the highest destinies of our race.

_September 20._--Grant is the only general who accomplished an object, showed high, soldier-like qualities, organized and commanded an excellent army. But scarcely had _Grant_ taken Vicksburgh, when his army was broken up and scattered in all directions, he himself was neutralized and reduced to inactivity. It could be considered a crime against the people's cause--but--hurrah for Lincoln.

After the shame of Corinth, 1862, the Western army disappeared in the same way. But it was nobody's fault, oh no! So it is nobody's fault that Grant is shelved. Will a man start up in the next Congress and call the malefactors to account?

_September 20._--This day, General Meade has about eighty thousand men. General Meade himself estimates the enemy's forces in front of him at no more than forty thousand men, and General Meade does nothing beyond feeling his way. O, cunctator!

_September 20._--The partisans of Mr. Lincoln admit that he came slowly _to the mark_, but he came to it. Of course, better late than never, but in Mr. Lincoln's case, the people's honor and the people's blood paid for Mr. Lincoln's experimental ways. Mr. Lincoln may now be serious in a great many matters, but if he could have been serious a year ago--how much money would have been economized?

Hurrah for Lincoln!

_September 21._--Rosecrans worsted. Burnside joined him not. They say that Burnside disobeyed orders. I doubt it, and would wish to see what orders have been given. Meade or Halleck quietly allow a third of Lee's army to go and help to crush Rosecrans.