Chapter IX: Section 2: The congress shall have power to enforce this article by (4)

I was never so impressed before with the hard fate of Poland, a great nation actually annihilated, and I got up my sympathy more on my journey by reading a most interesting history of Poland by Mickiewicz.

There happens to be a big salt mine near Cracow, and as we had never seen anything of the sort before, we descended with Bengal lights and what not, and did the whole thing: illuminated chambers, ferried across the Styx, crystal dance halls, and all, hundreds of feet below ground.

PARTING COMPANY.

The next morning we were up early for the train, and Charles and I, after two and more most agreeable months together, parted company; he for Dresden and then Paris, and I for Vienna.

CHAPTER SEVENTH.
CHARLES APPLETON LONGFELLOW.

“Friend of my youth! when young we roved,
Like striplings, mutually beloved,
With friendship’s purest glow,
The bliss which winged those rosy hours
Was such as pleasure seldom showers
On mortals here below.”
“To Lord Clare”—Byron’s _Hours of Idleness_.

IN VIRGINIA.
THREE YEARS PREVIOUS. THE PAIN OF BATTLE.

It was the movement of General George G. Meade called the Mine Run Expedition, Nov. 26, 1863. On the morning of the 27th the First Mass. Cavalry under command of General John I. Gregg, marched to Parker’s Store on the Orange Plank Road, where it met a column of Meade’s infantry, the Fifth Corps, under command of General George Sykes, passed them, and marched ahead of them on the Gordonsville road, leading the column through the Wilderness. At New Hope Church they met the enemy’s cavalry pickets, but the country was so densely wooded they could only fight dismounted.

Brevet Col. B. W. Crowninshield in his History of the First Mass. Cavalry, says:—“As the force advanced, the ground became rougher and well wooded at times, with occasional openings. Charges were made, and prisoners were taken from what proved to be Walker’s North Carolina Brigade of Infantry.

CHARLES APPLETON LONGFELLOW.
]

Lieutenant C. A. Longfellow of Company A, was badly wounded, at first supposed mortally....

When the 5th Corps infantry came up and relieved the cavalry the enemy had been pushed back nearly to his works on Mine Run.... In the fight the 1st Mass. Cavalry lost one officer and four men killed, and two officers and eleven men wounded.”

FROM THE HISTORY OF THE FIFTH MASS. BATTERY, LIGHT ARTILLERY.
LETTER OF LIEUT. APPLETON P. 747.
THE CROSSING OF THE RAPIDAN. NEW HOPE CHURCH.

“On the 27th (Nov. 1863.) off at daybreak, struck a dirt road, which soon led to another plank road parallel to the first, and also in the direction of Orange Court House. On, on, we trudged, and soon we heard heavy cannonading, which every minute grew nearer, mixed now and then with the sharp cracks of the carbine. We soon came to the little village of New Hope Church, where the Corps rushed on at ‘double quick’ to relieve the shattered squadrons of Gregg, and a splendid sight it was. The cavalry formed in squares by the road side, right glad to be relieved by the ‘Doughboys’ and our artillery rushing on to the front. Captain Martin (Capt. A. P. Martin commanding the Artillery Brigade) soon got the batteries in posish, and in fact the only fighting our Corps did was done by the artillery. I soon heard that Charlie Longfellow had been wounded, and stole the first minute I could get to run off to the hospital, New Hope Church, where I saw the dear boy, lying on the pulpit, and surrounded by the officers of the regiment. (First Mass. Cavalry.) He looked and talked well, but I did not have but a minute to stay with him, as my biz. then was on the field.... I went again to the hospital in the evening, but Charlie had gone, as they had taken off all except the worst cases. I assure you it was not a pleasant sight. Charlie and Bowditch (Captain Henry Pickering Bowditch shot in the right forearm) went off together. Charlie was wounded by a ball just under the shoulder blade, injuring the spine, but missing the vital parts.”

* * * * *

Previous to his connection with the First Mass. Cavalry he joined the First Mass. Battery, Light Artillery, at the front, as a private, but was not mustered in, and at the age of 19 was commissioned in the Cavalry. His record in the Adjutant General’s office of the State of Massachusetts, is as follows:—

“Charles A. Longfellow, of Cambridge, was commissioned 2nd Lieut., Co.
G., 1st Regt. Mass. Vol. Cavalry, March 27, 1863; mustered March 27,
1863, for 3 years. Commissioned 1st Lieut. to date January 24, 1864,
not mustered; discharged February 15, 1864, as 2nd Lieutenant.

Charles A. Longfellow, of Cambridge, was commissioned 1st Lieut. in
Co. G, 5th Regt. Mass. Vol. Cavalry, January 7, 1864. He declined the
commission.”

The Fifth Cavalry was a Regiment composed of men of African descent.

In August, 1863, he was Acting Adjutant.

The wound affected him all his life, he was never in condition to rejoin the army, and it prevented him from going on the ill fated expedition of Captain George Washington De Long in the _Jeanette_, to the North Pole. He had begged his great friend James Gordon Bennett to go as a volunteer on the expedition, but the surgeon who examined all those who were to take part in it, did not consider him fit to stand the probable exposure, and so would not pass him, greatly to his own disappointment but to the relief of his family and friends. As he would doubtless have been in the boat with Captain De Long he was saved the suffering and terrible death of those brave men.

After much travelling and residence in many lands, shortly after his return from a trip to Tahiti with his friend T. Watson Merrill, in the spring of 1892, he had a sudden stroke of paralysis, from which he never recovered.

Passing the summer with his sister Miss Alice Longfellow, at the old Nahant Cottage, he returned with her in the autumn to the historic home at Cambridge, formerly Washington’s headquarters, and after living all the winter and appearing somewhat better, he died April 13, 1893, at the age of forty-nine. He was born June 9, 1844.

CHAPTER EIGHTH.
FRANCE. LAST DAYS OF THE EMPIRE. TO RUSSIA WITH GENERAL BANKS.

I

“Friend of the fair old days,
Have you forgotten me?
Back through the pleasant ways,
Oft in my memory,
Gladly I turn again.
Hearing the sounds that blew
Over the meadows then—
Oft at the side of you
Dreaming old dreams, I gaze
Worshipping all I see—
Friend of the fair old days,
Have you forgotten me?

II

· · · · ·
Do you remember me?
· · · · ·
Deeming you great and wise—
Questions I asked you then?
There where the green hills rise
Often your gaze was cast
Down on me tenderly—
Friend of the dear old past,
May you remember me?”
—_S. E. Kiser._

THE GUESTS OF FRANCE.

I wrote home June 5th, 1867, the year of the Great Exposition:—“It does not pay just now to be away from Paris, for it is in a most exceptional state, filled with Europeans—Kings, Princes, and all kinds of celebrities. All other places are deserted and quieter than usual, and moreover they will all keep for the future, but probably not for years will Paris see such another sight.

HON. NATHANIEL P. BANKS.

REPRESENTATIVE FROM MASSACHUSETTS.
]

The last few steamers have brought over crowds of ‘Yanks’; others have come up from Italy and Germany, and I find that since the short time ago that I left here for England, my many friends have turned up and prices, too, have run up very fast.

The race for the Grand Prix on last Sunday, was probably the most brilliant assemblage of the sort the world has ever seen, and the road home from the tribune itself to the Place de la Concorde, was a solid mass of vehicles five or six rows in breadth, and all going in the same direction.

My friend the Tsar Alexander II. was there, and I recognized other Russian friends, but I shall let you get the accounts from the papers, and not from me, of all the grand doings of the season. There is to be held at the race course at Long Champs a huge review of military.

THE REVIEW.

Thursday. Midnight: I must finish this for you tonight to dispatch it by tomorrow morning.

The Review (Longchamps June 6, 1867, Review of the French Army.) was superb. It was, perhaps, the proudest day of Napoleon Third’s career, having on one side of him, as he reviewed the troops, the King of Prussia, and on the other the Emperor of Russia.

I was late in driving up, but afterwards had a fine view of it all at the apartments of Paul Forbes and his family of New York, on the avenue.

Returning to Paris after the Review, the carriage in which the Tsar was seated passed me somewhere in the Bois de Boulogne, as I too, was returning from the pageant. I was so full of the delightful time I had had in Russia, a few months before, that I took off my hat as we passed and gave him a bow. My salutation was so very marked that he looked at me intently, as if trying to make out just who I was, but I do not suppose he could bring me back to his recollection, though of course he returned the salutation.

The weather is delightful now, and the days so long that it is not dark at nine o’clock, and Paris is one prolonged fête, each day and night more astonishing than the last.

There is a vague rumor floating about that some crazy Pole attempted to assassinate the Tsar at the Review.

June 12, 1867: This marvellous life of Paris runs along, getting more extraordinary every day!

How well Napoleon III. has succeeded in his undertaking. He invites rulers of all descriptions to come and visit him in his home, to see the Paris of ’67.

They accept, and he quietly sits twirling his moustache, surrounded by Tsars, Popes, Queens, Sultans, Kings, Grand Dukes and Princes! What a shrewd and wonderful stroke of diplomacy it all is, thus showing to the world the marvels of his great capital! Balls, fêtes, races, reviews, come and go, but how it will all end one cannot say, for I think the French people will be tired of the tremendous expense before the summer is over.

Yesterday I went with a party to Fontainebleau, but it so happened the Imperialist party were all there the same morning, and the Palace was closed for visitors. We breakfasted, and drove through the forest, expecting to see a _chasse_, but, shortly after reaching the “Rendezvous” we found it was abandoned on account of the heat, and dogs and huntsmen all marched home.

It is almost too warm for theatres now, but tonight I have been to see a piece called _La Dame aux Camélias_, which was a great success in Paris ten or fifteen years ago. (Vaudeville Theatre, Paris, February 2, 1852, Madame Eugénie Doche was the first Marguerite Gautier.)

July 4. 1867:—Here we have the great day of American independence, but, owing to the death of Maximilian, all festivities, both for the Sultan, and even our own “Fourth of July” celebration, are postponed. I must say this seems rather unnecessary, but I am inclined to think that yesterday morning Napoleon III did not have a very good appetite for breakfast. (The Emperor Maximilian was executed in Mexico, where he bravely insisted upon remaining to meet his fate when the army of Napoleon III had been withdrawn.)

Paris is one of those places into which you tumble very easily, and then find it almost impossible to get out of it. People are packing up now, however, and the fashionable resort this summer, for Bostonians especially, seems to be the baths about Salzburg in the Tyrol.

Funny thing life is here in Paris. You wake up in the morning without any idea what you will do during the day. Invitations come, one thing succeeds another, and the hours slip along.

July 10, 1867: The death of Maximilian has caused a very deep feeling in Europe, and most of the festivities arranged for the Sultan have been countermanded. This makes it rather quieter in Paris now than was expected.

I went out yesterday to Saint Cloud, and saw some rowing regattas between boats of various nationalities, but there were few persons present, and not much excitement.”

* * * * *

The year of the great Exposition of 1867, may be regarded as the apogee of the Second Empire, and soon after it ominous rumblings were heard in the political clouds. The disastrous and humiliating expedition to Mexico doubtless contributed to the beginning of the downfall, and even the sight of Napoleon at the Longchamps Review in 1867, with the Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia on either side, could not bolster up popular opinion as to the prestige of French military glory.

I never considered that the people of France endorsed the expedition to Mexico, or believed in it. No, it was part of the personal ambition of Napoleon to take advantage of our troubles, and try to foist an empire upon one of the nations of the Western hemisphere, where it was not wanted, would have been out of place, and could not last long. It was a miserable business from beginning to end, and did much to weaken the ties of friendship between France and the United States, as was shown many years later by the opposition of our government and people to the peaceful work of Mr. de Lesseps in his herculean efforts in behalf of the Panama Canal.

Napoleon was at the height of his tinsel glory in 1867, but the triumph of the Empress Eugénie was reached in 1869, at the fêtes in Egypt attending the opening of the Suez Canal, certainly in her case a well-merited one, her efforts as a relative of de Lesseps having contributed so much to the success of that great enterprise. One would hardly have imagined then, while looking upon her in all her grace and loveliness, in every way the queen of the festivities, that the over-throwing of the Empire was so soon to follow.

The celebration of our “Fourth of July” at the Pré Catalan in the Bois de Boulogne was omitted in 1867, as noted, and I have heard that this was done at the especial request of the French government, and I suppose it was made in such a way that it would not have been easy or in good taste to refuse. All the same I could not understand what our celebration had to do with the death of Maximilian, and I regretted extremely that our representative succumbed to the pressure brought to bear. I never learned whether it was the result of orders from Washington, or if our Minister took the responsibility, for such an act does not seem to harmonize with the character of General John A. Dix, though he was the most courteous of gentlemen.

PARIS IN 1869.

On the 21st of May, 1869, I wrote my sister—“Paris is now filled with American diplomats, Washburn, Jay, Burlingame, Marsh, etc., most of whom I have seen. Burlingame dined with me ten days ago, and expatiated on the charms of everything in California.”

Among my guests at my apartment just off the Boulevard, were members of congress, prominent men of business and science, diplomatic representatives, and others, meeting there as they turned up in Paris on their European trips for relaxation. They were generally Americans, as my ambitions were all identified with my native country, but I would often have a sprinkling of Frenchmen or English to give variety and there, in the neutral territory of my smoking-room, all restraint thrown aside, men who at home belonged to political parties sometimes in bitter opposition, would meet and express their opinions in a way that would have been impossible in New York or Washington. Sparks of wit would fly off from the fast working grindstone of this unpretentious salon, and there was plenty of valuable information to be picked up by any one who would take the trouble to go there with his eyes and ears open.

BURLINGAME AND CHINA.

At a farewell banquet given to Major General John A. Dix, U. S. Minister to France, at the Grand Hotel, June 1st, 1869, by the American residents at Paris, the Hon. Anson Burlingame was present and was introduced by the presiding officer Hon. Elliot C. Cowdin, as one who “pleaded for the rights of four millions of slaves until their last fetter fell. He now in loftier tones pleads before the nations the cause of four hundred millions of men.”

In 1867, Prince Kung, regent of the Empire of China, offered to appoint Burlingame, who was United States Minister to China appointed by President Lincoln, special envoy to the United States and the great European powers, for the purpose of framing treaties of amity with these nations, an honor never before conferred upon a foreigner.

He resigned as U. S. Minister to accept this mission around the world, and arrived at the United States the head of a numerous party, in March, 1868.

In the course of his remarks the following year at the banquet to General Dix, he said:—

“While we do not interfere in other people’s affairs, nor permit them to interfere in ours, we cannot forget that we are a great nation, that we cannot abdicate our responsibilities, that we must take our part in the peaceful police of the sea and the land, and in the maintenance of those principles of international law, which recognize the equality of nations as we recognize the equality of men. That, as it is the highest duty of every society to protect the weak from the strong, so the weak nations and struggling peoples should find ample protection in that sense of justice of the strong nations which they cannot lose and prosper.”

Mr. Burlingame visited St. Petersburg the last of the European capitals, and died there at forty-eight years of age, on Washington’s birthday, 1870, about a year after the original departure from China. I first met him when he had the Chinese Embassy in London, then frequently in Paris, and the last time in Stockholm before we left.

THE UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD.

In the speech of Ex-Governor Alexander H. Bullock at this banquet, he said with reference to the mission of Burlingame, and the Union Pacific Railroad just completed:—

“The great work is done, and hereafter the states are a unit in commerce as in government. Before my friend Mr. Burlingame has half completed his cosmopolitan mission, the freight trains have been made up at San Francisco, laden with the product of China, and by the time he shall have unpacked his trunks at Berlin, he may drink at the breakfast table his favorite tea, which, thanks to the irrepressible and irresistible Yankees, has been brought round to him the other way.”

THE CURTIN-DREXEL DINNER.

My first thought of seeing _Le Canal de Suez_, of going to the opening ceremonies which took place on the 17th November, 1869, was the result of a dinner given at the rooms of Bowles Brothers & Co. early in July of that year.

The dinner was given in honor of Governor Andrew G. Curtin of Pennsylvania, who had been appointed U. S. Minister to the Russian court at St. Petersburg, and was then _en route_ to his post, and to Mr. Anthony J. Drexel of Philadelphia, who was making his first visit to Paris after the establishment there of the branch house of Drexel, Harjes & Co.

Among the guests present I can now recall the Hon. Elihu B. Washburn U. S. Minister at Paris, Hon. Anson Burlingame at the head of the Chinese Embassy, Major General the Hon. Nathaniel P. Banks M. C., Hon. Zachariah Chandler U. S. Senator, Hon. Fernando Wood M. C., Mr. John C. Lee, of Lee, Higginson & Co., and Mr. S. Endicott Peabody afterwards a partner in the house of J. S. Morgan & Co.

Charles Bowles then and there suggested that General Banks and I go to the opening of the Suez Canal. I talked with the General about it and we agreed to meet in Paris the middle of September, and start on the trip.

We went first to Hamburg, then to Copenhagen, where we arrived about the 20th of September, and met General Waldemar Rudolph Raasloff, Chargé d’Affaires from Denmark to the United States, 1858 to 1862, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary 1864 to 1866, and then on to Stockholm, where we saw a great deal of Mr. Burlingame, who had just arrived with the Chinese Embassy.

AT STOCKHOLM.

From a letter written to my sister from Stockholm I take what follows under date of October 4, 1869:—“You will be, doubtless, somewhat surprised at seeing from the heading of this, how far I have managed to get from my beloved Paris without any previous warning. With General N. P. Banks M. C. from Massachusetts, I set out on the trip which he was very desirous of accomplishing, first through the north countries of Europe, and then through Russia to Constantinople and the opening of the Suez Canal.

There is not a man in the United States just now who is a more valuable companion for such a trip.

We have been passing several days here very pleasantly though quietly, and tonight after dining with the U. S. Minister, General C. C. Andrews, we take the steamer direct for Saint Petersburg, where I shall have an opportunity of revisiting and seeing in a more summer like garb the scenes of my former triumphs.

Mr. Burlingame happens to be here with all the Chinese, and they cause an immense sensation in the city. The square in front of our hotel is continually crowded with groups of curious ones, trying to catch a glimpse of the Celestials, as they sit complacently at their windows and gaze and smile benignly on the people below.

Mr. Burlingame, General Banks and I have long talks, lasting late into the night, about everything, which generally end in glorifying the grandeur of the great Republic.”

GENERAL BANKS, DENMARK AND SWEDEN.

There is to be held this year (1904) a Shakesperian celebration marking the 300th anniversary of the first printed edition of the tragedy of Hamlet, and a portrait statue of Shakespere is to be erected on the road to Kronborg Castle, the foundations of which are now said to be insecure through the undermining of the tides. I remember well after our visit to Hamlet’s castle at Elsinore, and promenade on the terrace, when we returned to the hotel, and had dined, and were in adjoining rooms, before retiring, the General was full of the inspiration of the scene, and repeated to me many of the lines of Hamlet appropriate to the place and occasion. It seemed to me as if he knew the whole play by heart.

At Stockholm the house he especially wanted to see was that of Swedenborg,—founder of the Swedenborg religion,—and we went there one day. It was a simple dwelling as I now recall it after these many years. We made an excursion, also, to the town of Upsala, famous for its university.

The American Minister Gen. Christopher Columbus Andrews, of Minnesota, who had but recently been appointed, gave us a dinner, and all in his power to make our sojourn agreeable and instructive.

A REVIEW OF THE ARMY.

We saw a review of the army by King Oscar, and were told afterwards how much he regretted he had not known we were there, so that he could have invited us to join his staff, and take part in it.

RAASLOFF, BANKS AND THE ISLANDS.

In Copenhagen at the Raasloff lunch of perhaps 20, after he was elected deputy, General Banks made at table one of his effective impromptu short speeches. General Raasloff was the only candidate, and thus his election was not difficult, but he never recovered from the disappointment of our government not taking the island of St. Thomas, when he supposed it was all settled between the United States and Denmark. Banks was elected member of congress from Massachusetts in 1853, and 1855, Governor of the state from 1858 to 1861, elected member of congress again, with the exception of the election of 1872, from 1865 to 1877. In 1888, he was again elected, and served until 1890. He was chairman of the committee on foreign affairs of the U. S. House of Representatives in 1865 and later, including the years General Raasloff was minister from Denmark to the United States. I had heard him often speak of the purchase of Saint Thomas, and the disappointment of his friend General Raasloff at its nonaccomplishment.

In his judgment we ought to own or control all the islands of the West Indies, showing the danger to us, as proved by the action of England during our civil war, of their being in the possession of governments that might be hostile. The blockade runners were almost entirely English ships, making money out of our troubles by supplying the Confederates with articles they needed, and receiving principally cotton in return, which was then selling at a tremendous price.

If the advice of Banks had been followed, the War with Spain in 1898, which began by the desire to assist Cuba in gaining its independence, could not have occurred. He was one of the strongest advocates of the purchase of Alaska.

During my travels with General Banks, then 53 years of age, from the middle of September, 1869, to the early part of December, I always found him a very abstemious man. I do not remember that he ever took a glass of spirits; I mean by this what are called hard liquors. At dinner he would take a little wine, and when I asked him what he preferred he would say, “Well, you know, I consider champagne the most agreeable,” and so once or twice a week we would have a bottle. Occasionally, at night, he would indulge in a glass of beer.

Nor did he smoke at all. He would say to me, “I cannot smoke.” This reminds me that he never clipped expressions of the kind, i. e. he always said “I do not,” “I will not,” “I shall not,” instead of “I can’t,” “I don’t,” etc. It was a good lesson for me which I have tried to follow, for the abbreviations always seem to me cheap and undignified, especially when used in a speech or in writing. Of course in ordinary conversation it may be to a certain extent different, but, all the same, I prefer the two words to the shortening them into one.

TO ST. PETERSBURG.

Crossing the Gulf of Finland, we stopped at several small towns on the way to St. Petersburg, where our new minister, Ex-Governor Curtin and the Secretary of Legation Mr. Titian J. Coffey of Pennsylvania, both of whom had been but a short time in the country, treated us most hospitably.

THE PRESENTATIONS.

Writing from St. Petersburg on this date I said: “The 27th of October will be remembered by Americans as a day of great interest.”

Today at 2 o’clock at the Winter Palace, our new minister Ex-Governor A. G. Curtin presented his credentials and was formally received by the Emperor Alexander II.

Our minister’s speech and the reply by the Tsar, were short but to the point, and replete with sentiments of increasing friendship between the two great continental nations of the world, and the happy remarks about President Grant and the Emperor Alexander will be appreciated by the people of both countries. The secretary Mr. Titian J. Coffey, was presented at the same time, and the United States legation at Russia can well be proud of its representatives.

THE REVIEW.

Another event of the day was the review of military forces stationed in and about the city, to the number of thirty-five thousand, which took place on the Champ de Mars. Two great reviews are held yearly in Saint Petersburg, one in the early spring and the other in January. The review of today was especially ordered by the Emperor, out of regular course, and whether or not it has any political significance was subject of speculation.

The display was, as such things always are here, very fine, the beauty and strength of the Russian horses being especially observed.

Besides General Banks there was present General Hiram Berdan, who has been for some time in Russia, and we understand that he has large contracts from the Russian government for supplying them with his improved musket and cartridges.

AGRICULTURAL EXHIBITION.

In this month (October) there has been a very interesting exhibition of the different herds of cattle raised in the Russian Empire. This is the first exhibition of the kind ever held in the city, and it has been an object of great interest. The prizes were awarded yesterday by the Grand Duke Nicholas, and today the Emperor visited it in person. The ladies of the Court have been much interested in its success, and many of the farms in the neighborhood of the city where the finest stock is raised, are owned by members of the Imperial family. Its object is to improve the breed of all kinds of stock, and to assist as much as possible the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, especially in everything that relates to preparing animal food for the market.

THE REVIEW OF THE TROOPS.

I went to the Review with General Banks as if attached to his staff. We were both in uniform, he as a major general of United States Volunteers, and I as a captain of Light Artillery, in accordance with an Act of Congress which allows all honorably discharged officers of the Union army to appear in their highest brevet rank on any and all occasions during life when a uniform is the appropriate dress.

As a general rule the other armies of Europe follow the customs of the great nations, and when the head of the government ordinarily wears a uniform of course the officers follow the example, making it their habitual dress. The Russian government dresses its men in the best of all colors, gray, and besides the trimness and inconspicuousness of the uniform itself they have many simple appliances, as for instance, the hood or basilisk, for the comfort of the soldier, for adopting which the rigorous climate of the country has doubtless contributed a great deal. The result is, that for thorough winter work I doubt if there is any soldier in Europe as well prepared as the Russians.

Horses were there ready for us, and we rode along the lines and between the squares, on the staff of the Emperor himself. It was a fine sight and I was specially struck with the enthusiasm of the troops for their chief the Tsar. In no country is this carried to such a pitch as in Russia. The shouts of the men as he approaches are astonishing in their half-barbaric ecstasy, platoon after platoon taking up the cry in turn. The shouts of these strange looking Russians I thought at the time implied a power and assurance of fighting well for their country and the Tsar, whenever the time should come, different from the _élan_ of the French, the dogged determinedness of the English, or the severe discipline of the Prussians. Subsequent events proved that I was not wrong in my deductions.

The army was under the command of the Tsar’s brother, the Grand Duke Nicholas, who turned it over to its real head as he came down at the last moment in his open drosky, and mounted his horse which was in readiness for him there.

In connection with this review I recollect an amusing incident. It was in the month of October, and the weather was consequently becoming rather cold, and so a day or two before a general order was issued for the troops to appear in their overcoats. This made it a matter of etiquette for us, also, to wear some kind of overcoat, and as we neither of us had one of a military style, we went with our good-natured consul George Pomutz to a tailor, where we each ordered a little dark blue cape which must be made in a day’s time, and we thought would serve our purpose. They did do very well, and I have often used mine since in the militia, and once lent it to a lady to wear going to a dinner party, fastened with a bright brass button.

GENERAL HIRAM BERDAN.

General Berdan, of rifle renown, happened then to be in St. Petersburg with one of his famous guns he was offering for the consideration of the Russian government, and he, too, was at the Review.

THE LOST SWORD.

Fortunately I did not have with me my precious army sword, but one I had bought at Paris just before starting, an historic sword as the proprietor of the little shop in the Rue St. Honoré,—on the right from the Rue Castiglione, as you go towards the Rue Royale,—where I got it, told me that it had belonged to one of the suite of Napoleon at St. Helena, and that one of the family had brought it back.

Just before General Banks and I left Saint Petersburg for Moscow, we heard that the railroad bridge over one of the great rivers had been burned. This was indeed the case as we found on arriving there shortly after dark, and we had to pass the night on the train where we were, and traverse the stream the next day in boats, rafts, or any way we could.

As we had reached the southern side, and were stepping on to the bank from the boat, the sword slipped out of my bundle of rugs, and fell into the river, where I have no doubt it has remained to the present time. Morijiks tried to find it for me, but the water was very deep, the current swift, and it could not be recovered. I doubt if it was ever known how, or by whom and for just what purpose the bridge was fired, for it was generally believed to have been the work of an incendiary.

A short time before, the railroad had been sold by the Winans people of Baltimore, who had built and largely owned it, for 7,000,000 roubles cash to the Court clique, headed by Count Strogonoff, who, by the way, came down on the same train with us to see what was the matter.

All the old employés were discharged for some reason or other, and their places filled by Poles taken from the St. Petersburg and Warsaw railroad, and so very likely one, or several, of the men turned off, devised and carried out this plan of revenge.

I remember that Governor Curtin and the Secretary Mr. Coffey, whom we had often seen during our stay in St. Petersburg, came to see us off at the station. We experienced great difficulty in getting any kind of information as to the situation, but we were determined to start and run the chance, as we had but little time to catch our boat at Odessa. As it was, we lost about twenty-four hours, reaching Moscow just one day later than we should.

It was during our sojourn at St. Petersburg that I received, thanks to Mr. Charles Bowles then in America, an invitation from the Board of Trade of my native city of Boston, of which the Hon. Alexander H. Rice was then president, to be its delegate for the opening ceremonies of the Suez Canal, and to write a report thereon. I consider this as the beginning of my service in the interest of a canal across the American Isthmus, for instead of going to Egypt merely as a tourist and spectator, I had some work to do by which my attention was specially called to the subject of ship canals. Certain it is that since that time with many other occupations it has constantly been before my mind and is so now.

INDIVIDUAL ENTERPRISE.

To beguile the time on board ship I jotted down the following notes, Odessa, Nov. 7, 1869:—

“The idea strikes me forcibly here—that of individual enterprise, or rather great results accomplished by individuals—because the prosperity of this city is mainly due to the unaided efforts of two persons. First the Duke de Richelieu, a French nobleman who may be regarded as its founder, and, secondly, Prince Woronzoff, for many years the Russian governor of the province.

How much any one man can accomplish if he will devote himself entirely to the attempt, and what a field there is today for such ambition in the United States of America! We must have the Darien Canal cut, we must have our commerce stimulated by a changed tariff; we must have cheaper internal transportation for our products, and then there will be little talk about the national debt. The Secretary of the Treasury will not have to sell gold in Wall street.”

ON THE WAY TO SUEZ.

Passing in our journey from the cold autumn weather of Russia, partly by rail and partly by boat and across the Mediterranean, we reached the glorious sun of Constantinople and the tropical warmth of Egypt.

FERDINAND DE LESSEPS, 1869.
]

At Odessa we joined an excursion party in one of the boats of the Russian Navigation Company the “General Kotzebue,” to Constantinople, Rhodes, Port Said, Ismailia, Suez, passing through the canal, Cairo by rail, Alexandria, and then by Brindisi and the Mount Cenis Tunnel back to Paris in December.

General Banks ought to have been invited to represent the government of the nation, he was then member of congress and chairman of the committee on foreign affairs in the house of representatives, but he was not appointed.

It was on this occasion that I made the acquaintance of Count Ferdinand de Lesseps, the hero of the canal, and my journey with General Banks deserves more than a passing notice, for his varied experience of the past, and his penetrating observation of the present, had given him facilities for seeing and judging things in a manner which could not fail to be instructive. The strong American stamp of his character, while exciting my youthful enthusiasm did not bias him in his judgment of European or Oriental customs or forms of government. From his mind wonderful photographs were taken as we travelled together from the North to the South, and his quiet and dignified encouragement of my aspirations so naturally given in the offhand intimacy of a journey, with the mixture of petty pleasures and annoyances, were a stimulus which came very opportune to me and which I was not likely to forget.

Accidentally, too, at different stages of our wanderings, we were thrown in with several other marked and representative types of Americans; among them at Stockholm the noble Burlingame since then taken away in the midst of his grand work of Chinese regeneration; Governor Curtin the war governor of Pennsylvania, the genial, kindly, bright, wiry type of American politician, and the well-known American dentist of Paris, Dr. Thomas W. Evans, whose intimacy with the French Emperor Napoleon III, and knowledge of the inner history of the past twenty years in Paris, made him an agreeable and valued companion.

With the healthy glow of travel, at the most delightful season of the year, and the excitement of military reviews and gala fêtes at the different capitals visited, all ending with the gorgeous Aladdin-like enchantments of the week in Egypt, when Europe, Asia, Africa, aye and America, came at the invitation of the Khedive, and led by the graceful Empress Eugénie, offered their congratulations at the completion of that international work of peace, the Suez Canal,—and the opportunity of seeing these sights in the presence of many of the most distinguished personages alive, and of discussing them with advanced minds amid the surroundings of attractive places,—what than this could be a better phase of education?

CONSTANTINOPLE.

On arriving at Constantinople the captain of the steamer gave all the passengers a couple of days to spend in seeing the wonders of this extraordinary city before continuing our journey.

We went to the best hotel, and, after breakfasting, whom should we meet in the hall but my old Harvard classmate Jeremiah Curtin vice consul at St. Petersburg. Curtin is the translator of “Quo Vadis” by the Polish author Henryk Sienkiewicz, published by Little, Brown & Co. of Boston,—John Murray Brown our classmate being a member of the firm,—and dedicated to another member of our class Auguste Comte of San Francisco.

I had seen Curtin in Moscow, when I was there in January, 1867. General Banks had known him in Washington, Curtin’s headquarters when not on his journeys of investigation, and he was very glad to meet us both. What he was doing in Turkey we could not quite make out, but I think in the interest of Russia he was quietly watching the movements of the Slavonic elements there, and through the Danubian principalities. Besides this he was writing letters for one of the great New York papers. Mr. Curtin told us that for the morning he met us he was to have by appointment an interview with the Patriarch of Constantinople the head of the Greek Church there, and invited us to accompany him, and we were only too glad to thus have an opportunity for seeing this distinguished personage.

The Metropolitan of Moscow and the Patriarch of Constantinople are two of the heads of the Greek Church. We went to see the Patriarch simply as the head of the Turkish branch of the Church.

We started from the hotel on horseback, and, winding down some narrow streets to the water, crossed it at the Golden Horn, and were soon in the old part of the city on the other side, threading our way to where the Patriarch lived, amidst the ancient houses and quaint shops which were swarming with inhabitants, until we arrived at the door.

We were taken up into quite a large room with divans all around it, and ushered into the presence of the Patriarch, who sat tranquilly in one corner.

He was an aged, fine looking gentleman, with long, flowing locks and beard, and received us most graciously.

We talked, through an interpreter, on various matters, and, after partaking of sweetmeats and coffee, retired very much gratified with the interview.

His dress, as also that of the interpreter, was curious; being a combination of Oriental robes and church trappings like all the religious officers of the Greek Church. It is striking and effective.

ARRIVAL AT PORT SAID.

It was on November 15th a little before sundown that our vessel the “General Kotzebue” entered the harbor of Port Said, with a very agreeable company of Russians, and came to anchor in its proper place about seven o’clock.

We took our position on the right in entering. The Emperor of Austria had entered just before us. Salutes were fired.

We went on shore to see the U. S. Consul, but he was not at home. Left cards on Mr. de Lesseps and strolled about the town. Left cards on the Vice Roi in his yacht, and saw Nuba Pacha. Met Dr. Evans and Dr. Edward A. Crane,—a well known member of the American colony in Paris and for many years editor of _The American Register_ of that city owned by Dr. Evans,—on the street at Port Said. Later we go to the reception in the yacht of the Vice Roi or Khedive, a splendid boat, and I was there presented to the enterprising ruler of Egypt, and first met Mr. de Lesseps himself, who from that time has been one of my favorite heroes, and who I am free to admit I consider the most remarkable man of our day.

As I now look back through many years to that week of fêtes in the land of the Pharaohs, I have a kaleidoscopic vision of enchantment worthy of the Arabian Nights, and perceive through the charm and mystery of the Orient, a work of practical modern progress which it softens and adorns.

RETURN TO PARIS.

I was with General Banks in Paris after our return from Egypt about ten days in December, 1869, when he and I, with Paul Forbes, Anthoine de Gogorza, Alexandre Boyer, two Erlangers, Emile and Louis Count Excelmans, Dr. Evans, General Charles B. Norton, and others, were organizing the Darien Canal Company. Then he went to Washington for the session of congress, and I remained in Paris.

CHAPTER NINTH.
ALEXANDER II. AND EMANCIPATION.

“Though watery deserts hold apart
The worlds of East and West,
Still beats the self-same human heart
In each proud nation’s breast.

Our floating turret tempts the main
And dares the howling blast,
To clasp more close the golden chain
That long has bound them fast.

In vain the gales of ocean sweep,
In vain the billows roar,
That chain the wild and stormy steep
Of storied Elsinore.

She comes! She comes! Her banner dips
In Neva’s flashing tide,
With greetings on her cannon’s lips
The storm-god’s iron bride.

· · · · ·

No prairies heaped their garnered store
To fill her sunless hold.
Not rich Nevada’s gleaming ore
Its hidden caves enfold.

But lightly as the sea bird swings
She floats the depth above;
A breath of flame to lend her wings—
Her freight, a people’s love.

When darkness hid the stormy skies
In war’s long winter night,
One ray still cheered our straining eyes,
The far off northern light.

And now the friendly rays return
From lights that glow afar,
Those clustered lamps of heaven that burn
Around the western star.

A nation’s love in tears and smiles
We bear across the sea:
O! Neva of the banded isles,
We moor our hearts to thee.”

—_Oliver Wendell Holmes on Fox’s Mission to Russia_, 1866.

ALEXANDER II., 1866
]

THE TERRITORY OF RUSSIA.

Forty-two years have passed since in Novgorod, the oldest town, Russia celebrated the one thousandth anniversary of its birth, and erected a monument consisting of an enormous globe, in the midst of emblematic and historical figures. The original Russia was a republic. It occupied a small district near the sources of the Dneiper and Western Dvina, and the site of the future city of Novgorod. Its name was derived from Rūs the patronymic of three brothers of a Variag tribe belonging to the settlement. The oldest brother was called Rurik.

More than six hundred years had passed, when in the South, Ivan III. united the independent principalities of Moscow, and, in 1505, cast off the Tartar yoke from these states, whose rulers proclaimed themselves Tsars, and which were accidentally discovered in 1553, on the White Sea, by an English navigator seeking for a short route to China and India. A commercial acquaintance was formed which has been intermittently sustained ever since with England.

In 1570, was inaugurated the Russian principle of expansion, by conquering the republic of the North and annexing it to Moscow. In this process it is said 60,000 human beings were sacrificed. In a circular recently issued by the Ministry of Public Instruction through the curators of the several educational districts, instructing the directors of secondary schools to instil into the minds of their pupils a correct theory of the war of the present year (1904) emphasis is given to the method of treatment of the Russian colonies compared with that received by those pertaining to other countries.

It says:—“The western European states draw from their colonies an immense income, they live on them. Russia expends on her periphery a very considerable sum annually, and receives nothing from them in return. The Russian periphery flourishes at the expense of the centre.”

This periphery embraces the colonies of Finland, the Caucasus, the Central Asiatic possessions and Manchuria.

During the reign of Alexander I. the Grand Duchy of Finland, which stretches from the Gulf of Finland to the Polar Sea, by the peace of Friederichshamm was ceded to Russia by Sweden in 1809, and Poland was acquired in 1814. In 1867, Russia possessed about 106,951 Russian square miles in Europe and the Caucasus, 248,470 in Asia, and 24,210 square miles which were ceded to the United States in that year. Now behold a great empire with a territory stretching from the Baltic to the Northern Pacific, and from the Polar Sea to the frontiers of Turkey, Persia, Afghanistan and China, crossed by systematically extended lines of railway, and divided as in the United States of America, into two portions, whose sources of development, difference in soil, character of colonization and products, call for constant reference to the distinctive titles of “the North” and “the South.” Moscow, the commercial and industrial capital of the empire, which has remained the home of passive conservatism and an asylum for the discontented, preserves the tombs of the Grand Princes, and the palace in which the Tsars of Muscovy lived and other monuments made sacred by tradition, six centuries of historical associations surrounding the Kremlin.

St. Petersburg, a cosmopolitan city was built on a European design especially favoring French models, with the purpose frankly avowed by Peter the Great of having “a window by which the Russians might look into civilized Europe.” Like Odessa it has more of a foreign than a Russian character, but not more than one tenth of the population are dwellers in the city, while the agricultural element is ever expanding.

THE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT.

The historical development of Russia has been peculiar, and her social and political organization differs radically from that of the countries of western Europe. Its autocracy is founded on the unbounded hereditary devotion of the people,—peasantry and nobles alike. The entire government of the vast empire is administered from St. Petersburg, on the principle that the people are incapable of understanding the methods of governing their local affairs, and from that or from other reasons, are not to be trusted with them, so that the local self government is anomalous. Created by autocratic power through a commission appointed for the purpose of “conferring more unity and independence on the local economic administration,” it has not grown into an institution from popular wants publicly declared, petitioned for and advocated, but derives its main motive power and maintenance from the Central Government which controls it. Peter the Great (1682–1725) introduced uniformity and symmetry into the administration of public affairs. After the death of Patriarch Adrian of the Greek Church, and an interregnum of twenty years, Peter supplied his place by an ecclesiastical council a synod which still remains the highest ecclesiastical authority, in which as a contemporary observed “the mainspring was Peter’s power, and the pendulum his understanding.”

The members of the Synod are appointed by the Tsar who is accountable to no one. Next to him in temporal power come the Council of State, the Committee of Ministers, and the Senate, which is the sole Court of Revision for the Justice of Peace Courts and for the Regular Tribunals, and is the regulator of the whole judicial system of the empire. Below these are ten ministries, viz., the Ministries of the Interior, Public Works, State Demesnes, Finance, Justice, Public Instruction, War, Navy, Foreign Affairs, and the Imperial Court.

The territorial administration is divided into provinces, and each province into districts, all varying greatly in size. Over each province is a governor, vice-governor, and council. The governor is the local representative of the Ministry of the Interior and each of the other ministries have their bureaus and representatives in the provinces drawn chiefly from the nobility and the clergy. Every province and each of the ten districts into which it is divided, has an assembly of deputies and an executive bureau elected by the assembly from among its members, but the president of the assembly is a Marshal of the Noblesse, and a limit is placed to the taxation of trade and industry. The deputies are elected by the landed proprietors of the rural communes, composed of peasants, and the municipal corporations. The members of the Assembly for the provinces are elected by the District Assemblies. The system of government for the towns differs essentially from that of the country, the towns receiving the advantage of the development of trade and industry, the establishment of schools, etc. They are of three kinds, “Government towns,” “District towns,” and supernumerary, each divided into merchants, nondescript, and artisans, the artisans being partly made up from the population of the agricultural districts. The towns have a mayor and council.

THE SERFS.

Moscow has been described as the centre from which serfage radiated, decreasing toward the north, east, and south.