On dropping in at the Consulate to-day, I found the skippers
of several English vessels who are anxious to clear out, lest they be detained
by the Federal cruisers. The United States steam frigates Brooklyn and Niagara
have been for some days past blockading Pass รก l’outre. One citizen made a remarkable proposition
to Mr. Mure. He came in to borrow an ensign of the Royal Yacht Squadron for the
purpose, he said, of hoisting it on board his yacht, and running down to have a
look at the Yankee ships. Mr. Mure had no flag to lend; whereupon he asked for
a description by which he could get one made. On being applied to, I asked “whether
the gentleman was a member of the Squadron?” “Oh, no,” said he, “but my yacht
was built in England, and I wrote over some time ago to say I would join the
squadron.” I ventured to tell him that it by no means followed he was a member,
and that if he went out with the flag and could not show by his papers he had a
right to carry it, the yacht would be seized. However, he was quite satisfied
that he had an English yacht, and a right to hoist an English flag, and went
off to an outfitter's to order a facsimile of the squadron ensign, and
subsequently cruised among the blockading vessels.
We hear Mr. Ewell was attacked by an Union mob in Tennessee,
his luggage was broken open and plundered, and he narrowly escaped personal
injury. Per contra, “charges of abolitionism,” continue to multiply
here, and are almost as numerous as the coroner's inquests, not to speak of the
difficulties which sometimes attain the magnitude of murder.
I dined with a large party at the Lake, who had invited me
as their guest, among whom were Mr. Slidell, Governor Hebert, Mr. Hunt, Mr.
Norton, Mr. Fellows, and others. I observed in New York that every man had his
own solution of the cause of the present difficulty, and contradicted plumply
his neighbor the moment he attempted to propound his own theory. Here I found
every one agreed as to the righteousness of the quarrel, but all differed as to
the best mode of action for the South to pursue. Nor was there any approach to
unanimity as the evening waxed older. Incidentally we had wild tales of
Southern life, some good songs curiously intermingled with political
discussions, and what the Northerners call hyphileutin talk.
When I was in the Consulate to-day, a tall and well-dressed,
but not very prepossessing-looking man, entered to speak to Mr. Mure on
business, and was introduced to me at his own request. His name was mentioned
incidentally to-night, and I heard a passage in his life not of an agreeable
character, to say the least of it. A good many years ago there was a ball at
New Orleans, at which this gentleman was present; he paid particular attention
to a lady, who, however, preferred the society of one of the company, and in
the course of the evening an altercation occurred respecting an engagement to
dance, in which violent language was exchanged, and a push or blow given by the
favored partner to his rival, who left the room, and, as it is stated,
proceeded to a cutler's shop, where he procured a powerful dagger-knife. Armed
with this, he returned, and sent in a message to the gentleman with whom he had
quarrelled. Suspecting nothing, the latter came into the antechamber, the
assassin rushed upon him, stabbed him to the heart, and left him weltering in
his blood. Another version of the story was, that he waited for his victim till
he came into the cloak-room, and struck him as he was in the act of putting on
his overcoat. After a long delay, the criminal was tried. The defence put
forward on his behalf was that he had seized a knife in the heat of the moment
when the quarrel took place, and had slain his adversary in a moment of
passion; but evidence, as I understand, went strongly to prove that a
considerable interval elapsed between the time of the dispute and the
commission of the murder. The prisoner had the assistance of able and ingenious
counsel; he was acquitted. His acquittal was mainly due to the judicious
disposition of a large sum of money; each juror; when he retired to dinner previous
to consulting over the verdict, was enabled to find the sum of 1000 dollars
under his plate; nor was it clear that the judge and sheriff had not participated
in the bounty; in fact, I heard a dispute as to the exact amount which it is
supposed the murderer had to pay. He now occupies, under the Confederate
Government, the post at New Orleans which he lately held as representative of
the Government of the United States.
After dinner I went in company of some of my hosts to the Boston
Club, which has, I need not say, no connection with the city of that name. More
fires, the tocsin sounding, and so to bed.
SOURCE: William Howard Russell, My Diary North and
South, p. 240-2
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