When the Senate had adjourned, I drove to the State
Department and saw Mr. Seward, who looked much more worn and haggard than when
I saw him last, three months ago. He congratulated me on my safe return from
the South in time to witness some stirring events. “Well, Mr. Secretary, I am
quite sure that, if all the South are of the same mind as those I met in my
travels, there will be many battles before they submit to the Federal
Government.”
“It is not submission to the Government we want; it is to
assent to the principles of the Constitution. When you left Washington we had a
few hundred regulars and some hastily-levied militia to defend the national
capital, and a battery and a half of artillery under the command of a traitor.
The Navy Yard was in the hands of a disloyal officer. We were surrounded by
treason. Now we are supported by the loyal States which have come forward in
defence of the best Government on the face of the earth, and the unfortunate
and desperate men who have commenced this struggle will have to yield or
experience the punishment due to their crimes.”
“But, Mr. Seward, has not this great exhibition of strength
been attended by some circumstances calculated to inspire apprehension that
liberty in the Free States may be impaired; for instance, I hear that I must
procure a passport in order to travel through the States and go into the camps
in front of Washington.”
“Yes, sir; you must send your passport here from Lord Lyons,
with his signature. It will be no good till I have signed it, and then it must
be sent to General Scott, as Commander-in-Chief of the United States army, who
will subscribe it, after which it will be available for all legitimate
purposes. You are not in any way impaired in your liberty by the process.”
“Neither is, one may say, the man who is under surveillance
of the police in despotic countries of Europe; he has only to submit to a
certain formality, and he is all right; in fact, it is said by some people,
that the protection afforded, by a passport is worth all the trouble connected
with having it in order.”
Mr. Seward seemed to think it was quite likely. There were
corresponding measures taken in the Southern States by the rebels, and it was
necessary to have some control over traitors and disloyal persons. “In this
contest,” said he, “the Government will not shrink from using all the means
which they consider necessary to restore the Union.” It was not my place to
remark that such doctrines were exactly identical with all that despotic
governments in Europe have advanced as the ground of action in cases of revolt,
or with a view to the maintenance of their strong Governments. “The Executive,”
said he, “has declared in the inaugural that the rights of the Federal
Government shall be fully vindicated. We are dealing with an insurrection
within our own country, of our own people, and the Government of Great Britain
have thought fit to recognize that insurrection before we were able to bring the
strength of the Union to bear against it, by conceding to it the status of
belligerent. Although we might justly complain of such an unfriendly act in a
manner that might injure the friendly relations between the two countries, we
do not desire to give any excuse for foreign interference; although we
do not hesitate, in case of necessity, to resist it to the uttermost, we
have less to fear from a foreign war than any country in the world. If any
European Power provokes a war, we shall not shrink from it. A contest between
Great Britain and the United States would wrap the world in fire, and at the
end it would not be the United States which would have to lament the results of
the conflict.”
I could not but admire the confidence — may I say the
coolness? — of the statesman who sat in his modest little room; within the
sound of the evening's guns, in a capital menaced by their forces who spoke so
fearlessly of war with a Power which could have blotted out the paper blockade
of the Southern forts and coast in a few hours, and, in conjunction with, then
Southern armies, have repeated the occupation and destruction of the capital.
The President sent for Mr. Seward whilst I was in the State
Department, and I walked up Pennsylvania Avenue to my lodgings, through a crowd
of men in uniform who were celebrating Independence Day in their own fashion —
some by the large internal use of fire-water, others by an external display of
fire-works.
Directly opposite my lodgings are the head-quarters of
General Mansfield, commanding the district, which are marked by a guard at the
door and a couple of six-pounder guns pointing down the street. I called upon
the General, but he was busy examining certain inhabitants of Alexandria and of
Washington itself, who had been brought before him on the charge of being
Secessionists, and I left my card, and proceeded to General Scott's
head-quarters, which I found packed with officers. The General received me in a
small room, and expressed his gratification at my return, but I saw he was so
busy with reports, despatches, and maps, that I did not trespass on his time. I
dined with Lord Lyons, and afterwards went with some members of the Legation to
visit the camps, situated in the public square.
All the population of Washington had turned out in their
best to listen to the military bands, the music of which was rendered nearly
inaudible by the constant discharge of fireworks. The camp of the 12th New York
presented a very pretty and animated scene. The men liberated from duty were
enjoying themselves out and inside their tents, and the sutlers' booths were
driving a roaring trade. I was introduced to Colonel Butterfield, commanding
the regiment, who was a merchant of New York; but notwithstanding the training
of the counting-house, he looked very much like a soldier, and had got his
regiment very fairly in hand. In compliance with a desire of Professor Henry,
the Colonel had prepared a number of statistical tables in which the
nationality, height, weight, breadth of chest, age, and other particulars
respecting the men under his command were entered. I looked over the book, and
as far as I could judge, but two out of twelve of the soldiers were native-born
Americans, the rest being Irish, German, English, and European-born generally.
According to the commanding officer they were in the highest state of
discipline and obedience. He had given them leave to go out as they pleased for
the day, but at tattoo only fourteen men out of one thousand were absent, and
some of those had been accounted for by reports that they were incapable of
locomotion owing to the hospitality of the citizens.
When I returned to my lodgings, the colored boy whom I had
hired at Niagara was absent, and I was told he had not come in since the night
before. “These free colored boys,” said my landlord, “are a bad set; now they
are worse than ever; the officers of the army are taking them all away from us;
it's just the life they like; they get little work, have good pay; but what
they like most is robbing and plundering the farmers’ houses over in Virginia;
what with Germans, Irish, and free niggers, Lord help the poor Virginians, I
say; but they'll give them a turn yet.”
The sounds in Washington to-night might have led one to
believe the city was carried by storm. Constant explosion of fire-arms,
fireworks, shouting, and cries in the streets, which combined, with the heat
and the abominable odors of the undrained houses and mosquitoes, to drive sleep
far away.
SOURCE: William Howard Russell, My Diary North and
South, Vol. 1, p. 380-3
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