Colonel Charles Russell Lowell to Josephine Shaw, June 17, 1863

Camp Brightwood, June 17, 1863.

I wonder whether I shall ever be able to repay Cousin John in any way for his many kindnesses and for the many pleasant days and evenings I have passed at Milton and Naushon. Do you know that after Chancellorsville he wrote that he had more than half a mind to come home at once to help raise a new army, and, if necessary, to take a musket himself.¹ Perhaps one of these days I may have a chance to do something to gratify him. I wonder whether my theories about self-culture, &c., would ever have been modified so much, whether I should ever have seen what a necessary failure they lead to, had it not been for this war: now I feel every day more and more that a man has no right to himself at all, that indeed he can do nothing useful unless he recognize this clearly: nothing has helped me to see this last truth more than watching Mr. Forbes, — I think he is one of the most unselfish workers I ever knew of: it is painful here to see how sadly personal motives interfere with most of our officers' usefulness. After the war, how much there will be to do, —  and how little opportunity a fellow in the field has to prepare himself for the sort of doing that will be required: it makes me quite sad sometimes; but then I think of Cousin John and remember how much he always manages to do in every direction without any previous preparation, simply by pitching in honestly and entirely, — and I reflect that the great secret of doing, after all, is in seeing what is to be done. You know I’ll not be rash; but I wish I could feel as sure of doing my duty elsewhere as I am of doing it on the field of battle, — that is so little part of an officer's and patriot's duty now.

We are still at our old camp, and with less prospect of an immediate move than there was three days ago. Did I tell you poor Ruksh had been sent to a hospital in town, — to be turned out to pasture if he lives. I am going to town to pick out a Government horse to take his place as well as maybe.

_______________

¹ The subject of this letter's just praise was Mr. John Murray Forbes. He was not “Cousin John” to Lowell, but the bond of friendship and trust was so strong between the men that, as he was Miss Shaw's kinsman, Lowell liked to take advantage of the kinship, before his marriage should entitle him to it. Mr. Forbes was at this time in England, a private citizen sent by his government on a mission of vital importance. I copy from his Reminiscences, privately printed, the same story I have heard from his own lips: —

“All through the early months of 1863 the alarm in regard to the Laird ironclads had been increasing until, one Saturday morning in March, I received a telegram from Secretary Chase of the Treasury asking me to meet him the next morning, Sunday, in New York, where Secretary Welles of the Navy would also be. I was half ill, but could not refuse, and so met the two Secretaries and W. H. Aspinwall at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, as requested. They wished Aspinwall and me to go at once to England, and see what could be done in the way of selling United States bonds, and stopping the outfit of Confederate cruisers, and especially ironclads. We agreed to go, and we were asked to draw our own instructions, which we did, making them very general in their terms, the main features being a very wide discretion and the unrestricted use of ten million of 5-20s then just being prepared for issue to the public on this side, but not yet countersigned. It was thought necessary that I should embark by the Cunard steamer of Wednesday from Boston, and that Aspinwall should follow with the bonds in a week. I returned home that night, packed up my baggage, left my business, and started, as arranged on Wednesday, the 18th of March.  . . . Aspinwall agreed to bring one of his old steamship captains as an expert, to help us in our examination of the British shipyards, then reported to be swarming with the outfitting Rebel cruisers.” Mr. Forbes went to the Barings “and suggested, as a first want, that they should put at my disposal £500,000, for which they were to have perhaps $4,000,000 of 5-20S as security.” This required consideration. Mr. Joshua Bates, of the firm, “was the best of Americans, and he was always for the strongest measures. His consultation with Mr. Baring resulted in their handing me a bank-book with £500,000 at my credit, subject to cash draft; and so, when Aspinwall arrived, a week later, our finances were all right, and he deposited the 5-20S in Baring's vaults, part as security for the money, and the rest subject to our orders.” Mr. Forbes used every effort to show the English where “their sympathy was due, and that, as neutral, it was their duty to stop the sailing of the ironclads known to be built for the Confederacy.” The Society of Friends and the Peace Society were friendly, but cold; and, bad as things were, he wrote, “Bright, Cobden, W. E. Forster, the Duke of Argyle, and a few others were with us heartily and took bold ground in our cause; but, generally speaking, the aristocracy and the trading classes were solid against us. Gladstone . . . had not found out the merits of our cause, and Lord John Russell, called a liberal member of the Cabinet, was with official insolence sneering, even in a public speech, at what he called ‘the once United States.’” Mr. Forbes worked hard to quicken the sympathies of the Society of Friends. His coming was welcomed by our brave minister, Charles Francis Adams, whose task had become indeed anxious and heavy. The work of selling the 5-20s in England and on the Continent was pushed, the purchase of the most threatening ironclads, which had been contemplated, proved impracticable. Then Mr. Adams took the final step. On the 5th of September he wrote to Lord Russell: “At this moment, when one of the ironclad vessels is on the point of departure from this kingdom on a hostile errand against the United States, it would be superfluous for me to point out to your lordship that this is war.”

The answer (Sept. 8) was: “Instructions have been issued which will prevent the departure of these two ironclad vessels from Liverpool.”

SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell, p. 258-60, 424-6

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. to John Lothrop Motley, February 16, 1861

Boston, February 16, 1861.

My Dear Motley: It is a pleasing coincidence for me that the same papers which are just announcing your great work are telling our little world that it can also purchase, if so disposed, my modest two-volume story. You must be having a respite from labor. You will smile when I tell you that I have my first vacation since you were with us, — when was it? in ’57? — but so it is. It scares me to look on your labors, when I remember that I have thought it something to write an article once a month for the “Atlantic Monthly”; that is all I have to show, or nearly all, for three and a half years, and in the meantime you have erected your monument, more perennial than bronze, in these two volumes of alto-relievo. I will not be envious, but I must wonder — wonder at the mighty toils undergone to quarry the ore before the mold could be shaped and the metal cast. I know you must meet your signal and unchallenged success with little excitement, for you know too well the price that has been paid for it. A man does not give away the best years of a manhood like yours without knowing that his plant has got to pay for his outlay. You have won the name and fame you must have foreseen were to be the accidents of your career. I hope, as you partake the gale with your illustrious brethren, you are well ballasted with those other accidents of successful authorship.

I am thankful for your sake that you are out of this wretched country. There was never anything in our experience that gave any idea of it before. Not that we have had any material suffering as yet. Our factories have been at work, and our dividends have been paid. Society — in Boston, at least — has been nearly as gay as usual. I had a few thousand dollars to raise to pay for my house in Charles Street, and sold my stocks for more than they cost me. We have had predictions, to be sure, that New England was to be left out in the cold if a new confederacy was formed, and that the grass was to grow in the streets of Boston. But prophets are at a terrible discount in these times, and, in spite of their predictions, Merrimac sells at 1125. It is the terrible uncertainty of everything — most of all the uncertainty of opinion of men. I had almost said of principles. From the impracticable abolitionist, as bent on total separation from the South as Carolina is on secession from the North, to the hunker, or submissionist, or whatever you choose to call the wretch who would sacrifice everything and beg the South's pardon for offending it, you find all shades of opinion in our streets. If Mr. Seward or Mr. Adams moves in favor of compromise, the whole Republican party sways like a field of grain before the breath of either of them. If Mr. Lincoln says he shall execute the laws and collect the revenue though the heavens cave in, the backs of the Republicans stiffen again, and they take down the old revolutionary king's arms, and begin to ask whether they can be altered to carry Minie bullets.

In the meantime, as you know very well, a monstrous conspiracy has been hatching for nobody knows how long, barely defeated in its first great move by two occurrences —Major Anderson's retreat to Fort Sumter, and the exposure of the great defalcations. The expressions of popular opinion in Virginia and Tennessee have encouraged greatly those who hope for union on the basis of a compromise; but this evening's news seems to throw doubt on the possibility of the North and the border States ever coming to terms; and I see in this same evening's paper the threat thrown out that if the Southern ports are blockaded fifty regiments will be set in motion for Washington! Nobody knows, everybody guesses. Seward seems to be hopeful. I had a long talk with Banks; he fears the formation of a powerful Southern military empire, which will give us trouble. Mr. Adams predicts that the Southern Confederacy will be an ignominious failure.

A Cincinnati pamphleteer, very sharp and knowing, shows how pretty a quarrel they will soon get up among themselves. There is no end to the shades of opinion. Nobody knows where he stands but Wendell Phillips and his out-and-outers. Before this political cataclysm we were all sailing on as quietly and harmoniously as a crew of your good Dutchmen in a trekschuit. The club has flourished greatly, and proved to all of us a source of the greatest delight. I do not believe there ever were such agreeable periodical meetings in Boston as these we have had at Parker's. We have missed you, of course, but your memory and your reputation were with us. The magazine which you helped to give a start to has prospered since its transfer to Ticknor and Fields. I suppose they may make something directly by it, and as an advertising medium it is a source of great indirect benefit to them. No doubt you will like to hear in a few words about its small affairs. I don't believe that all the Oxfords and Institutes can get the local recollections out of you. I suppose I have made more money and reputation out of it than anybody else, on the whole. I have written more than anybody else, at any rate. Miss Prescott's stories have made her quite a name. Wentworth Higginson's articles have also been very popular. Lowell's critical articles and political ones are always full of point, but he has been too busy as editor to write a great deal. As for the reputations that were toutes faites, I don't know that they have gained or lost a great deal by what their owners have done for the “Atlantic.” But oh, such a belaboring as I have had from the so-called “Evangelical” press for the last two or three years, almost without intermission! There must be a great deal of weakness and rottenness when such extreme bitterness is called out by such a good-natured person as I can claim to be in print. It is a new experience to me, but is made up by a great amount of sympathy from men and women, old and young, and such confidences and such sentimental épanchements that if my private correspondence is ever aired I shall pass for a more questionable personage than my domestic record can show me to have been.

Come, now, why should I talk to you of anything but yourself and that wonderful career of well-deserved and hardly won success which you have been passing through since I waved my handkerchief to you as you slid away from the wharf at East Boston? When you write to me, as you will one of these days, I want to know how you feel about your new possession, a European name. I should like very much, too, to hear something of your every-day experiences of English life, how you like the different classes of English people you meet — the scholars, the upper class, and the average folk that you may have to deal with. You know that, to a Bostonian, there is nothing like a Bostonian's impression of a new people or mode of life. We all carry the Common in our heads as the unit of space, the State House as the standard of architecture, and measure off men in Edward Everetts as with a yardstick. I am ashamed to remember how many scrolls of half an hour's scribblings we might have exchanged with pleasure on one side, and very possibly with something of it on the other. I have heard so much of Miss Lily's praises that I should be almost afraid of her if I did not feel sure that she would inherit a kindly feeling to her father and mother's old friend. Do remember me to your children; and as for your wife, who used to be Mary once, and I have always found it terribly hard work to make anything else of, tell her how we all long to see her good, kind face again. Give me some stray half-hour, and believe me always your friend,

O. W. Holmes

SOURCE: George William Curtis, editor, The Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley in Two Volumes, Library Edition, Volume 2, p. 113-7

John Lothrop Motley to Mary Benjamin Motley, June 20, 1861

Washington,

June 20th, 1861.

My Dearest Mary, — I told you that I went with Seward in the evening of Monday to see the President. He looks younger than I expected — less haggard than the pictures — and on the whole, except for his height, which is two or three inches above six feet, would not be remarked in any way as ill- or well-looking. His conversation was commonplace enough, and I can hardly remember a single word that he said, except when we were talking — all three — about the military plans in progress, he observed, not meaning anything like an epigram, “Scott will not let us outsiders know anything of his plans.” He seemed sincere and honest, however, and steady, but of course it is quite out of the question for me to hazard an opinion on so short an acquaintance as to his moral or intellectual qualities.

Seward impresses me as being decidedly a man of intellect, but seems an egotist. . . . There is no doubt whatever that the early impressions of the Foreign Ministers here were favourable to the success of the rebellion, and that these impressions were conveyed to their Governments. Mercier, the French Minister, was most decided in his views and his sympathies, while Lord Lyons, calm and quiet as you know him to be, as well as sagacious and right-minded, had also little doubt, I suspect, six or seven weeks ago that the secession or revolution was an accomplished fact. Hence the anxiety of their Governments to be on good terms with the rebels, particularly after the astounding misrepresentations of the Southern commissioners. It amuses Americans very much when I tell them that the recognition of Mr. Adams was remonstrated against by those individuals.

I dined with Lord Lyons yesterday, and M. Mercier was there. Of course we spoke of little else but American affairs. There is no need of quoting the conversation, but it is sufficient to say that little doubt seems now to exist in the minds of either that the United States Government is sure to put down this rebellion and remain a great power—greater than ever before.

The encouragement which the rebels have derived from their premature recognition which they have received as belligerents, and still more by the exclusion of our ships of war as well as their pirates from the English ports all over the world, for the purpose of bringing in prizes, while on the contrary France does not exclude our ships of war, but only privateers, has already given the rebellion a new lease of life. Still more pernicious is the hope which is now entertained by the rebels, that so soon as the new cotton crop is ready to come forward — say in October — England will break up our blockade, and of course become instantly involved in war with us. I refuse to contemplate such a possibility. It would be madness on the part of England, for at the very moment when it would ally itself with the South against the United States, for the sake of supplying the English manufacturers with their cotton, there would be a cry of twenty millions as from one mouth for the instant emancipation of all the slaves.

Nothing could resist that cry. The sentiment of the Free States would be more overwhelming even than its manifestation so lately, which has surprised the world by the rising as it were out of the earth in the brief space of six weeks, of a well equipped and disciplined army of 250,000 men. The alliance of England with the South for the sake of re-opening the cotton ports would have for its instant result the total destruction of the cotton interest. An invading army at half a dozen different ports would proclaim the instant abolition of slavery.

There is not the slightest exaggeration in this. No logic can be more inexorable, and the opinion is avowed on all sides.

To break our blockade for the sake of getting cotton for Manchester, would lead to the total extermination of the cotton crop for many a long year. No English statesman can be blind to this, and therefore I do not fear any interference on the part of England. The South, however, does expect such interference, and will in consequence prolong its struggle a little.

I passed the whole of the day before yesterday on the other side of the Potomac — the “sacred soil of Virginia.” We hired a carriage and took it on board a small steamer plying to Alexandria. The sail for about half a dozen miles along the broad, magnificent Potomac, under a cloudless sky, but protected by an awning, was very pleasant. The heat is not excessive yet, and there is usually a good air stirring. The expanse of hill and dale and the wooded heights which surround the margin of the beautiful river make a delightful passage of scenery. Alexandria, but lately a bustling tobacco port, is now like a city of the dead so far as anything like traffic is concerned. It is the head-quarters of General McDowell, an experienced army officer, who commands all the Union troops (some 25,000) in this part of Virginia.

We went to the Marshall House, the principal hotel of the place, where, as I suppose you read in the papers, Colonel Ellsworth of the New York Zouaves was killed. He had gone in person to the top of the house to cut down a Secession flag, and was coming down the stairs with it, when he was shot by the master of the house, one Jackson, who in his turn was instantly despatched by a private in the regiment. Ellsworth is much regretted as a young officer of great courage and irreproachable character.

By the way, you should read in the Atlantic for June and July a very spirited account of the march of the New York 7th to Washington. It was written by Major Winthrop of New York, who was killed the other day in that unlucky and blundering affair of General Pierce at Great Bethel. These outpost skirmishes are of little consequence to their ultimate results, but they serve to encourage the enemy a little. On the other hand, they read a useful lesson to Government upon the folly of appointing militia officers to high command when there is no lack of able and experienced army officers. Of these there are plenty, and no idea is more ridiculous than that the South has got all the officers and all the military material. The bone and sinew of the Free States are probably the best raw material for troops in the world. General Scott told me last night that the Massachusetts volunteers in a few months would be equal to the best regulars. To an unsophisticated eye they are nearly so already.

A regiment marched into Washington yesterday morning— the Massachusetts 1st—and with their steady march, stout frames, good equipments, and long train of baggage waggons, drawn by admirable teams of horses, following them, they looked very business-like, I assure you. And this regiment is but a tenth part of the men whom Massachusetts has already contributed. As for New York, I am afraid to say how many are already here, and they are wonderfully well-drilled — at least 20,000 — and they can send on as many more as can possibly be required. The contention now among the States is to get the largest proportion of their regiments accepted. The manner in which these great armies have been so suddenly improvised is astounding to foreigners. “C'est le pays des improvisations” said Mr. Mercier to me yesterday. From Alexandria we went on to Shuter's Hill, one of the heights commanding Washington, where, under guidance of Colonel Wright, the engineer who built the works, we examined the very considerable fortifications which have been erected here.

It is very interesting to see the volunteers working with pick and spade under the broiling sun of Virginia, without complaint or inconvenience. They are men who have never doubted that labour was honourable.

We afterwards went to Arlington House, formerly the seat of Washington Custis, and now the property of General Lee. He is an excellent officer, and was, before his defection, a favourite of General Scott. The place has great natural beauties of hill and dale, lawn and forest, and commands a magnificent view of Washington and the whole valley of the Potomac; but the house is mean. It is now the head-quarters of General McDowell (I was wrong in saying further back that these were at Alexandria). Colonel Heintzelmann commands there, and there are some New York regiments encamped in the grounds. I observed one alley through the tents had been christened Fifth Avenue. The property is thoroughly respected, and the soldiers have even amused their leisure in planting little gardens about their tents instead of destroying or defacing anything.

Thus we passed the day in going about the lines from one point to another, receiving explanations of everything from most intelligent officers — generally of the regular army. The works at the Tete du Pont, to defend the mile-long bridge which crosses the Potomac from the Virginia side to Washington, are very thorough, and the attempt upon Washington, if made, must, I think, result in a total defeat. I passed an hour with General Scott last night at his house in Washington. He tells me still that he expects an attack daily along the whole line, says that the rebels are perhaps in greater number than those which he has in the immediate neighbourhood, but that his are much better troops. I could not make out that he had any reasons to expect an attack, except upon the logical ground that they must do it, or come to grief by remaining inactive. They are poorly provisioned, impatient, and in danger of disbanding. Meantime, Scott has secured Harper's Ferry, a most important strategical position, without striking a blow. They were forced to evacuate the place to escape being surrounded. “Eeate d savoir” how it will be at Manassas Junction. The General pleases me exceedingly. He is in manner quiet, but hale, vigorous, and full of energy, and has no doubt whatever of bringing the whole matter to a happy issue within a reasonable time. But the things which annoy him most are the lying telegrams of the newspapers and the general impatience of outsiders. I spent an hour and a half with Seward last evening, and afterwards called at the White House on Mrs. Lincoln. She is rather nice-looking, youngish, with very round white arms, well dressed, chatty enough, and if she would not, like all the South and West, say “Sir” to you every instant, as if you were a royal personage, she would be quite agreeable.

SOURCE: George William Curtis, editor, The Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley in Two Volumes, Volume 1, p. 382-7

Charles Francis Adams to John M. Forbes, August 30, 1861

London, 30 August, 1861.

I do not know that I violate any confidence by telling you that the hope expressed in yours to me has been thus far verified. What the future may bring forth, no man can tell, — but the fact is certain that, now, negotiation is at a standstill.

I hear excellent accounts of your patriotic labors in the cause, and hope the best results from them. The great point now is the blockade. Privateering will come to nothing if that be made effective. If not, I see no end to it. For some of our own people would be as likely to go into it as to carry on the slave trade. The English must abide by the blockade, if it really be one. They will set it aside if they can pick a good flaw in it.

The course of events as seen from here is towards one termination of the struggle, and one only. We cannot afford to go over this ground more than once. The slave question must be settled this time once for all. It is surprising to see the efforts made here to create the belief that our struggle has nothing to do with slavery, but that it is all about a tariff. Even the anti-slavery people have been more or less inclined to give in to this notion.

Of course the measure of emancipation is a most grave one. It must task the capacity of the wisest heads among us. But there is no alternative in my mind between taking it up and absolute submission.

I cannot conceal from myself the fact that as a whole the English are pleased with our misfortunes. There never was any real good will towards us — and the appearance of it of late years was only the effect of their fears of our prosperity and our growing strength. Of course, you will keep these views to yourself. It is not advisable in these days for ministers abroad to be quoted. With best regards for Mrs. F. and your family, I am

Very truly yours,

C. F. Adams.

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 234-5

John M. Forbes to Charles Francis Adams, August 12, 1861

Boston, August 12, 1861.

My Dear Sir, — I have been hard at work for some weeks upon the organization of the new volunteer navy, and although it will be made an auxiliary, and a very useful one, to the navy, I regret to say I find great difficulties in giving it that efficiency which it ought to have, as a substitute for privateering. I am of course not going to give it up, and am looking to such changes in our law as will doubtless be adopted whenever an emergency really puts us to our trumps; but while it is yet an experiment, I am satisfied that we ought not to give up our right to issue letters of marque unless accompanied by Mr. Marcy's broader principle of exempting all private property on the sea from capture.

Even then I consider the time an unlucky one, and hope that some happy accident or some unreasonable demands on the part of the European powers may enable us to postpone the whole question. I need not, I hope, assure you that I have no disposition to interfere with your duties beyond giving you at the earliest moment the result of my personal observation upon the experiments we are trying now, and which of course has a direct bearing upon the questions which you are perhaps now discussing.

Pray make my best regards to Mrs. Adams and the rest of your family, and believe me,

Truly yours with high respect,

J. M. Foebes.

N. B. — Our hope was (and still is) to make the volunteer navy equally strong for attack — without the barbarism of privateering, but it is by no means so easy a task as we had supposed.

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 233-4

Lieutenant-Colonel Theodore Lyman to Elizabeth Russell Lyman, May 19, 1864

Headquarters Army Of Potomac

Thursday, May 19

To continue my history a little — I had struggled with much paper to the morning of the 8th. It proved a really hot day, dusty in the extreme and with a severe sun. We staid till the morning was well along, and then started for Piney Branch Church. On the way passed a cavalry hospital, I stopped and saw Major Starr, who had been shot directly through both cheeks in a cavalry fight the day before. He was in college with me, and when I first came to the army commanded the Headquarter escort, the same place Adams¹ now has. . . .

Near Piney Branch Church we halted, pitched tents and had something cooked. Meanwhile there was firing towards Spotsylvania, an ill omen for us. The Rebels were there first and stood across the way. Warren attacked them, but his were troops that had marched and fought almost night and day for four days and they had not the full nerve for a vigorous attack. General Robinson's division behaved badly. Robinson rode in among them, calling them to attack with the bayonet, when he was badly shot in the knee and carried from the field. They failed to carry the position and lost a golden opportunity, for Wilson's cavalry had occupied Spotsylvania, but of course could not keep there unless the enemy were driven from our front. . . .

A little before two we moved Headquarters down the Piney Branch Church road, south, to near its junction with the Todd's Tavern road. Meantime the 6th Corps had come up and formed on the left of Warren, the lines running in a general easterly and westerly direction, a mile and a half north of Spotsylvania. There was a high and curving ridge on which was placed our second line and batteries, then was a steep hollow, and, again, a very irregular ridge, or broken series of ridges, much of them heavily wooded, with cleared spaces here and there; along these latter crests ran the Rebel lines in irregular curves. Preparations were pushed to get the corps in position to attack, but it was plain that many of the men were jaded and I thought some of the generals were in a like case. About half-past four what should Generals Grant and Meade take it into their heads to do but, with their whole Staffs, ride into a piece of woods close to the front while heavy skirmishing was going on. We could not see a thing except our own men lying down; but there we sat on horseback while the bullets here and there came clicking among trunks and branches and an occasional shell added its discordant tone. I almost fancy Grant felt mad that things did not move faster, and so thought he would go and sit in an uncomfortable place. General Meade, not to be bluffed, stayed longer than Grant, but he told me to show the General the way to the new Headquarters. Oh! with what intense politeness did I show the shortest road! for I had picked out the camp and knew the way.

Well, they could not get their attack ready; but there was heavy skirmishing.²  . . . I think there was more nervous prostration to-day among officers and men than on any day before or since, the result of extreme fatigue and excitement. General Ward was relieved from his command, for misbehavior and intoxication in presence of the enemy during the Battle of the Wilderness. I had always supposed him to be a brave but rough man. . . .

_______________

¹ Charles F. Adams, Jr.

² “Sheridan now came to Headquarters — we were at dinner. Meade told him sharply that his cavalry was in the way, though he had sent him orders to leave the road clear. S. replied that he never got the order. Meade then apologized, but Sheridan was plainly full of suppressed anger, and Meade too was in ill temper. S. went on to say that he could see nothing to oppose the advance of the 5th Corps; that the behavior of the infantry was disgraceful, etc., etc. Maybe this was the beginning of his dislike of Warren and ill-feeling against Meade.” — Lyman's Journal.

SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness to Appomattox, p. 104-6

Charles Eliot Norton to George William Curtis, April 29, 1861

Shady Hill, 29 April, 1861.

I wish we could have a long talk together. Your last note found its answer in my heart. Everything is going on well here. The feeling that stirs the people is no outburst of transient passion, but is as deep as it is strong. I believe it will last till the work is done. Of course we must look for some reaction, — but I have no fear that it will bear any proportion to the force of the present current.

It seems to me to be pretty much settled by this unanimity of action at the North that we are not to have a divided Union. I almost regret this result, for I wish that the Southern States could have the opportunity of making a practical experiment of their system as a separate organization, and I fear lest when the time of settlement comes the weakness of the North may begin to show itself again in unmanly compliances.

But our chief danger at the present moment is lest the prevailing excitement of the people should overbear the wiser, slower, and more far-sighted counsels of Mr. Seward, — for it is he who more than any one else has the calmness and the prudence which are most requisite in this emergency. I am afraid that he is not well supported in the Cabinet, and I more than ever wish that he could have been our President. I am not satisfied that Mr. Lincoln is the right man for the place at this time.

Sumner dined with our Club on Saturday.¹ He did not make a good impression on me by his talk. He is very bitter against Seward; he expressed a great want of confidence in Scott, thinking him feeble and too much of a politician to be a good general; he doubts the honour and the good service of Major Anderson. There is but one man in the country in whom he has entire confidence, and in him his confidence is overweening.

After Sumner had gone Mr. Adams² came in and talked in a very different and far more statesmanlike way. His opinions are worthy of confidence. I think he is not thoroughly pleased with the President or the Cabinet, — but in him Mr. Seward has a strong ally.

You see that Caleb Cushing has offered his services to Governor Andrew. I understand that two notes passed on each side, — one a formal tender from Cushing of his services, which the Governor replied to with equal formality, stating that there is no position in the Massachusetts army which he can fill. Cushing's first letter was accompanied by another private one in which he offered himself to fill any position and expressed some of his sentiments on the occasion. To this Andrew answers that in his opinion Mr. Cushing does not possess the confidence of the community in such measure as to authorize him — the Governor — to place him in any position of responsibility, and that, even if this were not the case, Mr. Cushing does not possess his personal confidence to a degree which would warrant him in accepting his services. This is excellent. It is no more than Cushing deserves. Neither the people nor the Governor have forgotten, and they will never forgive, his speeches last November or December, or his previous course. . . .³

_______________

¹ The Saturday Club of Boston.

² Charles Francis Adams was appointed minister to England, March 20, 1861.

³ Cushing had presided at the Democratic National Convention which nominated Breckinridge to run against Lincoln.

SOURCE: Sara Norton and  M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Letters of Charles Eliot Norton, Volume 1, p. 231-3

Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes to John Lothrop Motley

Boston, February 16th, 1861.

My Dear Motley,—It is a pleasing coincidence for me that the same papers which are just announcing your great work are telling our little world that it can also purchase, if so disposed, my modest two volume story. You must be having a respite from labour. You will smile when I tell you that I have my first vacation since you were with us — when was it? in ’57? — but so it is. It scares me to look on your labours, when I remember that I have thought it something to write an article once a month for the Atlantic Monthly; that is all I have to show, or nearly all, for three and a half years, and in the meantime you have erected your monument more perennial than bronze in these two volumes of alto relievo. I will not be envious, but I must wonder — wonder at the mighty toils undergone to quarry the ore before the mould could be shaped and the metal cast. I know you must meet your signal and unchallenged success with little excitement, for you know too well the price that has been paid for it. A man does not give away the best years of a manhood like yours without knowing that his planet has got to pay for his outlay. You have won the name and fame you must have foreseen were to be the accidents of your career. I hope, as you partake the gale with your illustrious brethren, you are well ballasted with those other accidents of successful authorship.

I am thankful for your sake that you are out of this wretched country. There was never anything in our experience that gave any idea of it before. Not that we have had any material suffering as yet. Our factories have been at work, and our dividends have been paid. Society — in Boston, at least — has been nearly as gay as usual. I had a few thousand dollars to raise to pay for my house in Charles Street, and sold my stocks for more than they cost me. We have had predictions, to be sure, that New England was to be left out in the cold if a new confederacy was formed, and that the grass was to grow in the streets of Boston. But prophets are at a terrible discount in these times, and, in spite of their predictions, Merrimac sells at 1125. It is the terrible uncertainty of everything — most of all the uncertainty of opinion of men. I had almost said of principles. From the impracticable Abolitionist, as bent on total separation from the South as Carolina is on secession from the North, to the Hunker, or Submissionist, or whatever you choose to call the wretch who would sacrifice everything and beg the South's pardon for offending it, you find all shades of opinion in our streets. If Mr. Seward or Mr. Adams moves in favour of compromise, the whole Republican party sways like a field of grain before the breath of either of them. If Mr. Lincoln says he shall execute the laws and collect the revenue though the heavens cave in, the backs of the Republicans stiffen again, and they take down the old revolutionary king's arms, and begin to ask whether they can be altered to carry minie bullets.

In the meantime, as you know very well, a monstrous conspiracy has been hatching for nobody knows how long, barely defeated in its first great move by two occurrences — Major Anderson's retreat to Fort Sumter, and the exposure of the great defalcations. The expressions of popular opinion in Virginia and Tennessee have encouraged greatly those who hope for union on the basis of a compromise; but this evening's news seems to throw doubt on the possibility of the North and the Border States ever coming to terms; and I see in this same evening's paper the threat thrown out that if the Southern ports are blockaded, fifty regiments will be set in motion for Washington! Nobody knows, everybody guesses. Seward seems to be hopeful. I had a long talk with Banks; he fears the formation of a powerful Southern military empire, which will give us trouble. Mr. Adams predicts that the Southern Confederacy will be an ignominious failure.

A Cincinnati pamphleteer, very sharp and knowing, shows how pretty a quarrel they will soon get up among themselves. There is no end to the shades of opinion. Nobody knows where he stands but Wendell Phillips and his out-and-outers. Before this political cataclysm we were all sailing on as quietly and harmoniously as a crew of your good Dutchmen in a treckschuyt. The Club has flourished greatly, and proved to all of us a source of the greatest delight. I do not believe there ever were such agreeable periodical meetings in Boston as these we have had at Parker's. We have missed you, of course, but your memory and your reputation were with us. The magazine which you helped to give a start to has prospered since its transfer to Ticknor and Fields. I suppose they may make something directly by it, and as an advertising medium it is a source of great indirect benefit to them. No doubt you will like to hear in a few words about its small affairs. I don't believe that all the Oxfords and Institutes can get the local recollections out of you. I suppose I have made more money and reputation out of it than anybody else, on the whole. I have written more than anybody else, at any rate. Miss Prescott's stories have made her quite a name. Wentworth Higginson's articles have also been very popular. Lowell's critical articles and political ones are always full of point, but he has been too busy as editor to write a great deal. As for the reputations that were toutes faites, I don't know that they have gained or lost a great deal by what their owners have done for the Atlantic. But oh! such a belabouring as I have had from the so-called “Evangelical” press for the last two or three years, almost without intermission! There must be a great deal of weakness and rottenness when such extreme bitterness is called out by such a good-natured person as I can claim to be in print. It is a new experience to me, but is made up by a great amount of sympathy from men and women, old and young, and such confidences and such sentimental épanchements, that if my private correspondence is ever aired, I shall pass for a more questionable personage than my domestic record can show me to have been.

Come now, why should I talk to you of anything but yourself and that wonderful career of well-deserved and hardly-won success which you have been passing through since I waved my handkerchief to you as you slid away from the wharf at East Boston? When you write to me, as you will one of these days, I want to know how you feel about your new possession, a European name. I should like very much, too, to hear something of your everyday experiences of English life, — how you like the different classes of English people you meet—the scholars, the upper class, and the average folk that you may have to deal with. You know that, to a Bostonian, there is nothing like a Bostonian's impression of a new people or mode of life. We all carry the Common in our heads as the unit of space, the State House as the standard of architecture, and measure off men in Edward Everetts as with a yard-stick. I am ashamed to remember how many scrolls of half-an-hour's scribblings we might have exchanged with pleasure on one side, and very possibly with something of it on the other. I have heard so much of Miss Lily's praises, that I should be almost afraid of her if I did not feel sure that she would inherit a kindly feeling to her father and mother's old friend. Do remember me to your children; and as for your wife, who used to be Mary once, and I have always found it terribly hard work to make anything else of, tell her how we all long to see her good, kind face again. Give me some stray half-hour, and believe me always your friend,

O. W. Holmes

SOURCE: George William Curtis, editor, The Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley in Two Volumes, Volume 1, p. 359-62

Charles Russell Lowell to John M. Forbes, February 11, 1861

Mt. Savage, February 11, 1861.

My Dear Mr. Forbes, — I was delighted to see your name among the Massachusetts Commissioners — and very glad to hear that you were going to take Mrs. Forbes and the young ladies with you.¹ If all the Representatives and Commissioners would show the same confidence in the good intentions of Maryland and Virginia towards the Capital, it might have a good effect — but perhaps it would be unsafe to trust too many ladies together at a Peace Conference even.

I see that in some of the Western Delegations, there are more “Generals” than “Judges.” I hope this does not indicate fight.

If Massachusetts stands where Charles Francis Adams has put her, it seems to me she will be right, and will look right in history. I did not know till now that Webster was so nearly correct in his 7th of March speech. I have always supposed he stretched the facts to suit his purposes.

We had a Union meeting in this county some three weeks ago which was more anti-slavery than Faneuil Hall dares to be — but this seems by no means the feeling throughout the State. I doubt if any compromise which did not virtually acknowledge the right of secession would be acceptable here: and yet with this right acknowledged, will not the credit of the General Government and of many of the States be badly damaged abroad — will not New York and Massachusetts be asked to endorse the Federal securities?

As to the extreme South — I suppose Benjamin & Co.,² after the raid on the New Orleans mint, will scarcely come back unless we all express through the Constitution our approbation and admiration of stealing. It seems likely now that we shall avoid a war with them; but will not the fighting mania they have encouraged force them into an attack on Cuba or Nicaragua — and thus bring about a war with some strong foreign power which will enable us to re-cement the Union on our terms? I sincerely hope that Lincoln will not consult too nicely what is acceptable even to the Border States, but will take his stand on the principles which the framers of the Constitution stood upon, and if there comes a collision, call upon the Border States alone to aid him — I believe they would at once rally to sustain him, even in a course which they would now pronounce totally unacceptable.

As my views are taken from the New York papers, they will probably be novel to you.

In fact, I write chiefly to express a faint hope that we may see you and the ladies at Mt. Savage. Mr. Graham tells me that he has invited you. In these dull times I cannot be expected to have acquired very much information about the manufacturing of Iron, but I should like very much to go over the ground with you. If the works are ever to go on, I am well satisfied with my change from Iowa — I think there are practical economies to be introduced in almost every department.

_______________

¹ “The war,” wrote Mr. Forbes, in his notes, “virtually began for me with what is called the ‘Peace Congress’ of February, 1861. In January, Virginia asked the other States to send delegates to a congress for the purpose of devising means to avert the civil war then threatening. This was pretty generally responded to at the North, and resulted in the meeting of what was called the Peace Congress at Washington, in the early part of February, 1861. It was unauthorized by law and entirely informal, and simply a conference of men of the different States. Each State was represented by as many delegates as it had members of Congress, our Massachusetts contingent being thirteen (I think), all nominated by Governor Andrew under authority from the legislature. Of my colleagues I recall the names of George S. Boutwell, J. Z. Goodrich, F. N. Crowninshield, T. P. Chandler, and B. F. Waters of Marblehead, as having been the most active. We started nearly all together, about February 10, with the political horizon everywhere darkly lowering. My wife and daughter accompanied me.  . . . I had secured an asylum for them with Baron Stoeckel, the Russian ambassador, to be availed of in case the rebels pushed into Washington, an event which seemed as probable as it really was easy of accomplishment, had the rebels been half as smart as we thought them. . . .

“We soon plunged into our work, our [the Massachusetts delegation's] advent having very much the effect of a bombshell explosion. Before our arrival, the talk had been chiefly of compromise, and some progress seemed to have been made in preparing the way for a surrender by the North, on the basis of the Crittenden Resolutions, so called from Senator Crittenden, who introduced them into the Senate. They practically surrendered the ground which the North and West had taken against the extension of Slavery, and gave up the advanced position for Freedom which had been gained after long years of conflict, and which was represented by the election of Lincoln.  . . . We who went to see what chance there was of any real peace, soon found that the Southerners in the convention were ready to receive any concessions from us ‘in the hope that it might do some good,’ but to commit themselves to nothing.

“When we asked the Border States, ‘Suppose the North concedes what you ask, will you join them in forcing the South to obey the laws?’ ‘No,’ was the reply, ‘but we should hope that such concessions would lead to a settlement, and we will do all we peaceably can to bring this about.’  . . . Our only policy then was to stand firm, and, as the Fourth of March was approaching, when the weak old Buchanan and his Cabinet would go out, to make all the time we could in the Peace Convention and avert, as long as possible, the onslaught of the better prepared South, which was plainly impending.  . . . So the Massachusetts delegates introduced a resolution calling upon the representatives of the Border States, who had asked us to meet them, for ‘a statement of the grievances which we were asked to redress.’

“This led to long debates, and some of us who had not the gift of speaking, and could read the reports of the convention in print, turned our thoughts naturally to some other modes of saving the Union.” (John Murray Forbes, Letters and Recollections, edited by his daughter, Sarah Forbes Hughes. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1899.)

Mr. Forbes wrote a draft for a report of the Peace Commission to Governor Andrew, in which he said: “We have no belief that any absolute settlement was practicable, short of an entire subversion of the constitutional rights of the majority of the people of the United States.”

² Judah P. Benjamin, a Jew, came to North Carolina in early youth, and became a prominent lawyer and politician in New Orleans. He was a leading secessionist and was Secretary of War, and, later, of State, to the Confederacy. After the war, he was a noted practitioner of law in England. He died in Paris.

SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell, p. 193-6, 400-2

Senator James W. Grimes to Elizabeth S. Nealley Grimes, June 4, 1860

Washington, June 4, 1860.

We have just had a four hours speech from Sumner on the “Barbarism of Slavery.” In a literary point of view it was of course excellent. As a bitter, denunciatory oration, it could hardly be exceeded in point of style and finish. But, to me, many parts of it sounded harsh, vindictive, and slightly brutal. It is all true that slavery tends to barbarism, but Mr. Sumner furnishes no remedy for the evils he complains of. His speech has done the Republicans no good. Its effect has been to exasperate the Southern members, and render it utterly impossible for Mr. Sumner to exercise any influence here for the good of his State. Mr. C. F. Adams made a manly, statesmanly speech in the House of Representatives, four days ago, which was attentively listened to by everybody. He read it, as did Mr. Sumner his.

Mr. Seward is now here, and made a speech in Executive session the other day on the Mexican Treaty, that to my view showed more intellectual vigor than did his speech which you heard. His speech to which I refer was short, extemporaneous, and very able, converting almost the whole Senate to his views.

The nomination of Lincoln strikes the mass of the people with great favor. He is universally regarded as a scrupulously honest man, and a genuine man of the people.

SOURCE: William Salter, The Life of James W. Grimes, p. 127-8

William H. Seward to Charles Francis Adams, July 5, 1862

[Confidential ]

No. 287.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, July 5, 1862.

Sir: Your despatch of June 20 (No. 176) has been received.

It is a satisfaction to know that a copy of my despatch 260 has been received and read by Earl Russell. The subject it presents is one of momentous import. It seems as if the extreme advocates of African slavery and its most vehement opponents were acting in concert together to precipitate a servile war — the former by making the most desperate attempts to overthrow the federal Union, the latter by demanding an edict of universal emancipation as a lawful and necessary, if not, as they say, the only legitimate, way of saving the Union.

I reserve remarks upon the military situation for a day nearer to the departure of the mail.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., &c., &c., &c.

SOURCE: Message of the President of the United States to the Two Houses of Congress at the Commencement of the Third Session of the Thirty-Seventh Congress, Volume 1, p. 124

Charles Francis Adams to William H. Seward., October 3, 1862

No. 229.]

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

London, October 3, 1862.

Sir: Since the date of my last I have received despatches from the department numbered from 339 to 349, both inclusive.

The telegraph intelligence so far outstrips the ordinary course of communication that the accounts of the result of the invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania followed close upon the mention in your No. 349 of General McClellan's first success. As yet we are not in possession of the details, but the effect upon the popular mind of what is known has been already very considerable. So strong had the impression become that all power of farther resistance by the government was for the moment destroyed, that many people confidently counted upon the possession of the national capital by the rebels as an event actually past. The surprise at this manifestation of promptness and vigor has been quite in proportion. The great stroke which was to finish the war, that had been early announced here as about to take place in September, seems to have failed, and to have left its projectors in a worse condition than ever. The prevalent notion of the superiority of military energy and skill on the part of the insurgents in the field has been weakened. As a consequence, less and less appears to be thought of mediation or intervention. All efforts to stir up popular discontent meet with little response. The newspapers of the day contain a report of a decided check just given to a movement of this kind at Staley Bridge, near Manchester. On the whole, I am inclined to believe that perhaps a majority of the poorer classes rather sympathize with us in our struggle, and it is only the aristocracy and the commercial body that are adverse. Perhaps it may be quite as well for us if this should be the case. For the present ministry sufficiently reflects the popular side to be in little danger of precipitation so long as no impulse from that quarter shall be manifested against us.

Great interest continues to be felt in the Italian question. There are symptoms of movement of some kind on the part of the Emperor of France, but nobody pretends to foretell what it will be. The position of Garibaldi rouses stronger interest now that he is in prison than it did whilst he was quietly at home. The difficulty of bringing him to trial, in the face of the popular sympathies of half of Europe, is very serious. On the other hand, religious feelings are strongly appealed to in behalf of the Pope. A serious riot took place in Hyde Park on Sunday last, where a meeting in favor of Garibaldi was attempted. All this contributes to divide the attention heretofore so much concentrated on America.

The distress in the manufacturing region rather increases in severity, but I am inclined to believe that the further closing of the mills is no longer made imperative by the diminution of the material. Large supplies of cotton of the old crop were received from India last week, and three hundred thousand bales are announced as far on their way. The new crop will soon follow. What remains is to adjust the proper relation between the prices of the raw material and the manufactured product, which, owing to the great previous excess of the latter, is yet unsettled. In the meantime much attention is given to the invention of substitutes, and some resort had to other materials. More industry is enlisted in the making of commodities from wool as well as flax. There is also a quickening of the products of which silk is a component part. All these things will, I hope, combine to reduce from this time forward the amount of distress in the indigent classes. I judge that the cotton famine has passed its minimum, and that unless the governments of England and France should be so infatuated as to interrupt the natural progress of events, the great risk to the civilized world of future dependence upon an imperious and false organization of society in America will have been permanently averted. In the midst of all this, I wish I could see at home any prospect of a termination of this deplorable struggle. But the infatuation of the dominant class in the south seems to have reached its highest pitch when it dreams of dictating its own terms in our capital cities. There is no dealing with such persons excepting with their own weapons. Here is the conflict of two ideas which cannot be harmonized by reasoning. Much as it may cost, the struggle must go on, and modern civilization triumph, or America will forfeit all further claim to be designated as the land of the free.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

Hon. William H. Seward,

Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.

SOURCE: United States Department of State, Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Part 1, Communicated to Congress December 1, 1862, p. 205-6

Lord Palmerston to Charles Francis Adams, June 11, 1862

BROCKET, 11 June, 1862.

MY DEAR SIR, — I cannot refrain from taking the liberty of saying to you that it is difficult if not impossible to express adequately the disgust which must be excited in the mind of every honorable man by the general order of General Butler given in the enclosed extract from yesterday’s “ Times.” Even when a town is taken by assault it is the practice of the commander of the conquering army to protect to his utmost the inhabitants and especially the female part of them, and I will venture to say that no example can be found in the history of civilized nations, till the publication of this order, of a general guilty in cold blood of so infamous an act as deliberately to hand over the female inhabitants of a conquered city to the unbridled license of an unrestrained soldiery.

If the Federal government chooses to be served by men capable of such revolting outrages, they must submit to abide by the deserved opinion which mankind will form of their conduct.

My dear Sir, Yrs faithfully,

PALMERSTON.

C. F. ADAMS, Esq.

SOURCE: Charles Francis Adams [Jr.], Charles Francis Adams, p. 248-9

From Western Virginia

Times’ Special.

HEADQUARTERS MOUNTAIN DEPARTMENT,

NEAR HARRISBURG, May 8.

A dispatch from Fayetteville, announcing the advance of Gen. Cox, composed of a part of the 33d, under Maj. Cawley, occupied Giles C. H., and Darrows, on New river, yesterday.  The rebels ran, and did not burn the town as intended.  Abundant commissary stores, a Lieut., Major and 20 privates were captured.  The citizens remained, and seemed loyal.

The defeat of the rebels at Camp Creek, was more important than at first supposed.

Gen. Milory is now fighting, and Gen. [Schenck] is advancing.  Particular[s] of this movement are forbidden.

HEADQUARTERS MOUNTAIN DEPARTMENT,

May 8, 1862.

To E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War:– Gen. Cox telegraphs that his advance, consisting of part of the 23d Ohio, occupied Giles Court House and the narrows of New River yesterday, driving away the rebels, who were taken by surprise.  A large quantity of commissary stores and 20 privates were captured.  Our surprise prevented the burning of that place as the rebels intended.  Most of the citizens seem loyally disposed.

Signed.

J. C. FREMONT.

WASHINGTON, May 8.

Information has been received here that a cavalry reconnoissance was recently made to Culpepper C. H.  Seven prisoners were captured as they were attempting to escape – they have been sent to Washington.  Our troops were favorably received by the people, and only temporarily occupied the town.

Minister Adams has presented a claim to the British Government for the restoration of the Emily St. Pierre, the Captain of which rose on the prize crew and conveyed her to Liverpool, after her capture by the United States fleet, for a violation of the blockade.

An order from the War Department says: “Upon requisitions made by commanders of the armies in the field, and authority will be given by the Department to the Governors of the respective States to recruit for regiments now in the service.”

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, May 10, 1862, p. 1

A great deal of indignation is expressed . . .

. . . on England and very justly at the conduct of the British Cabinet in withholding from the public information that Mr. Seward wrote to Mr. Adams that the seizure of the rebel commissioners was an act not authorized by our Government.  Every bit of information seems to have been carefully husbanded by stock speculators.  It is possible that Thurlow Weed who corresponds constantly and confidentially with our Secretary of State has been innocent enough to make a big pile out of the lately panic stricken stock market.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 8, 1862, p. 2

Arrival of the Canada

HALIFAX, March 5.

The Canada arrived here to-day with Liverpool dates of the 22d, via Queenstown 23d.  The Bavaria and Africa had arrived out.

LIVERPOOL. – Breadstuffs dull. Provisions downward.  Consuls 93 1-4 for money.

Lord Palmerston, in the House of Lords said that negotiations relative to the San Juan affair had been suspended, in consequence of the civil war in America, but a joint provisional occupation of the island had been arranged by both governments.

The British Government has refused to produce any information relative to British vessels running the American blockade.

It is reported Slidell has had several interviews with all the French ministers, but they were, of course, of an unofficial nature.

The Grecian insurrection continues, but is confined to Nauplia.

Washington’s birth-day was patriotically celebrated in the Freemason’s tavern, London, the Bishop of Ohio presiding.  Minister Adams responded to the toast, “Memory of Washington.”

GREAT BRITIAN. – In the House of Commons on 20^th inst., Mr. O’Donoghue moved for a return of the British vessels, of their captains and owners, that have succeeded in running the American blockade; also for similar returns of British vessels captured or destroyed in the attempt to break the blockade and returns of the number of British vessels that have put into Nassau and other colonial ports, with contraband of war and supplies for the Confederate States and that have been permitted to refit and supply themselves at those places, in contravention of the Queen’s proclamation of neutrality.  He strongly censured the government for not having taken active steps to prevent breaches of neutrality by British ships.

My. Ledyard said that it would be scarcely convenient that he should inter into discussion of the blockade, which would come on more regularly when there was a solution of it, of which notice had been moved.  He must decline therefore to consent to the returns for two reasons.  In the first place government had not yet got the information sought for and in the second place if they had, it would not be their office to furnish a list of wrong doers and violators of the law.

The papers relative to the blockade would probably be laid on the table on the 24^th or 25^th inst., and would contain a statement of the number of vessels which had broken the blockade, and perhaps their tonnage, and he hoped the information would satisfy O’Donoghue.

The Solicitor General explained the misapprehension of O’Donoghue, and that private vessels might carry contraband of war, but at their own risk, and if detected they must abide the consequences.

In Parliament, Mr. McGuire called the attention of the House to the serious distress at present existing in Ireland.

Sir Robt. Peel in reply refuted his assertions, and in the course of his remarks said that no more remarkable proof of the absence of grievances existed that that which occurred the other day.  When there was danger of a rupture with America Ireland was full of American emissaries trying to raise up the spirit of disloyalty.

Manchester advices are favorable, the demand for goods and yarns being quiet with an upward tendency.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, March 6, 1862, p. 1

From Washington

WASHINGTON, March 1.

Letters from Minister Adams declare that friendliness for the United States is growing in England.  The Spectator and other leading journals are about to send correspondents hither, who shall counteract Bull Run Russell’s lying prognostications.

Flocks of New York reporters have just arrived at Willard’s, keen for coming battles.  They have had no chance, as yet, to draw the pen.

The Republican of this morning says:– From various sources we here the cruel and relentless treatment of Col. D’Utassy by Gen. Blenker.  He is in close confinement in an unhealthy military prison and watched by armed sentinels, as though he were a felon of the deepest dye.  The official charges allege that he was in some manner connected with the publication of certain articles in German newspapers.  A court martial for the trial of D’Utassy will be convened.

White cravated, tract distributing beggars are circulating through Washington.  One modestly asked Gerritt Smith for ten thousand dollars to-day.  He had not the change about him.

A dispatch from Gen. Lander’s Assistant Adjutant General says he was exhausted and worn out, and that for twenty-four hours before his death his pulse scarcely moved.  Probably his disease was hastened by physicians, the effect of an arduous march, and by mental anxiety.

Senator Hale to-day called attention to the report of the conference committee on the civil appropriation bill, concurred in heedlessly last Thursday.  The report introduces new matter in violation of parliamentary law, appropriating $2,000 for plate for the President’s house.  Mr. Hale therefore moved to reconsider.

Mr. Browning said the bill had already been signed by the President and had become a law.  This is known as the gold spoon amendment, previously rejected by the finance committee.  The conference which worked it through, was composed of Senators Perce, Doolittle and Clark, and Representatives Stevens, Walton and Train.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, March 5, 1862, p. 1

Thurlow Weed’s Letters from Europe

(Editorial correspondence of the Albany Journal.)

LONDON, Jan 9, 1862.

London was jubilant yesterday. I was in the city, among the bankers, at 3 o’clock, when a telegram from Queenstown announced as a “rumor” that the “Trent Affair is settled.” This gave instant life to the drooping stock market. In a few minutes information came that a dispatch in ciphers from Lord Lyons was going over the wires to the Foreign Office. Up went the stocks again! Then came a report that the rebel Commissioners were on their way to England in the steamer America, and another jump in consols.

With the very satisfactory intelligence I took a “Hansom” and came to the West End, stopping by the way to exchange congratulations with some friends, warmly with us for the Union. Soon after I reached my lodgings came Sir Henry Holland, Sir Emerson Tennant, Sir John Wilson, &c., &c., to exchange congratulations. And while at dinner, (my friend Terence McCulloch dining with us), came Commissioner Parkes to say that Earl Russell’s dispatch from Lord Lyons informed him that the Confederate Commissioners has been unconditionally surrendered, whereupon we repaired to the legation to congratulate Mr. and Mrs. Adams. Here Mr. Adams added to the gratification which the peace news gave, by informing us that the United States steamer Tuscarora, Capt. Craven, had arrived at Southampton.

The peace news was announced at the Theaters, and was received with hearty cheers. In the London press, this morning, it is variously treated though by a large majority in a spirit creditable to both Governments.

There are two classes to whom the action of our government is distasteful, viz: the English who, from hatred or envy (and this is not a numerous class) wanted war; and the secessionist. Out of the Trent affair they hoped everything for the cause of rebellion. But the seasonable and happy adjustment of the difficulty will create a healthful reaction of feeling. It wall now be seen, that while England – Government, press, and people – takes fire when the honor of its flag is concerned, that question honorably settled, the popular current will set back strongly. While the Trent affair remained open and an impression prevailed that America intended to provoke a war, there was a united feeling against us here. That feeling will now give place to manifestations of regard and friendship.

I have met distinguished personages, members of the Ministry, the Government, and of Parliament, at dinners and breakfasts, with whom I have conversed fully on American questions, and while I am not at liberty to use names or publish conversations, I may say that the Union has many and strong friends here. And I am sorry to add that, although the Trent trouble is out of the way, we shall need all that those friends can do for us. The moment Parliament meets, agitation of American questions will commence. The blockade will be attacked from one quarter, while another section will demand a recognition of the Confederate States. Nor is it from England alone that this kind of pressure will come. France is even more restive than England under the blockade.

Mr. Sanford, our Minister to Brussels, who is indefatigable in efforts to aid our Government, has purchased a cargo of arms, saltpetre, clothes, &c., &c., and chartered the “Meleta,” an iron steamer, which he dispatches from Antwerp, on Sunday, under the command of Capt. Eastman, of Maine, a thorough sailor and devoted Union man, of whose experience and daring the Government will do will to avail itself.

Our Minister to this Court, Mr. Adams, is the “right man for the right place.” Beside his knowledge of the duties, and his ability to discharge them, both Mr. Adams and his family possess an eminent degree of the personal and social qualities which commend them to the high and refined circles and associations which surround them and in which they are moving. Nor did the change, in this regard, occur any too early, for I learn from unquestionable authority that the interests of the Government here, as in France were but indifferently represented.

T. W.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, February 10, 1862, p. 2

Later from Europe

ST. JOHNS, N. F., April 28.

The steamship North American, from Liverpool 17th, passed Cape Race Sunday. She was boarded by the news yacht, and a summary of her news obtained.

The Great Eastern had been got off the Gridiron at Milford in safety.

Consols closed at 93 7-8 a 94 for money.


GREAT BRITAIN. – A deputation from the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society waited on Mr. Adams, the American Minister, on the 16th, and presented an address in which the hope is expressed that the restoration of the Union would be founded upon the abolition of the true cause of the strife.

The reply of Mr. Adams is described as having been very satisfactory to the deputation. But the Times thinks it indicates the policy of Northern politicians, which is to have liberty to deal according to circumstances with the slavery question.


FRANCE. – The Prince De Joinville is about publishing a pamphlet on iron-plated [frigates]. This work, it is said, will present the subject under new aspects. He does not admit the invulnerability of the new vessels.

The Bourse was flat on the 14th and lower.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, April 29, 1862, p. 1

Tribune’s Correspondence

WASHINGTON, April 25.

A special order has been issued form the War Department conferring upon Doctors Brown and Alexander and such assistant surgeons as they may appoint, the right to embalm the dead of the U. S. army, any where within the lines, either in the camp or in the field, and to follow up the advance of the land forces.

Our Minister at London, Mr. Adams, recently visited Paris for an official conference with Mr. Dayton upon an important subject of diplomatic negotiation. The former by the last steamer reports that he has returned to his post.

The House to-day reversed its yesterday’s action on the motion to print 25,000 copies of the agricultural part of the Patent Office report in the German language. Mr. Walton, chairman of the military committee stated that the government printing office has neither German type nor German printers. He said the work would have to be translated.

The Sanitary Commission will to-morrow dispatch the steamer Daniel Webster to Fort Monroe as a floating hospital. She is to carry a large supply of hospital stores, medicines, clothing, ice, &c., and a corps of surgeons, nurses and hospital dressers.

The Navy Department has received dispatches from Com. Foote, enclosing a report from Lieut. Commanding Gwynn, dated 14th inst., in which he says: The Tyler and Lexington conveyed two transports, containing 2,000 troops, infantry and cavalry, under command of General Sherman, to Chickasaw, where they disembarked and proceeded rapidly to Bear Creek bridge, at the crossing of the Memphis and Charleston railroad, for the purpose of destroying it and as much of the trestle work as they could find. The bridge, consisting of two spans of 110 feet each, was completely destroyed, that is the superstructure, together with 500 feet of trestle work and half a mile of telegraph line. The rebels made a feeble resistance to our cavalry, 120 in number, but soon [retreated], losing four killed. Our loss none.

The navy department is desirous of learning the address of Mr. Birney, the inventor of the combustion shell.

A dispatch received at the War department from Ft. Monroe says that the Richmond Dispatch states that a Federal gunboat has successes in passing Ft. Jackson, below New Orleans, but the rebels say they regard it as of little importance, as they have other defences to be depended on.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, April 28, 1862, p. 1