Diary of Adam Gurowski, November 1861

THE season is excellent for military operations, such as any Napoleon could wish it. And we, lying not on our oars or arms, but in our beds, as our spes patriæ is warmly and cosily established in a large house, receiving there the incense and salutations of all flunkeys. Even cabinet ministers crowd McClellan's antechambers!

The massacre at Ball's Bluff is the work either of treason, or of stupidity, or of cowardice, or most probably of all three united.

No European government and no European nation would thus coolly bear it. Any commander culpable of such stupidity would be forever disgraced, and dismissed from the army. Here the administration, the Cabinet, and all the Scotts, the McClellans, the Thomases, etc., strain their brains and muscles to whitewash themselves or the culprit—to represent this massacre as something very innocent.

Victoria! Victoria! Old Scott, Old Mischief, gone overboard! So vanished one of the two evil genii keeping guard over Mr. Lincoln's brains. But it will not be so easy to redress the evil done by Scott. He nailed the country's cause to such a turnpike that any of his successors will perhaps be unable to undo what Old Mischief has done. Scott might have had certain, even eminent, military capacity; but, all things considered, he had it only on a small scale. Scott never had in his hand large numbers, and hundreds of European generals of divisions would do the same that Scott did, even in Mexico. Any one in Europe, who in some way or other participated in the events of the last forty years, has had occasion to see or participate in one single day in more and better fighting, to hear more firing, and smell more powder, than has General Scott in his whole life.

Scott's fatal influence palsied, stiffened, and poisoned every noble or higher impulse, and every aspiration of the people. Scott diligently sowed the first seeds of antagonism between volunteers and regulars, and diligently nursed them. Around his person in the War Department, and in the army, General Scott kept and maintained officers, who, already before the inauguration, declared, and daily asserted, that if it comes to a war, few officers of the army will unite with the North and remain loyal to the Union.

He never forgot to be a Virginian, and was filled with all a Virginian's conceit. To the last hour he warded off blows aimed at Virginia. To this hour he never believed in a serious war, and now requiescat in pace until the curse of coming generations.

McClellan is invested with all the powers of Scott. McClellan has more on his shoulders than any man—a Napoleon not excepted—can stand; and with his very limited capacity McClellan must necessarily break under it. Now McClellan will be still more idolized. He is already a kind of dictator, as Lincoln, Seward, etc., turn around him.

In a conversation with Cameron, I warned him against bestowing such powers on McClellan. "What shall we do?" was Cameron's answer; "neither the President nor I know anything about military affairs." Well, it is true; but McClellan is scarcely an apprentice.

Again the intermittent fear, or fever, of foreign intervention. How absurd! Americans belittle themselves talking and thinking about it. The European powers will not, and cannot. That is my creed and my answer; but some of our agents, diplomats, and statesmen, try to made capital for themselves from this fever which they evoke to establish before the public that their skill preserves the country from foreign intervention. Bosh!

All the good and useful produced in the life and in the economy of nations, all the just and the right in their institutions, all the ups and downs, misfortunes and disasters befalling them, all this was, is, and forever will be the result of logical deductions from pre-existing dates and facts. And here almost everybody forgets the yesterday.

A revolution imposes obligations. A revolution makes imperative the development and the practical application of those social principles which are its basis.

The American Revolution of 1776 proclaimed self-government, equality before all, happiness of all, etc.; it is therefore the peremptory duty of the American people to uproot domestic oligarchy, based upon living on the labor of an enslaved man; it has to put a stop to the moral, intellectual, and physical servitude of both, of whites and of colored.

Eminent men in America are taunted with the ambition to reach the White House. In itself it is not condemnable; it is a noble or an ignoble ambition, according to the ways and means used to reach that aim. It is great and stirring to see one's name recorded in the list of Presidents of the United States; but there is still a record far shorter, but by far more to be envied—a record venerated by our race—it is the record of truly great men. The actually inscribed runners for the White House do not think of this.

No one around me here seems to understand (and no one is familiar enough with general history) that protracted wars consolidate a nationality. Every day of Southern existence shapes it out more and more into a nation, with all the necessary moral and material conditions of existence.

Seeing these repeated reviews, I cannot get rid of the idea that by such shows and displays McClellan tries to frighten the rebels in the Chinaman fashion. The collateral missions to England, France, and Spain, are to add force to our cause before the public opinion as well as before the rulers. But what a curious choice of men! It would be called even an unhappy one. Thurlow Weed, with his offhand, apparently sincere, if not polished ways, may not be too repulsive to English refinement, provided he does not buttonhole his interlocutionists, or does not pat them on the shoulder. So Thurlow Weed will be dined, wined, etc. But doubtless the London press will show him up, or some "Secesh" in London will do it. I am sure that Lord Lyons, as it is his paramount duty, has sent to Earl Russell a full and detailed biography of this Seward's alter ego, sent ad latus to Mr. Adams. Thurlow Weed will be considered an agreeable fellow; but he never can acquire much weight and consideration, neither with the statesmen, nor with the members of the government, nor in saloons, nor with the public at large.

Edward Everett begged to be excused from such a false position offered to him in London. Not fish, not flesh. It was rather an offence to proffer it to Everett. The old patriot better knows Europe, its cabinets, and exigencies, than those who attempted to intricate him in this ludicrous position. He is right, and he will do more good here than he could do in London—there on a level with Thurlow Weed!

Archbishop Hughes is to influence Paris and France,—but whom? The public opinion, which is on our side, is anti-Roman, and Hughes is an Ultra Montane—an opinion not over friendly to Louis Napoleon. The French clergy in every way, in culture, wisdom, instruction, theology, manners, deportment, etc., is superior to Hughes in incalculable proportions, and the French clergy are already generally anti-slavery. Hughes to act on Louis Napoleon! Why! the French Emperor can outwit a legion of Hugheses, and do this without the slightest effort. Besides, for more than a century European sovereigns, governments, and cabinets, have generally given up the use of bishops, etc., for political, public, or confidential missions. Mr. Seward stirs up old dust. All the liberal party in Europe or France will look astonished, if not worse, at this absurdity.

All things considered, it looks like one of Seward's personal tricks, and Seward outwitted Chase, took him in by proffering a similar mission to Chase's friend, Bishop McIlvaine. But I pity Dayton. He is a high-toned man, and the mission of Hughes is a humiliation to Dayton.

Whatever may be the objects of these missions, they look like petty expedients, unworthy a minister of a great government.

Mason and Slidell caught. England will roar, but here the people are satisfied. Some of the diplomats make curious faces. Lord Lyons behaves with dignity. The small Bremen flatter right and left, and do it like little lap-dogs.

Governor Andrew of Massachusetts, ex-Governor Boutwell, are tip-top men—men of the people. The Blairs are too heinous, too violent, in their persecution of Fremont. Warned M. Blair not to protect one whom Fremont deservedly expelled. But M. Blair, in his spite against Fremont, took a mean adventurer by the hand, and entangled therein the President.

The vessel and the crew are excellent, and would easily obey the hand of a helmsman, but there is the rub, where to find him? Lincoln is a simple man of the prairie, and his eyes penetrate not the fog, the tempest. They do not perceive the signs of the times - cannot embrace the horizon of the nation. And thus his small intellectual insight is dimmed by those around him. Lincoln begins now already to believe that he is infallible; that he is ahead of the people, and frets that the people may remain behind. Oh simplicity or conceit!

Again, Lincoln is frightened with the success in South Carolina, as in his opinion this success will complicate the question of slavery. He is frightened as to what he shall do with Charleston and Augusta, provided these cities are taken.

It is disgusting to hear with what superciliousness the different members of the Cabinet speak of the approaching Congress—and not one of them is in any way the superior of many congressmen.

When Congress meets, the true national balance account will be struck. The commercial and piratical flag of the secesh is virtually in all waters and ports. (The little cheese-eater, the Hollander, was the first to raise a fuss against the United States concerning the piratical flag. This is not to be forgotten.) 2d. Prestige, to a great extent, lost. 3d. Millions upon millions wasted. Washington besieged and blockaded, and more than 200,000 men kept in check by an enemy not by half as strong. 4th. Every initiative which our diplomacy tried abroad was wholly unsuccessful, and we are obliged to submit to new international principles inaugurated at our cost; and, summing up, instead of a broad, decided, general policy, we have vacillation, inaction, tricks, and expedients. The people fret, and so will the Congress. Nations are as individuals; any partial disturbance in a part of the body occasions a general chill. Nature makes efforts to check the beginning of disease, and so do nations. In the human organism nature does not submit willingly to the loss of health, or of a limb, or of life. Nature struggles against death. So the people of the Union will not submit to an amputation, and is uneasy to see how unskilfully its own family doctors treat the national disease.

Port Royal, South Carolina, taken. Great and general rejoicing. It is a brilliant feat of arms, but a questionable military and war policy. Those attacks on the circumference, or on extremities, never can become a death-blow to secesh. The rebels must be crushed in the focus; they ought to receive a blow at the heart. This new strategy seems to indicate that McClellan has not heart enough to attack the fastnesses of rebeldom, but expects that something may turn up from these small expeditions. He expects to weaken the rebels in their focus. I wish McClellan may be right in his expectations, but I doubt it.

Officers of McClellan's staff tell that Mr. Lincoln almost daily comes into McClellan's library, and sits there rather unnoticed. On several occasions McClellan let the President wait in the room, together with other common mortals.

The English statesmen and the English press have the notion deeply rooted in their brains that the American people fight for empire. The rebels do it, but not the free men.

Mr. Seward's emphatical prohibition to Mr. Adams to mention the question of slavery may have contributed to strengthen in England the above-mentioned fallacy. This is a blunder, which before long or short Seward will repent. It looks like astuteness—ruse; but if so, it is the resource of a rather limited mind. In great and minor affairs, straightforwardness is the best policy. Loyalty always gets the better of astuteness, and the more so when the opponent is unprepared to meet it. Tricks can be well met by tricks, but tricks are impotent against truth and sincerity. But Mr. Seward, unhappily, has spent his life in various political tricks, and was surrounded by men whose intimacy must have necessarily lowered and unhealthily affected him. All his most intimates are unintellectual mediocrities or tricksters.

Seward is free from that infamous know-nothingism of which this Gen. Thomas is the great master (a man every few weeks accused of treason by the public opinion, and undoubtedly vibrating between loyalty here and sympathy with rebels).

All this must have unavoidably vitiated Mr. Seward's better nature. In such way only can I see plainly why so many excellent qualities are marred in him. He at times can broadly comprehend things around him; he is good-natured when not stung, and he is devoted to his men.

As a patriot, he is American to the core—were only his domestic policy straight-forward and decided, and would he only stop meddling with the plans of the campaign, and let the War Department alone.

Since every part of his initiative with European cabinets failed, Seward very skilfully dispatches all the minor affairs with Europe—affairs generated by various maritime and international complications. Were his domestic policy as correct as is now his foreign policy, Seward would be the right man.

Statesmanship emerges from the collision of great principles with important interests. In the great Revolution, the thus called fathers of the nation were the offsprings of the exigencies of the time, and they were fully up to their task. They were vigorous and fresh; their intellect was not obstructed by any political routine, or by tricky political praxis. Such men are now needed at the helm to carry this noble people throughout the most terrible tempest. So in these days one hears so much about constitutional formulas as safeguards of liberty. True liberty is not to be virtually secured by any framework of rules and limitations, devisable only by statecraft. The perennial existence of liberty depends not on the action of any definite and ascertainable machinery, but on continual accessions of fresh and vital influences. But perhaps such influences are among the noblest, and therefore among the rarest, attributes of man.

Abroad and here, traitors and some pedants on formulas make a noise concerning the violation of formulas. Of course it were better if such violations had been left undone. But all this is transient, and evoked by the direst necessity. The Constitution was made for a healthy, normal condition of the nation; the present condition is abnormal. Regular functions are suspended. When the human body is ruined or devoured by a violent disease, often very tonic remedies are used—remedies which would destroy the organism if administered when in a healthy, normal condition. A strong organism recovers from disease, and from its treatment. Human societies and institutions pass through a similar ordeal, and when they are unhinged, extraordinary and abnormal ways are required to maintain the endangered society and restore its equipoise.

Examining day after day the map of Virginia, it strikes one that a movement with half of the army could be made down from Mount Vernon by the two turnpike roads, and by water to Occoquan, and from there to Brentsville. The country there seems to be flat, and not much wooded. Manassas would be taken in the rear, and surrounded, provided the other half of the army would push on by the direct way from here to Manassas, and seriously attack the enemy, who thus would be broken, could not escape. This, or any plan, the map of Virginia ought to suggest to the staff of McClellan, were it a staff in the true meaning. Dybitsch and Toll, young colonels in the staff of Alexander I., 1813-'14, originated the march on Paris, so destructive to Napoleon. History bristles with evidences how with staffs originated many plans of battles and of campaigns; history explains the paramount influence of staffs on the conduct of a war. Of course Napoleon wanted not a suggestive, but only an executive staff; but McClellan is not a Napoleon, and has neither a suggestive nor an executive staff around him. A Marcy to suggest a plan of a campaign or of a battle, to watch over its execution!

I spoke to McDowell about the positions of Occoquan and Brentsville. He answered that perhaps something similar will be under consideration, and that McClellan must show his mettle and capacity. I pity McDowell's confidence.

Besides, the American army as it was and is educated, nursed, brought up by Gen. Scott, —the army has no idea what are the various and complicated duties of a staff. No school of staff at West Point; therefore the difficulty to find now genuine officers of the staff. If McClellan ever moves this army, then the defectiveness of his staff may occasion losses and even disasters. It will be worse with his staff than it was at Jena with the Prussian staff, who were as conceited as the small West Point clique here in Washington.

West Point instructs well in special branches, but does not necessarily form generals and captains. The great American Revolution was fought and made victorious by men not from any military schools, and to whom were opposed commanders with as much military science as there was possessed and current in Europe. Jackson, Taylor, and even Scott, are not from the school.

I do not wish to judge or disparage the pupils from West Point, but I am disgusted with the supercilious and ridiculous behavior of the clique here, ready to form prætorians or anything else, and poisoning around them the public opinion. Western generals are West Point pupils, but I do not hear them make so much fuss, and so contemptuously look down on the volunteers. These Western generals pine not after regulars, but make use of such elements as they have under hand. The best and most patriotic generals and officers here, educated at West Point, are numerous. Unhappily a clique, composed of a few fools and fops, overshadows the others.

McClellan's speciality is engineering. It is a speciality which does not form captains and generals for the field,— at least such instances are very rare. Of all Napoleon's marshals and eminent commanders, Berthier alone was educated as engineer, and his speciality and high capacity was that of a chief of the staff. Marescott or Todleben would never claim to be captains. The intellectual powers of an engineer are modeled, drilled, turned towards the defensive,—the engineer's brains concentrate upon selecting defensive positions, and combine how to strengthen them by art. So an engineer is rather disabled from embracing a whole battle-field, with its endless casualties and space. Engineers are the incarnation of a defensive warfare; all others, as artillerists, infantry, and cavalry, are for dashing into the unknown—into the space; and thus these specialities virtually represent the offensive warfare.

When will they begin to see through McClellan, and find out that he is not the man? Perhaps too late, and then the nation will sorely feel it.

Mr. Seward almost idolizes McClellan. Poor homage that; but it does mischief by reason of its influence on the public opinion.

SOURCE: Adam Gurowski, Diary from March 4, 1861, to November 12, 1862, pp. 115-28

Diary of Henry Greville, Thursday, January 2, 1862

Panshanger. — The American news is more pacific, and since our warlike preparations have been known, the tone has changed, and it is now considered probable that Mason and Slidell will be given up.

The Portuguese Prince, Dom Joso, is dead, and there have been riots in Lisbon, in consequence of a suspicion prevalent amongst the lower orders that the Royal Family had been poisoned, which subsided on its being known that a post-mortem examination of the young Prince had been made, which proved that he had died of typhoid fever.

SOURCE: Alice Countess of Stratford, Leaves from the Diary of Henry Greville: 1861-1872, p. 7

Diary of Henry Greville, Thursday, January 9, 1862

Last night, John Bidwell, who dined with me, brought the news of the surrender of Mason and Slidell, which had reached the Foreign Office at four o'clock to-day. Lyons had sent a telegram to say that Seward had notified to him that the prisoners would be delivered up when and where he pleased, and that a voluminous despatch would be forwarded by the mail. This news was announced at some of the theatres and received with great cheering. It is curious that Lyons wrote only the day before these men were surrendered that he had very faint hope that they would be given up, and the mission had begun to pack up, to be ready for a start. Great disgust is felt here at the measure which has been resorted to by the Federals of sending vessels laden with stones, in order to destroy the harbour of Charleston: a rather barbarous mode of warfare.

The Queen held a Privy Council on Monday, which was attended only by Newcastle, Granville, and Sir George Grey. Her Majesty keeps entirely to her private apartments, and excepting the Royal Family, sees no one, not even her usual attendants, with the exception of Phipps and Lady Augusta Bruce, who is now all in all to her, and through whom all her orders pass. The difficulty as to the Private Secretaryship to the Queen is not yet solved; Palmerston, it is said, does not approve of a joint Secretaryship in the persons of Grey and Phipps, and there may be objections to such an arrangement; but no one could be so useful to the Queen as Grey, who is cognisant of all the Prince's affairs and wishes as to the correspondence he has left, which is very voluminous, and must be very curious. Phipps is said to be fond of power and influence (I can speak from my own experience that he is obliging and courteous), Charles Grey to be prejudiced and self-willed, though very straightforward and independent; but neither of these men is quite fitted for so important and delicate a post.

SOURCE: Alice Countess of Stratford, Leaves from the Diary of Henry Greville: 1861-1872, pp. 7-8

Diary of Henry Greville, Saturday, January 11, 1862

Great indignation is expressed by the whole French press at the destruction of the harbour of Charleston. Yesterday, on calling at Queen's Terrace to enquire after Mrs. Bradshaw,¹ I was greatly shocked to hear she was dying. She heard of my being in the house, and asked to see me, and I went up to her bedside, when she took a most affectionate leave of me.

The American and English correspondence on the Trent' affair has been published in extenso. Seward's despatch on surrendering the prisoners is a longwinded piece of special pleading full of exaggeration and misrepresentation of all he could rake up of English law and practice most adverse to neutral rights, for the apparent purpose of justifying Wilkes, at the moment when he is compelled to admit the act itself to be unjustifiable. John Russell, in his reply, says that the English Government differ from Mr. Seward in some of his conclusions, and adds that a better understanding on several points of law (International) may be arrived at between the two countries by his stating in what that difference of opinion consists, and that he will do so in a few days. We heard on Tuesday evening that the United States Bank, and all the private Banks, had suspended specie payments, and this is foretold to be the beginning of the end of the war. The American press urges heavy taxation as the only legitimate means of relief. Mason and Slidell had been sent to Halifax, and their departure had caused no sensation.

________________

¹ Mrs. Bradshaw was Mary Tree, sister of Ellen Tree, who married Charles Kean the younger. She was beautiful, and had a lovely voice.—Ed.

SOURCE: Alice Countess of Stratford, Leaves from the Diary of Henry Greville: 1861-1872, pp. 8-9

Diary of Adam Gurowski, October 1861

As in the mediæval epoch, and some time thereafter, anatomists and physiologists experimented on the living villeins, that is, on peasantry, serfs, and called this process experientia in anima vili, so this naïve administration experiments in civil and in military matters on the people's life-blood.

McClellan, stirred up by the fools and peacocks around him, has sent to the War Department a project of a showy uniform for himself and his staff. It would be to laugh at, if it were not insane. McClellan very likely read not what he signed.

The army is in sufficient rig and organization to take the field; but nevertheless McClellan has not yet made a single movement imperatively prescribed by the simplest tactics, and by the simplest common sense, when the enemy is in front. Not a single serious reconnoissance to ascertain the real force of the enemy, to pierce through the curtain behind which the rebels hide their real forces. It must be conceded to the rebel generals that they show great skill in humbugging us. Whenever we try to make a step we are met by a seemingly strong force (tenfold increased by rumors spread by the secessionists among us, and gulped by our stupidity), which makes us suppose a deep front, and a still deeper body behind. And there is the humbug, I am sure. If, on such an extensive line as the rebels occupy, the main body should correspond to what they show in front, then the rebel force must muster several hundreds of thousands. Such large numbers they have not, and I am sure that four-fifths of their whole force constitutes their vanguard, and behind it the main body is chaff. The rebels treat us as if we were children.

McClellan fortifies Washington; Fremont, St. Louis; Anderson asks for engineers to fortify some spots in Kentucky. This is all a defensive warfare, and not so will the rebel region be conquered. We lose time, and time serves the rebels, as it increases their moral force. Every day of their existence shows their intrinsic vitality.

The theory of starving the rebels out is got up by imbeciles, wholly ignorant of such matters; wholly ignorant of human nature; wholly ignorant of the degree of energy, and of abnegation, which criminals can display when firmly decided upon their purpose. This absurdity comes from the celebrated anaconda Mississippi-Atlantic strategy.

Oh! When in Poland, in 1831, the military chiefs concentrated all the forces in the fortifications of Warsaw, all was gone. Oh for a dashing general, for a dashing purpose, in the councils of the White House! The constitutional advisers are deaf to the voice of the people, who know more about it than do all the departments and the military wiseacres. The people look up to find as big brains and hearts as are theirs, and hitherto the people have looked up in vain. The radical senators, as a King, a Trumbull, a Wade, Wilson, Chandler, Hale, etc., the true Republicans in the last session of Congress — further, men as Wadsworth and the like, are the true exponents of the character, of the clear insight, of the soundness of the people.

McClellan, and even the administration, seem not to realize that pure military considerations cannot fulfil the imperative demands of the political situation.

October 6th. — I met McClellan; had with him a protracted conversation, and could look well into him. I do not attach any value to physiognomies, and consider phrenology, craniology, and their kindred, to be rather humbugs; but, nevertheless, I was struck with the soft, insignificant inexpressiveness of his eyes and features. My enthusiasm for him, my faith, is wholly extinct. All that he said to me and to others present was altogether unmilitary and inexperienced. It made me sick at heart to hear him, and to think that he is to decide over the destinies and the blood of the people. And he already an idol, incensed, worshipped, before he did anything whatever. McClellan may have individual courage, so has almost every animal; but he has not the decision and the courage of a military leader and captain. He has no real confidence in the troops; has scarcely any idea how battles are fought; has no confidence in and no notion of the use of the bayonet. I told him that, notwithstanding his opinion, I would take his worst brigade of infantry, and after a fortnight's drill challenge and whip any of the best rebel brigades.

Some time ago it was reported that McClellan considered this war had become a duel of artillery. Fools wondered and applauded. I then protested against putting such an absurdity in McClellan's mouth; now I must believe it. To be sure, every battle is in part a duel of artillery, but ends or is decided by charges of infantry or cavalry. Cannonading alone never constituted and decided a battle. No position can be taken by cannonading alone, and shells alone do not always force an enemy to abandon a position. Napoleon, an artillerist par excellence, considered campaigns and battles to be something more than duels of artillery. The great battle of Borodino, and all others, were decided when batteries were stormed and taken. Eylau was a battle of charges by cavalry and by infantry, besides a terrible cannonading, etc., etc. McClellan spoke with pride of the fortifications of Washington, and pointed to one of the forts as having a greater profile than had the world-renowned Malakoff. What a confusion of notions, what a misappreciation of relative conditions!

I cannot express my sad, mournful feelings, during this conversation with McClellan. We spoke about the necessity of dividing his large army into corps. McClellan took from the table an Army Almanac, and pointed to the names of generals to whom he intended to give the command of corps. He feels the urgency of the case, and said that Gen. Scott prevented him from doing it; but as soon as he, McClellan, shall be free to act, the division will be made. So General Scott is everywhere to defend senile routine against progress, and the experience of modern times.

The rebels deserve, to the end of time, many curses from outraged humanity. By their treason they forced upon the free institutions of the North the necessity of curtailing personal liberty and other rights; to make use of depotism for the sake of selfdefence.

The enemy concentrates and shortens his lines, and McClellan dares not even tread on the enemy's heels. Instead of forcing the enemy to do what we want, and upturn his schemes, McClellan seemingly does the bidding of Beauregard. We advance as much as Beauregard allows us to do. New tactics, to be sure, but at any rate not Napoleonic.

The fighting in the West and some small successes here are obtained by rough levies; and those imbecile, regular martinets surrounding McClellan still nurse his distrust in the volunteers. All the wealth, energy, intellect of the country, is concentrated in the hands of McClellan, and he uses it to throw up entrenchments. The partisans of McClellan point to his highly scientific preparations his science. He may have some little of it, but half-science is worse than thorough ignorance. Oh! for one dare-devil in the Lyon, or in the old-fashioned Yankee style. McClellan is neither a Napoleon, nor a Cabrera, nor a Garibaldi.

Mason and Slidell escaped to Havana on their way to Europe, as commissioners of the rebels. According to all international definitions, we have the full right to seize them in any neutral vessel, they being political contrabands of war going on a publicly avowed errand hostile to their true government. Mason and Slidell are not common passengers, nor are they political refugees invoking the protection of any neutral flag. They are travelling commissioners of war, of bloodshed and rebellion; and it is all the same in whatever seaport they embark. And if the vessel conveying them goes from America to Europe, or vice versa, Mr. Seward can let them be seized when they have left Havana, provided he finds it expedient.

We lose time, and time is all in favor of the rebels. Every day consolidates their existence — so to speak, crystallizes them. Further — many so-called Union men in the South, who, at the start, opposed secession, by and by will get accustomed to it. Secession daily takes deeper root, and will so by degrees become un fait accompli. Mr. Adams, in his official relations with the English government, speaks of the rebel pirates as of lawful privateers. Mr. Seward admonished him for it. Bravo!

It is so difficult, not to say impossible, to meet an American who concatenates a long series of effects and causes, or who understands that to explain an isolated fact or phenomenon the chain must be ascended and a general law invoked. Could they do it, various bunglings would be avoided, and much of the people's sacrifices husbanded, instead of being squandered, as it is done now.

Fremont going overboard! His fall will be the triumph of the pro-slavery party, headed by the New York Herald, and supported by military old fogies, by martinets, and by double and triple political and intellectual know-nothings. Pity that Fremont had no brilliant military capacity. Then his fall could not have taken place.

Mr. Seward is too much ruled by his imagination, and too hastily discounts the future. But imagination ruins a statesman. Mr. Seward must lose credit at home and abroad for having prophesied, and having his prophecies end in smoke. When Hatteras was taken (Gen. Scott protested against the expedition), Mr. S. assured me that it was the beginning of the end. A diplomat here made the observation that no minister of a European parliamentary government could remain in power after having been continually contradicted by facts.

Now, Mr. Seward devised these collateral missions to Europe. He very little knows the habit and temper of European cabinets if he believes that such collateral confidential agents can do any good. The European cabinets distrust such irresponsible agents, who, in their turn, weaken the influence and the standing of the genuine diplomatic agents. Mr. S., early in the year, boasted to abolish, even in Europe, the system of passports, and soon afterwards introduced it at home. So his imagination carries him to overhaul the world. He proposes to European powers a united expedition to Japan, and we cannot prevent at home the running of the blockade, and are ourselves blockaded on the Potomac. All such schemes are offsprings of an ambitious imagination. But the worst is, that every such outburst of his imagination Mr. Seward at once transforms into a dogma, and spreads it with all his might. I pity him when I look towards the end of his political career. He writes well, and has put down the insolent English dispatch concerning the habeas corpus and the arrests of dubious, if not treacherous, Englishmen. Perhaps Seward imagines himself to be a Cardinal Richelieu, with Lincoln for Louis XIII. (provided he knows as much history), or may be he has the ambition to be considered a Talleyrand or Metternich of diplomacy. But if any, he has some very, very faint similarity with Alberoni. He easily outwits here men around him; most are politicians as he; but he never can outwit the statesmen of Europe. Besides, diplomacy, above all that of great powers, is conceived largely and carried on a grand scale; the present diplomacy has outgrown what is commonly called (but fallaciously) Talleyrandism and Metternichism.

McClellan and the party which fears to make a bold advance on the enemy make so much fuss about the country being cut up and wooded; it proves only that they have no brains and no fertility of expedients. This country is not more cut up than is the Caucasus, and the woods are no great, endless, primitive forests. They are rather groves. In the Caucasus the Russians continually attack great and dense forests; they fire in them several round shots, then grape, and then storm them with the bayonet; and the Circassians are no worse soldiers than are the Southrons.

European papers talk much of mediation, of a peaceful arrangement, of compromise. By intuition of the future the Northern people know very well the utter impossibility of such an arrangement. A peace could not stand; any such peace will establish the military superiority of the arrogant, reckless, piratical South. The South would teem with hundreds of thousands of men ready for any piratical, fillibustering raid, enterprise, or excursion, of which the free States north and west would become the principal theatres. Such a marauding community as the South would become, in case of success, will be unexampled in history. The Cylician pirates, the Barbary robbers, nay, the Tartars of the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries, were virtuous and civilized in comparison with what would be an independent, man-stealing, and man-whipping Southern agglomeration of lawless men. The free States could have no security, even if all the thus called gentlemen and men of honor were to sign a treaty or a compromise. The Southern pestilential influence would poison not only the North, but this whole hemisphere. The history of the past has nothing to be compared with organized, legal piracy, as would become the thus-called Southern chivalry on land and on sea; and soon European maritime powers would be obliged to make costly expeditions for the sake of extirpating, crushing, uprooting the nest of pirates, which then will embrace about twelve millions, — every Southern gentleman being a pirate at heart.

This is what the Northern people know by experience and by intuition, and what makes the people so uneasy about the inertia of the administration.

Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Seward, Gen. Scott, and other great men, are soured against the people and public opinion for distrusting, or rather for criticising their little display of statesmanlike activity. How unjust! As a general rule, of all human sentiments, confidence is the most scrutinizing one. If confidence is bestowed, it wants to perfectly know the why. But from the outset of this war the American people gave and give to everybody full, unsuspecting confidence, without asking the why, without even scrutinizing the actions which were to justify the claim.

Up to this day Secesh is the positive pole; the Union is the negative, — it is the blow recipient. When, oh, when will come the opposite? When will we deal blows? Not under McClellan, I suspect.

SOURCE: Adam Gurowski, Diary from March 4, 1861, to November 12, 1862, pp. 104-114

Diary of Henry Greville: Tuesday, December 31, 1861

I came here yesterday, and found the John Leslies, Dufferin, Frederick Leveson, and Algy Egerton. Telegrams from America up to the 18th state that the news from England had created prodigious excitement. The general opinion was that Slidell and Mason would under no circumstances be delivered up. The French despatch had not then arrived. Our despatch should have reached them by the 'Europa' on the 16th, but on the 18th the vessel had not arrived at Halifax. It was only known that the 'Trent' affair had produced a great sensation in England. Lord and Lady Salisbury came.

SOURCE: Alice Countess of Stratford, Leaves from the Diary of Henry Greville: 1861-1872, pp. 6-7

Diary of Dr. Alfred L. Castleman, November 19, 1861

It is blustering weather, and my cat is beside me, lying on her head, by the fire in my little tent. Everybody says that is "a sign" of cold weather. Let it come, if it will only drive us forward.

The Surgeon General and the Brigade Surgeon have both been urging me, to-day, to accept a Brigade Surgeonship. I decline, for two reasons: 1st. It would retain me as a Surgeon, whilst it would exclude me from the immediate care of the sick. 'Twould be to me like Hamlet, with Hamlet left out; and, 2d. It would greatly add to my responsibilities, without advance in rank or increase in pay. I shall remain where I am.

Glorious news just received; the morning paper is just here. Mason and Slidell—both prisoners. They should be hung.

SOURCE: Alfred L. Castleman, The Army of the Potomac. Behind the Scenes. A Diary of Unwritten History; From the Organization of the Army, by General George B. McClellan, to the close of the Campaign in Virginia about the First Day January, 1863, p. 55

Diary of Henry Greville: Thursday, December 12, 1861

The Frederick Cadogans and Pahlen dined with me, and we went to Léotard in the evening-his performance is as wonderful as it is beautiful in its way.

Prince Albert's malady, which is a gastric fever, is taking the usual course, and is likely to last twenty-one days.

On going out to-day I heard from Charles that Clarendon had told him the Duc d'Aumale received a letter from the Prince de Joinville, who on hearing of the 'Trent' affair went to General McClellan and told him that it was quite impossible that England could patiently submit to such an outrage that General McClellan had agreed with the Prince, who entreated him to go and tell the President how much better it would be to deliver up Mason and Slidell at once, before any demand were made by us. McClellan did so, but found the President of a different opinion and resolved to do nothing of the sort. This fact makes it almost certain that the Message expected to-night will hold such language as to make war inevitable.

I have a letter from Henry Loch to tell me of his marriage to Miss Villiers.

SOURCE: Alice Countess of Stratford, Leaves from the Diary of Henry Greville: 1857-1861, pp. 415-6

Diary of Henry Greville: Sunday, December 15, 1861

Nothing can equal the consternation produced by this event. This morning Brookfield, who had preached a very fine sermon without any reference to this calamity, said a few words at the end, which were in excellent taste, and were a touching tribute to the character of the Prince. They excited a very deep sensation.

I dined to-night at Flahault's, and was relieved to hear as good a report of the Queen as could possibly be expected. She had passed the night in the room with the body, had been overcome by sleep for two hours, and on awakening had a tremendous burst of grief, succeeded by violent fits of crying. To-day she saw the Duchess of Sutherland, and talked over the whole case with her. She took the Duchess into the room to view the body, and then told her the object of her future life would be to carry out all his views and wishes, that she was determined to exert herself and to fulfil the duties of her position. Ellice was at Flahault's, and said he fully expected she would resume that energy of character which had been so remarkable on her accession, and which after her marriage became absorbed in his. The difficulties of her position were, however, very great. The Prince had taken all trouble from off her hands, and had, in fact, transacted nearly the whole business of the State, and all that of the Court, to the most minute detail. He thought it would be impossible for the Queen to go on without a private secretary, such as Sir Herbert Taylor had been to the two preceding Sovereigns, but such a post should by rights be filled by a Cabinet Minister, and where was he to be found? Sir Herbert Taylor had been tolerated because of the kindness of George III., and suffered to continue with William IV. because of the confidence placed in his high character, although Lord Grey and others had always objected on constitutional grounds to the King having any one about him in so anomalous a position. Lady Augusta Bruce, whom the Queen has adopted since the Duchess of Kent's death, will probably fill the place formerly occupied by Baroness Letzen, but this can only be for her private and domestic affairs. The difficulties, in short, are endless, and meet you at every corner.

The résumé of the President's Message has arrived. He makes no mention of the 'Trent' affair, which may perhaps be considered as a loophole. On the other hand, Congress had passed a resolution of thanks to Commodore Wilkes, and the Navy Department had expressed its emphatic approval of the capture of Mason and Slidell, but stated that Wilkes had displayed too much forbearance in not capturing the 'Trent,' and that lenity must not form a precedent for any similar infraction of neutral obligations by foreign commercial vessels.

This is considered as very warlike news. Ellice expects the Americans will brag to the last, and then give in; that they will return such an answer to our despatch as will require the consideration of our Government; that Lyons will come away, which will at once create such a panic at New York as to make it next to impossible for the Government to get money. This is his idea. Another possible event is the murder of Mason and Slidell by the mob—for when a whole people becomes mad, the course they may pursue is difficult to conjecture.

SOURCE: Alice Countess of Stratford, Leaves from the Diary of Henry Greville: 1857-1861, pp. 417-9

Louisiana Politics.

We have the authority of the New Orleans Delta for saying that the Douglas movement lately attempted in that city, for its influence upon the State and the South was a sorry fizzle. At the close of the dreary ceremonies, three rousing cheers were given for John Slidell and the seceding delegations, when the meeting adjourned.

SOURCE: “Louisiana Politics,” The Press and Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Monday, May 14, 1860, p. 2, col. 2

Diary of Henry Greville: Wednesday, November 27, 1861

Wrest. I came here on Monday. The party is composed of Dowager Lady Spencer and Lady Sarah, Lord and Lady Proby, Dufferin, A. Egerton, E. Lascelles, H. Calcraft, and Arthur Scott.

This morning I was startled by a paragraph in the 'Globe' stating that intelligence had reached London last night that an American frigate, the 'San Giacinto,' had stopped the Royal Mail steamer 'Trent' bearing the British flag. That the 'Trent' had been boarded by armed men, who forcibly seized Messrs. Mason and Slidell, envoys from the Confederate States to France and England. The captain of the 'Trent' was unable to offer any resistance, and these gentlemen were carried off under protest. This is a very serious affair, and is sure to rouse the British Lion. A Cabinet was at once summoned.

SOURCE: Alice Countess of Stratford, Leaves from the Diary of Henry Greville: 1857-1861, p. 410-1

Diary of Henry Greville: Saturday, November 30, 1861

London. I came back yesterday, and this morning heard that the Cabinet had decided, on the advice of the law officers, that the act of the American officer is entirely illegal, and a demand is to be at once sent for the immediate release of Messrs. Mason and Slidell, and for an apology for the outrage. Every one I meet deems it very improbable that the Americans will agree to this demand, and that war will be declared before long. The case is well put in a 'Times' article.

Dined at Flahault's. Granville, Pahlen, Bagots, &c. It is hoped some tidings of the effect produced at Washington by the seizure of the Confederate envoys may be brought by the 'Persia,' which is due to morrow.

There was a meeting the other day at which the Duke of Cambridge presided, and which was very numerously attended, to consider of a fitting tribute to the memory of Sidney Herbert. Granville told me he had never seen a more sympathetic audience, or had heard better speaking. It was resolved that a statue should be erected and subscriptions be raised for the endowment of exhibitions or gold medals in connection with the Army Medical School at Chatham, and to be given at the end of each course in instruction to the candidates for commissions who show the greatest proficiency in the art of preserving the health of troops both at home and in the field.

SOURCE: Alice Countess of Stratford, Leaves from the Diary of Henry Greville: 1857-1861, p. 411-2

Diary of Henry Greville: Monday, December 2, 1861

London. The 'Persia' arrived at Queenstown yesterday, having left New York on the 20th. The American newspapers are full of quotations of precedents, to prove that the seizure of Messrs. Mason and Slidell is no breach of international law, and urge that promotion and testimonials should be conferred on Commodore Wilkes for his 'spirited conduct.' Messrs. Mason and Slidell had been conveyed to Fort Warren. No one here seems to think the American Government, even if so disposed, will be permitted by the mob which governs the country to make the required apology to us.

There was a council on Saturday, when a proclamation was issued forbidding the export of saltpetre. It appears to have been the design of the United States Government to lay up a store of that commodity sufficient for a long war, and in a week or two the whole stock to be found here (we have almost a monopoly of it) would have been shipped off. In the present state of affairs it is a wise precaution to defeat this scheme.

SOURCE: Alice Countess of Stratford, Leaves from the Diary of Henry Greville: 1857-1861, p. 412

Diary of Henry Greville: Thursday, December 5, 1861

Hatchford. It was asserted some days ago, and it was generally believed, that old General Scott, who has lately come to France from America, had stated that the seizure of Mason and Slidell had been determined on by the Cabinet at Washington. The General has written a letter to the United States Consul at Havre (I believe), denying that he had ever said anything of the kind, and expressing his own opinion (without, however, pretending to know what may be that of the U. S. Government), that this affair ought not to lead to war between the two countries, but affirming at the same time that 'no impartial man could say that rebels carrying despatches were not contraband of war.' This letter is so far important that it seems to prove that there was no foregone conclusion on the part of the Washington Cabinet.

SOURCE: Alice Countess of Stratford, Leaves from the Diary of Henry Greville: 1857-1861, p. 412-3

General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, December 4, 1884

ST. LOUIS, Mo., Dec. 4, 1884.

Dear Brother: . . . We have several posts of the Grand Army here, one of which, Frank Blair Post No 1, invited me to assist in the dedication of their new hall. I could not well decline, and attended. The hall was well filled, but it is against the customs and rules for reporters to be present. I saw none, but there must have been two at least who reported what little I had to say differently. Still my speech was most imperfect and condensed, emphasizing what I said of Jeff Davis, and induced somewhat by the regular speaker of the evening, who preceded me.

I congratulated them upon having secured so good a hall in so good a neighborhood; said that I was glad to see the interest manifested; that it was well for old soldiers thus to meet to interchange the memories of the war, and to impress its lessons on the rising generation; that I noticed a tendency to gloss over the old names and facts; that it was not a war among the States," a war of "secession," but a "conspiracy" up to the firing on Sumter, and a "Rebellion" afterwards; that, whilst in Louisiana long before Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated, I saw evidences of the "conspiracy," among them the letter written in January by Slidell and Benjamin, then United States Senators under the oath, written on paper dated "United States Senate," etc., addressed to T. O. Moore, Governor of Louisiana, to seize the United States Arsenal at Baton Rouge; that afterwards, during the progress of the war, I had seen letters of Mr. Davis—a chest full at Jackson, Miss., sent to Washington—proving such "conspiracy," and subsequently I had seen a letter of Mr. Davis showing that he was not sincere in his doctrine of secession, for when some of the States of the Confederacy, in 1865, talked of "separate State action," another name for "secession," he, as President of the Confederacy, would resist it, even if he had to turn Lee's army against it. I did see such a letter, or its copy, in a captured letter-book at Raleigh, just about as the war was closing.

Mr. Davis, in a card addressed to the "Republican¹" of this city, published by it and generally copied, pronounced this false, calls on me to produce the identical letter, or to stand convicted of being a slanderer. Of course I cannot for an instant allow Mr. Davis to call on me for any specific document, or to enter up judgment on the statement of a newspaper. Still, I believe the truth of my statement can be established. I will not answer Mr. Davis direct, nor will I publish anything over my signature, but I will collect evidence to make good my statement. The particular letter shown me at Raleigh may be in the public archives at Washington, as I am sure that the box or chest was sent from Jackson, Miss.; but I apprehend that the papers gathered at Fayetteville, Raleigh, and Chapel Hill University were of those taken in hand by my two adjutants, Generals Sawyer and Rochester, brought to St. Louis, assorted and arranged as part of the records of the "Division of the Missouri," and sent to Chicago at the time General Sheridan relieved me. These records were consumed in the great fire of Chicago, 1871, but of the existence of such a letter I have not a particle of doubt. Of course I cannot recall the words, but the general purport was such as to recall to my mind the old fable of the Farmer and the Ox: "It makes all the difference in the world whether your bull gores my ox or mine yours."

I have made some inquiries of Col. R. N. Scott, in charge of the Rebellion Records, Union and Confederate, and if the correspondence between Mr. Davis and the State Governors is among these records, Mr. Davis will have his letter. I am not the custodian of the records of the war, which fill many buildings in Washington. As to Davis' opinions at that date, January and February, 1865, I can, I think, obtain secondary proof, being promised an original letter from Thad. Stevens² to Herschel V. Johnson, captured and still retained by a sergeant in the Union Army.

As to the "conspiracy," the proof is overwhelming. As to Davis' opinions in the winter of 1864-65, I am equally satisfied, but may not be able to prove by his own handwriting. . . .

Affectionately yours,

W. T. SHERMAN.

_______________

¹ Newspaper.

² See following letter.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 362-5

Diary of Private Theodore Reichardt, Monday, October 28, 1861

Commenced to build a stable for horses, three hundred feet long. Captain Bess, our chief of artillery. Our battery remained at Muddy Branch up to the twenty-seventh of November. Little is to be said of this period. Drill as usual. Received the news of the taking of Beaufort, South Carolina, and the capture of Slidell and Mason. Captain Reynolds visited the battery for the last time, having been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel of the Rhode Island artillery, and transferred to another department.

SOURCE: Theodore Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, p. 26

Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, February 17, 1861

Mr. Reuter sends me a telegram from Queenstown of the American news. 1. The conference invited by Virginia met on the 4th, and re-assembled with closed doors on the 5th at Washington. 2. Slidell and Benjamin have withdrawn. 3. A truce between Lieutenant Slemmer and State forces at Pensacola Navy-Yard, followed by surrender to latter. 4. North Carolina resolves unanimously to go with the other slave States if adjustment fail. 5. United States revenue cutter Lewis Cass treacherously surrendered to Alabama. 6. Fifty thousand people starving in Kansas. 7. Secession of Texas definitive. 8. The President has refused to surrender Fort Sumter on Colonel Hayne's demand; an attack expected. 9. Attempt on Fort Pickens abandoned. No blood yet spilt.

SOURCE: George Mifflin Dallas, Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, While United States Minister to Russia 1837 to 1839, and to England 1856 to 1861, Volume 3, p. 436

Braxton Bragg to William T. Sherman, October 25, 1860

AT HOME, near Thibodeaux, La., October 25, 1860.

MY DEAR SHERMAN: It is long since we last communed, but both of us have been travelers, and that seldom conduces to correspondence. . . When in Virginia I had a long letter from my old friend Graham, dated just after the examination, giving me most agreeable information of the general success of our bantling (the Seminary), and especially of my young protégé, Perkins. Intermingled with this was the unpleasant controversy in the Board of Supervisors, and a result injurious, I fear, to the permanent prosperity of the Academy. Yet we must not despair or cease our exertions in the right direction. Our popularity is growing daily with the influential people of the country, and I believe with perseverance we shall conquer all opposition. Indeed, I don't know but it is better for us to have it. We should never labor to accomplish our object with half the zeal or determination but for this very ignorant prejudice. But let me beg of you not to compromise your position by actively espousing either cause. Graham is able to fight the battle on our side, and your opinion will have more weight and influence when drawn out, as it must be, than if you were an active party in the controversy.

I hope our anticipations may be realized in having a full attendance at the opening of your session next week. I gave a letter this morning to a young man. . . I hope you may work him into some corner left open by non-attendance. I am told he has been a headstrong, willful, and lazy boy, hard to keep at any school. But his father has great hopes in the military enthusiasm, your system of regularity and accountability and in Fred's influence. Fred [Perkins] has just called to bid me goodby. From being a thin, sickly, sallow boy, he is grown ruddy, erect, and manly in appearance. And by this great physical change and his admirable deportment since his return home, he has done much in this community to call favorable attention to the Academy. It is a source of no little pleasure to me, and your heart would be delighted to see the just pride of his good old white-headed mother as she admires her baby. He is her youngest, and born after his father's death. I trust he may still continue to deserve the commendation of his superiors.

When north I had no opportunity of seeing anything about that old battery. But I do not see that anything can be done except in the way you propose – a donation by the general government, and I see no reason why this may not succeed. Governor Moore told me it should have his cordial support. I could easily get the approval of the Senate, I suppose, through Mr. Slidell and my brother. What say you to a memorial from the Board of Supervisors headed by the governor? It would be indelicate for me to move in the matter, and may be egotistical for me to do even the suggesting. But I should feel a pride in your success and believe it would benefit the Academy. For a precedent you have only to see the donations to Missouri of guns captured by Doniphan in the affair of Sacramento. Guns do not cease to be national trophies because they may be entrusted to the keeping of a state, and a proviso might be added requiring their return whenever the state should cease to use them as proposed. Make a point, too, of their being "worn out” and no longer of any intrinsic value. But my sheet is full and egotistical garrulity must cease. . . .

SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 299-301

Investigation Of The Sumner Assault — published May 28, 1856

We find the following in the Baltimore Papers. With regard the Sumner’s statement, we may remark that it disagrees, in important particulars, with authentic accounts heretofore published.

WASHINGTON, May 26.—The House committee of investigation waited on Mr. Sumner to-day in discharge of their duty regarding the resent assault. He was in bed but have is testimony and was also cross-examined. He was unable to set up during the visit of the committee, but did so a short time today. He is still very week and his physicians counsel him not to move out of the House for a week.

The following is Mr. Sumner’s statement on oath.—“I attended the Senate as usual on Thursday the 22nd of May. After some formal business a message was received from the House of Representatives, announcing the death of a member of that body from Missouri. This was followed by a brief tribute to the deceased from Mr. Geyer, of Missouri, when, according to usage and out of respect to the deceased, the Senate adjourned. Instead of leaving the Chamber with the rest on the adjournment, I continued in my seat, occupied with my pen. While thus intent, in order to be in season for the mail, which was soon to close, I was approached by several persons, who desired to consult with me, but I answered them promptly and briefly, excusing myself, for the reason that I was much engaged.

When the last of these persons left me, I drew my arm chair close to my desk, and with my legs under the desk, continued writing. My attention at this time was so entirely drawn from all other objects, that, though there must have been many persons in the Senate, I saw no body. While thus intent, with my head bent over my writing, I was addressed by a person who approached the front of my desk, so entirely unobserved that I was not aware of his presence, until I heard my name pronounced. As I looked up, with my pen in my hand, I saw a tall man, whose countenance was not familiar, standing directly over me, and at the same moment I caught these words:—“I have read your speech twice over carefully.—It is a libel on South Carolina and Mr. Butler who is a relative of mine.”

While these words were still passing from his lips, he commenced a succession of blows with a heavy cane on my head, by the first of which I was stunned so as to lose sight. I no longer saw my assailant nor any other person or object in the room. What I did afterwards was done almost unconsciously, acting under the instincts of self-defence, with my head already bent down, I rose from my seat, wrenching up my desk which was screwed to the floor, and then pressed forward while my assailant continued his blows.—I had no other consciousness, until I found myself ten feet forward in front of my desk, lying on the floor of the Senate, with my bleeding head supported on the knee of a gentleman, whom I soon recognized by voice and manner as Mr. Morgan of New York. Other persons there were about me offering friendly assistance, but I did not recognize any of them. Others there were at a distance, looking on and offering no assistance of whom I recognized only Mr. Douglas, of Illinois, Mr. Toombs of Georgia, and, I thought, also my assailant standing between them.

I was helped from the floor and conducted into the lobby of the Senate, where I was placed upon a sofa. Of those who helped me there I have no recollections. As I entered the lobby I recognized Mr. Slidell, of Louisiana, who retreated; but I recognized no one else until I felt a friendly grasp of the hand, which seemed to come from Mr. Campbell, of Ohio, I have a vague impression that Mr. Bright, President of the Senate, spoke to me while I was on the floor of the Senate or in the lobby. I make this statement in answer to the interrogatories of the committee and offer it as presenting completely all my recollections of the assault and of the attending circumstances, whether immediately before after. I desire to add that besides the words which I have given as uttered by my assailant, I have an indistinct recollection of the words “old man,” but these are so enveloped in the mists which ensued from the first blow, that I am not sure whether they were uttered or not.

On the cross examination Mr. Sumner said that he was entirely without arms of any kind, and that he had no notice or warning of any kind direct or indirect, of this assault.

In answer to another question, Mr. Sumner replied:—That what he had said of Mr. Butler was strictly responsive to Mr. Butler’s speeches.

SOURCE: Richmond Daily Whig, Richmond Virginia, Wednesday Morning, May 28, 1856, p. 2

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: November 23, 1863

Nothing of moment from the armies, although great events are anticipated, soon.

On Saturday, Gen. Winder's or Major Griswold's head of the passport office, Lieut. Kirk, was arrested on the charge of selling passports at $100 per man to a Mr. Wolf and a Mr. Head, who transported passengers to the Potomac. W. and H. were in prison, and made the charge or confession. This passport business has been, our bane ever since Gen. Winder got control of it under Mr. Benjamin. Lieut. K. is from Louisiana, but originally from New York.

Mr. Benjamin sent over to-day extracts from dispatches from Mr. Slidell and a Mr. Hotze, agent, showing how the government is swindled in Europe by the purchasing agents of the bureaus here. One, named Chiles, in the purchase of $650,000, Mr. Slidell says, was to realize $300,000 profit! And Mr. Hotze (who is he?) says the character and credit of the government are ruined abroad by its own agents! Mr. Secretary Seddon will soon see into this matter.

Capt. Warner says the Federal prisoners here have had no meat for three days, Commissary-General Northrop having none, probably, to issue. One hundred tons rations, however, came up for them yesterday on the flag boat.

Exchange on London sells at $1 for $18.50, and gold brings about the same. Our paper money, I fear, has sunk beyond redemption. We have lost five steamers lately; and it is likely the port of Wilmington (our last one) will be hermetically sealed. Then we shall soon be destitute of ammunition, unless we retake the mineral country from the enemy.

Mr. Memminger has sent a press to the trans-Mississippi country, to issue paper money there.

Mr. Slidell writes that all our shipments to and from Matamoras ought to be under the French flag. There may be something in this.

The President was expected back to-day; and perhaps came in the evening. He is about to write his message to Congress, which assembles early in December, and perhaps he desired to consult Gen. Lee.

Everywhere the people are clamorous against the sweeping impressments of crops, horses, etc. And at the same time we have accounts of corn, and hay, and potatoes rotting at various depots 1 Such is the management of the bureaus.

The clerks are in great excitement, having learned that a proposition will be brought forward to put all men under forty-five years of age in the army. It will be hard to carry it; for the heads of departments generally have nephews, cousins, and pets in office, young and rich, who care not so much for the salaries (though they get the best) as for exemption from service in the field. And the editors will oppose it, as they are mostly of conscript age. And the youthful members of Congress could not escape odium if they exempted themselves, unless disabled by wounds.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 102-3