COMMISSIONERS from
the rebels; Seward parleying with them through some Judge Campbell. Curious way
of treating and dealing with rebellion, with rebels and traitors; why not
arrest them?
Corcoran, a rich
partisan of secession, invited to a dinner the rebel commissioners and the
foreign diplomats. If such a thing were done anywhere else, such a pimp would
be arrested. The serious diplomats, Lord Lyons, Mercier, and Stoeckl refused
the invitation; some smaller accepted, at least so I hear.
The infamous
traitors fire on the Union flag. They treat the garrison of Sumpter as enemies
on sufferance, and here their commissioners go about free, and glory in
treason. What is this administration about? Have they no blood; are they
fishes?
The crime in full
blast; consummatum est. Sumpter
bombarded; Virginia,
under the nose of the administration, secedes, and the leaders did not see
or foresee anything: flirted with Virginia.
Now, they, the
leaders or the administration, are terribly startled; so is the brave noble
North; the people are taken unawares; but no wonder; the people saw the
Cabinet, the President, and the military in complacent security. These watchmen
did nothing to give an early sign of alarm, so the people, confiding in them, went
about its daily occupation. But it will rise as one man and in terrible wrath. Vous le verrez mess les Diplomates.
The
President calls on the country for 75,000 men; telegram has spoken, and
they rise, they arm, they come. I am not deceived in my faith in the North; the
excitement, the wrath, is terrible. Party lines burn, dissolved by the
excitement. Now the people is in fusion as bronze; if Lincoln and the leaders
have mettle in themselves, then they can cast such arms, moral, material, and
legislative, as will destroy at once this rebellion. But will they have the
energy? They do not look like Demiourgi.
Massachusetts takes
the lead; always so, this first people in the world; first for peace by its
civilization and intellectual development, and first to run to the rescue.
The most infamous
treachery and murder, by Baltimoreans, of the Massachusetts men. Will the
cowardly murderers be exemplarily punished?
The President, under
the advice of Scott, seems to take coolly the treasonable murders of Baltimore;
instead of action, again parleying with these Baltimorean traitors. The rumor
says that Seward is for leniency, and goes hand in hand with Scott. Now, if
they will handle such murderers in silk gloves as they do, the fire must
spread.
The secessionists in
Washington—and they are a legion, of all hues and positions are defiant,
arrogant, sure that Washington will be taken. One risks to be murdered here.
I entered the thus
called Cassius Clay Company, organized for the defence of Washington until
troops came. For several days patrolled, drilled, and lay several nights on the
hard floor. Had compensation, that the drill often reproduced that of
Falstaff's heroes. But my campaigners would have fought well in case of
emergency. Most of them office-seekers. When the alarm was over, the company
dissolved, but each got a kind of certificate beautifully written and signed by
Lincoln and Cameron. I refused to take such a certificate, we having had no
occasion to fight.
The President issued
a proclamation for the blockade of the Southern revolted ports. Do they not
know better?
How can the Minister
of Foreign Affairs advise the President to resort to such a measure? Is the
Minister of Foreign Affairs so willing to call in foreign nations by this
blockade, thus transforming a purely domestic and municipal question into an
international, public one?
The President is to
quench the rebellion, a domestic fire, and to do it he takes a weapon, an
engine the most difficult to handle, and in using of which he depends on
foreign nations. Do they not know better here in the ministry and in the
councils? Russia dealt differently with the revolted Circassians and with
England in the so celebrated case of the Vixen.
The administration
ought to know its rights of sovereignty and to close the ports of entry. Then
no chance would be left to England to meddle.
Yesterday N—— dined
with Lord Lyons, and during the dinner an anonymous note announced to the Lord
that the proclamation of the blockade is to be issued on to-morrow. N——, who
has a romantic turn, or rather who seeks for midi a' 14¾ heures,
speculated what lady would have thus violated a secret d'Etat.
I rather think it
comes from the Ministry, or, as they call it here, from the Department. About
two years ago, when the Central Americans were so teased and maltreated by the
fillibusters and Democratic administration, a Minister of one of these Central
American States told me in New York that in a Chief of the Departments, or
something the like, the Central Americans have a valuable friend, who, every
time that trouble is brewing against them in the Department, gives them a
secret and anonymous notice of it. This friend may have transferred his
kindness to England.
How will foreign
nations behave? I wish I may be misguided by my political anglophobia, but
England, envious, rapacious, and the Palmerstons and others, filled with hatred
towards the genuine democracy and the American people, will play some bad
tricks. They will seize the occasion to avenge many humiliations. Charles
Sumner, Howe, and a great many others, rely on England, on her antislavery
feeling. I do not. I know English policy. We shall see.
France, Frenchmen,
and Louis Napoleon are by far more reliable. The principles and the interest of
France, broadly conceived, make the existence of a powerful Union a
statesmanlike European and world necessity. The cold, taciturn Louis Napoleon
is full of broad and clear conceptions. I am for relying, almost explicitly, on
France and on him.
The administration
calls in all the men-of-war scattered in all waters. As the commercial
interests of the Union will remain unprotected, the administration ought to put
them under the protection of France. It is often done so between friendly
powers. Louis Napoleon could not refuse; and accepting, would become pledged to
our side.
Germany, great and
small, governments and people, will be for the Union. Germans are honest; they
love the Union, hate slavery, and understand, to be sure, the question. Russia,
safe, very safe, few blackguards excepted; so Italy. Spain may play double. I
do not expect that the Spaniards, goaded to the quick by the former
fillibustering administrations, will have judgment enough to find out that the
Republicans have been and will be anti-fillibusters, and do not crave Cuba.
Wrote a respectful
warning to the President concerning the unvoidable results of his proclamation
in regard to the blockade; explained to him that this, his international
demonstration, will, and forcibly must evoke a counter proclamation from
foreign powers in the interest of their own respective subjects and of their
commercial relations. Warned, foretelling that the foreign powers will
recognize the rebels as belligerents, he, the President, having done it already
in some way, thus applying an international mode of coercion. Warned, that the
condition of belligerents, once recognized, the rebel piratical crafts will be
recognized as privateers by foreign powers, and as such will be admitted to all
ports under the secesh flag, which will thus enjoy a partial recognition.
Foreign powers may
grumble, or oppose the closing of the ports of entry as a domestic,
administrative decision, because they may not wish to commit themselves to
submit to a paper blockade. But if the President will declare that he will
enforce the closing of the ports with the whole navy, so as to strictly guard
and close the maritime league, then the foreign powers will see that the
administration does not intend to humbug them, but that he, the President, will
only preserve intact the fullest exercise of sovereignty, and, as said the
Roman legist, he, the President, "nil
sibi postulat quod non aliis tribuit." And so he, the President, will
only execute the laws of his country, and not any arbitrary measure, to say
with the Roman Emperor, "Leges etiam
in ipsa arma imperium habere volumus." Warned the President that in
all matters relating to this country Louis Napoleon has abandoned the
initiative to England; and to throw a small wedge in this alliance, I finally
respectfully suggested to the President what is said above about putting the
American interests in the Mediterranean under the protection of Louis Napoleon.
Few days thereafter
learned that Mr. Seward does not believe that France will follow England.
Before long Seward will find it out.
All the coquetting
with Virginia, all the presumed influence of General Scott, ended in Virginia's
secession, and in the seizure of Norfolk.
Has ever any administration,
cabinet, ministry—call it what name you will—given positive, indubitable signs
of want and absence of foresight, as did ours in these Virginia, Norfolk, and
Harper's Ferry affairs? Not this or that minister or secretary, but all of them
ought to go to the constitutional guillotine. Blindness—no mere
short-sightedness-permeates the whole administration, Blair excepted. And
Scott, the politico-military adviser of the President! What is the matter with
Scott, or were the halo and incense surrounding him based on bosh? Will it be
one more illusion to be dispelled?
The administration
understood not how to save or defend Norfolk, nor how to destroy it. No name to
be found for such concrete incapacity.
The rebels are
masters, taking our leaders by the nose. Norfolk gives to them thousands of
guns, &c., and nobody cries for shame. They ought to go in sackcloth, those
narrow-sighted, blind rulers. How will the people stand this masterly
administrative demonstration? In England the people and the Parliament would
impeach the whole Cabinet.
Charles Sumner told
me that the President and his Minister of Foreign Affairs are to propose to the
foreign powers the accession of the Union to the celebrated convention of Paris
of 1856. All three considered it a master stroke of policy. They will not catch
a fly by it.
Again wrote
respectfully to Mr. Lincoln, warning him against a too hasty accession to the
Paris convention. Based my warning,
1st. Not to give up
the great principles contained in Marcy's amendment.
2d. Not to believe
or suppose for a minute that the accession to the Paris convention at this time
can act in a retroactive sense; explained that it will not and cannot prevent
the rebel pirates from being recognized by foreign powers as legal privateers,
or being treated as such.
3d. For all these
reasons the Union will not win anything by such a step, but it will give up
principles and chain its own hands in case of any war with England. Supplicated
the President not to risk a step which logically must turn wrong.
Baltimore still
unpunished, and the President parleying with various deputations, all this
under the guidance of Scott. I begin to be confused; cannot find out what is
the character of Lincoln, and above all of Scott.
Governors from whole
or half-rebel States refuse the President's call for troops. The original call
of 75,000, too small in itself, will be reduced by that refusal. Why does not
the administration call for more on the North, and on the free States? In the
temper of this noble people it will be as easy to have 250,000 as 75,000, and
then rush on them; submerge Virginia, North Carolina, etc.; it can be now so
easily done. The Virginians are neither armed nor organized. Courage and youth
seemingly would do good in the councils.
The free States
undoubtedly will vindicate self-government. Whatever may be said by foreign and
domestic croakers, I do not doubt it for a single minute. The free people will
show to the world that the apparently loose governmental ribbons are the
strongest when everybody carries them in him, and holds them. The people will
show that the intellectual magnetism of convictions permeating the million is
by far stronger than the commonly called governmental action from above, and it
is at the same time elastic and expansive, even if the official leaders may
turn out to be altogether mediocrities. The self-governing free North will show
more vitality and activity than any among the governed European countries would
be able to show in similar emergencies. This is my creed, and I have faith in
the people.
The infamous slavers
of the South would even be honored if named Barbary States of North America.
Before the inauguration, Seward was telling the diplomats that no disruption
will take place; now he tells them that it will blow over in from sixty to
ninety days. Does Seward believe it? Or does his imagination or his patriotism
carry him away or astray? Or, perhaps, he prefers not to look the danger in the
face, and tries to avert the bitter cup. At any rate, he is incomprehensible,
and the more so when seen at a distance.
Something, nay, even
considerable efforts ought to be made to enlighten the public opinion in
Europe, as on the outside, insurrections, nationalities, etc., are favored in
Europe. How far the diplomats sent by the administration are prepared for this
task?
Adams has shown in
the last Congress his scholarly, classical narrow-mindedness. Sanford cannot
favorably impress anybody in Europe, neither in cabinets, nor in saloons, nor
the public at large. He looks and acts as a commis
voyageur, will be considered as such at first sight by everybody, and his
features and manners may not impress others as being distinguished and
high-toned.
Every historical,
that is, human event, has its moral and material character and sides. To
ignore, and still worse to blot out, to reject the moral incentives and the
moral verdict, is a crime to the public at large, is a crime towards human
reason.
Such action blunts
sound feelings and comprehension, increases the arrogance of the evil-doers.
The moral criterion
is absolute and unconditional, and ought as such unconditionally to be applied
to the events here. Things and actions must be called by their true names. What
is true, noble, pure, and lofty, is on the side of the North, and permeates the
unnamed millions of the free people; it ought to be separated from what is
sham, egotism, lie or assumption. Truth must be told, never mind the outcry.
History has not to produce pieces for the stage, or to amuse a tea-party.
Regiments pour in;
the Massachusetts men, of course, leading the van, as in the times of the tea-party.
My admiration for the Yankees is justified on every step, as is my scorn, my
contempt, etc., etc., of the Southern chivalrous
slaver.
Wrote to Charles
Sumner expressing my wonder at the undecided conduct of the administration; at
its want of foresight; its eternal parleying with Baltimoreans, Virginians,
Missourians, etc., and no step to tread down the head of the young snake. No
one among them seems to have the seer's eye. The people alone, who arm, who
pour in every day and in large numbers, who transform Washington into a camp,
and who crave for fighting, the people alone have the prophetic inspiration,
and are the genuine statesmen for the emergency.
How will the
Congress act? The Congress will come here emerging from the innermost of the
popular volcano; but the Congress will be manacled by formulas; it will move
not in the spirit of the
Constitution, but in the dry constitutionalism, and the Congress will move
with difficulty. Still I have faith, although the Congress never will seize
upon parliamentary omnipotence. Up to to-day, the administration, instead of
boldly crushing, or, at least, attempting to do it; instead of striking at the
traitors, the administration is continually on the lookout where the blows come
from, scarcely having courage to ward them off. The deputations pouring from
the North urge prompt, decided, crushing action. This thunder-voice of the
twenty millions of freemen ought to nerve this senile administration. The
Southern leaders do not lose one minute's time; they spread the fire, arm, and
attack with all the fury of traitors and criminals.
The Northern
merchants roar for the offensive; the administration is undecided.
Some individuals,
politicians, already speak out that the slaveocratic privileges are only to be
curtailed, and slavery preserved as a domestic institution. Not a bit of it.
The current and the development of events will run over the heads of the
pusillanimous and contemptible conservatives. Slavery must perish, even if the
whole North, Lincoln and Seward at its head, should attempt to save it.
Already they speak
of the great results of Fabian policy; Seward, I am told, prides in it. Do
those Fabiuses know what they talk about? Fabius's tactics—not policy—had in
view not to expose young, disheartened levies against Hannibal's unconquered
veterans, but further to give time to Rome to restore her exhausted means, to
recover political influences with other Italian independent communities, to
reconclude broken alliances with the cities, etc. But is this the condition of
the Union? Your Fabian policy will cost lives, time, and money; the people
feels it, and roars for action. Events are great, the people is great, but the
official leaders may turn out inadequate to both.
What a magnificent
chance-scarcely equal in history to become a great historical personality, to
tower over future generations. But I do not see any one pointing out the way.
Better so; the principle of self-government as the self-acting, self-preserving
force will be asserted by the total eclipse of great or even eminent men.
The administration,
under the influence of drill men, tries to form twenty regiments of regulars,
and calls for 45,000 three years' volunteers. What a curious appreciation of
necessity and of numbers must prevail in the brains of the administration.
Twenty regiments of regulars will be a drop in water; will not help anything,
but will be sufficient to poison the public spirit. Citizens and people, but
not regulars, not hirelings, are to fight the battle of principle. Regulars and
their spirit, with few exceptions, is worse here than were the Yanitschars.
When the principle
will be saved and victorious, it will be by the devotion, the spontaneity of
the people, and not by Lincoln, Scott, Seward, or any of the like. It is said
that Seward rules both Lincoln and Scott. The people, the masses, do not doubt
their ability to crush by one blow the traitors, but the administration does.
What I hear
concerning the Blairs confirms my high opinion of both. Blair alone in the
Cabinet represents the spirit of the people.
Something seems not
right with Scott. Is he too old, or too much of a Virginian, or a hero on a
small scale?
If, as they say, the
President is guided by Scott's advice, such advice, to judge from facts, is not
politic, not heroic, not thorough, not comprehensive, and not at all military,
that is, not broad and deep, in the military sense. It will be a pity to be
disappointed in this national idol.
Scott is against
entering Virginia, against taking Baltimore, against punishing traitors.
Strange, strange!
Diplomats altogether
out of their senses; they are bewildered by the uprising, by the unanimity, by
the warlike, earnest, unflinching attitude of the masses of the freemen, of my
dear Yankees. The diplomats have lost the compass. They, duty bound, were
diplomatically obsequious to the power held so long by the pro-slavery party.
They got accustomed to the arrogant assumption and impertinence of the slavers,
and, forgetting their European origin, the diplomats tacitly — but for their
common sense and honor I hope reluctantly admitted the assumptions of the
Southern banditti to be in America the nearest assimilation to the chivalry and
nobility of old Europe. Without taking the cudgel in defence of European
nobility, chivalry, and aristocracy, it is sacrilegious to compare those
infamous slavers with the old or even with the modern European higher classes.
In the midst of this slave-driving, slave-worshipping, and slave-breeding
society of Washington, the diplomats swallowed, gulped all the Southern lies
about the Constitution, state-rights, the necessity of slavery, and other like
infamies. The question is, how far the diplomats in their respective official
reports transferred these pro-slavery common-places to their governments. But,
after all, the governments of Europe will not be thoroughly influenced by the
chat of their diplomats.
Among all diplomats
the English (Lord Lyons) is the most sphinx; he is taciturn, reserved, listens
more than he speaks; the others are more communicative.
What an idea have
those Americans of sending a secret agent to Canada, and what for? England will
find it out, and must be offended. I would not have committed such an absurdity,
even in my palmy days, when I conspired with Louis Napoleon, sat in the
councils with Godefroi Cavaignac, or wrote instructions for Mazzini, then only
a beginner with his Giovina Italia,
and his miscarried Romarino attempt in Savoy.
Of what earthly use
can be such politique provocatrice
towards England? Or is it only to give some money to a hungry, noisy, and not
over-principled office-seeker?
SOURCE: Adam
Gurowski, Diary from March 4, 1861, to November 12, 1862, p. 22-36
