RUMORS that the
President, the administration, or whoever has it in his hands, is to take the
offensive, make a demonstration on Virginia and on Baltimore. But these ups and
downs, these vacillations, are daily occurrences, and nothing points to a firm
purpose, to a decided policy, or any policy whatever of the administration.
A great principle
and a great cause cannot be served and cannot be saved by half measures, and
still less by tricks and by paltry expedients. But the administration is tossed
by expedients. Nothing is hitherto done, and this denotes a want of any firm
decision.
Mr. Seward's letter
to Dayton, a first manifesto to foreign nations, and the first document of the
new Minister of Foreign Affairs. It is bold, high-toned, and American, but it
has dark shadows; shows an inexperienced hand in diplomacy and in dealing with
events. The passages about the frequent changes in Europe are unnecessary, and
unprovoked by anything whatever. It is especially offensive to France, to the
French people, and to Louis Napoleon. It is bosh, but in Europe they will
consider it as une politique provocatrice.
For the present
complications, diplomatic relations ought to be conducted with firmness, with
dignity, but not with an arrogant, offensive assumption, not in the spirit of
spread-eagleism; no brass, but reason and decision.
Americans will find
out how absolute are the laws of history, as stern and as positive as all the
other laws of nature. To me it is clear that one phasis of American political
growth, development, &c., is gone, is finished. It is the phasis of the
Union as created by the Constitution. This war—war it will be, and a terrible
one, notwithstanding all the prophecies of Mr. Seward to the contrary—this war
will generate new social and constitutional necessities and new formulas. New
conceptions and new passions will spring up; in one word, it will bring forth
new social, physical, and moral creations: so we are in the period of
gestation.
Democracy, the true,
the noble, that which constitutes the signification of America in the progress
of our race—democracy will not be destroyed. All the inveterate enemies here
and in Europe, all who already joyously sing the funeral songs of democracy,
all of them will become disgraced. Democracy will emerge more pure, more
powerful, more rational; destroyed will be the most infamous oligarchy ever
known in history; oligarchy issued neither from the sword, nor the gown, nor
the shop, but wombed, generated, cemented, and sustained by traffic in man.
The famous Russell,
of the London Times, is what I always thought him to be—a graphic, imaginative
writer, with power of description of all he sees, but not the slightest insight
in events, in men, in institutions. Russell is not able to find out the
epidermis under a shirt. And they make so much fuss about him; Seward brings
him to the first cabinet dinner given by the President; Mrs. Lincoln sends him
bouquets; and this man, Russell, will heap blunders upon blunders.
The pressure on the
administration for decided, energetic action increases from all sides. Seldom,
anywhere, an administration receives so many moral kicks as does this one; but
it seems to stand them with serenity. Oh, for a clear, firm, well-defined
purpose!
The country, the
people demands an attack on Virginia, on Richmond, and Baltimore; the country,
better than the military authorities, understands the political and military
necessities; the people has the consciousness that if fighting is done
instantly, it will be done cheaply and thoroughly by a move of its finger. The
administration can double the number of men under arms, but hesitates.
What slow coaches,
and what ignorance of human nature and of human events. The knowing ones, the
wiseacres, will be the ruin of this country. They poison the sound reason of
the people.
What the d---- is
Seward with his politicians' policy? What can signify his close alliance with
such outlaws as Wikoff and the Herald, and pushing that sheet to abuse England
and Lord Lyons? Wikoff is, so to speak, an inmate of Seward's house and office,
and Wikoff declared publicly that the telegram contained in the Herald, and so
violent against England and Lord Lyons, was written under Seward's dictation.
Wikoff, I am told, showed the MS. corrected in Seward's handwriting. Lord Lyons
is menaced with passports. Is this man mad? Can Seward for a moment believe
that Wikoff knows Europe, or has any influence? He may know the low resorts
there. Can Seward be fool enough to irritate England, and entangle this
country? Even my anglophobia cannot stand it. Wrote about it warning letters to
New York, to Barney, to Opdyke, to Wadsworth, &c.
The whole District a
great camp; the best population from the North in rank and file. More
intelligence, industry, and all good national and intellectual qualities
represented in those militia and volunteer regiments, than in any—not only
army, but society in Europe. Artisans, mechanics of all industries, of trade,
merchants, bankers, lawyers; all pursuits and professions. Glorious,
heart-elevating sight! These regiments want only a small touch of military
organization.
Weeks run, troops
increase, and not the first step made to organize them into an army, to form
brigades, not to say divisions; not yet two regiments manœuvring together. What
a strange idea the military chief or chiefs, or department, or somebody, must have
of what it is to organize an army. Not the first letter made. Can it be
ignorance of this elementary knowledge with which is familiar every corporal in
Europe? When will they start, when begin to mould an army?
The administration
was not composed for this emergency, and is not up to it. The government
hesitates, is inexperienced, and will unavoidably make heaps of mistakes, which
may endanger the cause, and for which, at any rate, the people is terribly to
pay. The loss in men and material will be very considerable before the
administration will get on the right track. It is painful to think, nay, to be
sure of it. Then the European anti-Union politicians and diplomats will credit
the disasters to the inefficiency of self-government. The diplomats, accustomed
to the rapid, energetic action of a supreme or of a centralized power, laugh at
the trepidation of ours. But the fault is not in the principle of
self-government, but in the accident which brought to the helm such an amount
of inexperience. Monarchy with a feeble head is even in a worse predicament.
Louis XV, the Spanish and Neapolitan Bourbons, Gustavus IV., &c., are
thereof the historical evidences.
May the shock of
events bring out new lights from the people! One day the administration is to
take the initiative, that is, the offensive, then it recedes from it. No one
understands the organization and handling of such large bodies. They are to
make their apprenticeship, if only it may not to be too dearly paid. But they
cannot escape the action of that so positive law in nature, in history, and,
above all, absolute in war.
Wrote to Charles
Sumner, suggesting that the ice magnates send here from Boston ice for
hospitals.
The war now waged
against the free States is one made by the most hideous sauvagerie against a
most perfectioned and progressive civilization. History records not a similar
event. It is a hideous phenomenon, disgracing our race, and it is so, look on
it from whatever side you will.
A new man from the
people, like Governor Andrew, of Massachusetts, acts promptly, decisively;
feels and speaks ardently, and not as the rhetors. Andrew is the incarnation of
the Massachusetts, nay, of the genuine American people. I must become
acquainted with Andrew. Thousands of others like Andrew exist in all the
States. Can anybody be a more noble incarnation of the American people than J.
S. Wadsworth? I become acquainted with numerous men whom I honor as the true
American men. So Boutwell, of Massachusetts, Curtis Noyes, Senator Wade,
Trumbull, Walcott, from Ohio, Senator King, Chandler, and many, many true
patriots.
Senator Wilson, my
old friend, is up to the mark; a man of the people, but too mercurial.
Captain or Major
Lyon in St. Louis, the first initiator or revelator of what is the absolute law
of necessity in questions of national death or life. Lyon jumped over formulas,
over routine, over clumsy discipline and martinetism, and saved St. Louis and
Missouri.
It is positively
asserted that General Scott's first impression was to court-martial Lyon for this
breach of discipline, for having acted on his own patriotic responsibility.
Can Scott be such a
dried-up, narrow-minded disciplinarian, and he the Egeria of Lincoln! Oh! oh!
Diplomats tell me that Seward uses the dictatorial I, speaking of the government.
Three cheers for the new Louis XIV.!
Governor Banks would
be excellent for the Intendant General de l'Armée: they call it here General
Quartermaster. Awful disorder and slowness prevail in this cardinal branch of
the army. Wrote to Sumner concerning Banks.
Gen. Butler took
Baltimore; did what ought to have been done a long time ago. Butler did it on
his own responsibility, without orders. Butler acted upon the same principle as
Lyon, and, horrabile dictu, astonished, terrified the parleying administration.
Scott wishes to put Butler under arrest; happily Lincoln resisted his boss (so
Mr. Lincoln called Scott before a deputation from Baltimore). Scott, Patterson,
and Mansfield made a beautiful strategical horror! They began to speak of
strategy; plan to approach Baltimore on three different roads, and with about
35,000 men. Butler did it one morning with two regiments, and kicked over the
senile strategians in council.
The administration
speaks with pride of its forbearing, that is, parleying, policy. The people,
the country, requires action. Congressus
impar Achilli: Achilles, the people, and Congressus the forbearing
administration.
Music, parades,
serenades, receptions, &c., &c., only no genuine military organization.
They do it differently on the other side of the Potomac. There the leaders are
in earnest.
Met Gov. Sprague and
asked him when he would have a brigade; his answer was, soon; but this soon
comes very slow.
News from England.
Lord John Russell declared in Parliament that the Queen, or the English
government, will recognize the rebels in the condition of
"belligerents." O England, England! The declaration is too hasty.
Lord John cannot have had news of the proclamation of the blockade when he made
that declaration. The blockade could have served him as an excuse for the
haste. English aristocracy and government show thus their enmity to the North,
and their partiality to slavers. What will the anglophiles of Boston say to
this?
Neither England or
France, or anybody in Europe, recognized the condition of
"belligerents" to Poles, when we fought in Russia in 1831. Were the
Magyars recognized as such in 1848-49? Lord Palmerston called the German flag
hard names in the war with Denmark for Schleswig-Holstein; and now he bows to
the flag of slavers and pirates. If the English statesmen have not some very
particular reason for this hasty, uncalled-for condescension to the enemies of
humanity, then curse upon the English government. I recollect that European
powers recognized the Greeks "belligerents" (Austria opposed) in
their glorious struggle against the slavers, the Turks. But then this stretching
of positive, international comity,—this stretching was done in the interest of
freedom, of right, and of humanity, against savages and slaughterers. On the
present occasion England did the reverse. O England, England, thou Judas
Iscariot of nations! Seward said to John Jacob Astor, and to a New York
deputation, that this English declaration concerning "belligerents"
is a mere formality, having no bearing at all. I told the contrary to Astor and
to others, assuring them that Mr. Seward will soon find, to the cost of the
people and to his own, how much complication and trouble this mere formality
will occasion, and occasion it before long. Is Seward so ignorant of
international laws, of general or special history, or was it only said to throw
dust? Wrote about the "belligerents" a warning letter to the
President.
Butler, in command
of Fortress Monroe, proposes to land in Virginia and to take Norfolk; Scott,
the highest military authority in the land, opposes. Has Scott used up his
energy, his sense, and even his military judgment in defending Washington
before the inauguration? He is too old; his brains, cerebellum, must be dried
up.
Imbecility in a
leader is often, nay always, more dangerous than treason; the people can find
out easily, too—treason, but is disarmed against imbecility.
What a
thoughtlessness to press on Russia the convention of Paris? Russia has already
a treaty with America, but in case of a war with England, the Russian ports on
the Pacific, and the only one accessible to Americans, will be closed to them
by the convention of Paris.
The governors of the
States of Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania assure the protection of their
respective States to the Union men of the Border States. What a bitter
criticism on the slow, forbearing policy of the administration. Mr. Lincoln
seems to be a rather slow intellect, with slow powers of perception. However,
patience; perhaps the shock of events will arouse and bring in action now
latent, but good and energetic qualities. As it stands now, the administration,
being the focus of activity, is tepid, if not cold and slow; the circumference,
that is, the people, the States, are full of fire and of activity. This
condition is altogether the reverse of the physiological and all other natural
laws, and this may turn out badly, as nature's laws never can be with impunity
reversed or violated.
The diplomats
complain that Seward treats them with a certain rudeness; that he never gives
them time to explain and speak, but interrupts by saying, "I know it
all," etc. If he had knowledge of things, and of the diplomatic world, he
would be aware that the more firmness he has to use, the more politeness, even
fastidiousness, he is to display. Scott does not wish for any bold
demonstration, for any offensive movement. The reason may be, that he is too
old, too crippled, to be able to take the field in person, and too inflated by
conceit to give the glory of the active command to any other man. Wrote to
Charles Sumner in Boston to stir up some inventive Yankee to construct a
wheelbarrow in which Scott could take the field in person.
In a conversation
with Seward, I called his attention to the fact that the government is
surrounded by the finest, most complicated, intense, and well-spread web of
treason that ever was spun; that almost all that constitutes society and is in
a daily, nay hourly, contact with the various branches of the Executive, all
this, with soul, mind, and heart is devoted to the rebels. I observed to him
that si licet exemplis in parvo grandibus
uti. Napoleon suffered more from the bitter hostility of the faubourg St.
Germain, than from the armies of the enemy; and here it is still worse, as this
hostility runs out into actual, unrelenting treason. To this Mr. Seward
answered with the utmost serenity, "that before long all this will change;
that when he became governor of New York, a similar hostility prevailed between
the two sections of that State, but soon he pacified "everything."
What a Merlin! what a sorcerer!
Some simple-minded
persons from the interior of the State of New York questioned Mr. Seward, in my
presence, about Europe, and "what they will do there?" To this, with
a voice of the Delphic oracle, he responded, "that after all France is not
bigger than the State of New York." Is it possible to say such trash even
as a joke?
Finally, the
hesitations of General Scott are overcome. "Virginia's sacred soil is
invaded;" Potomac crossed; looks like a beginning of activity; Scott
consented to move on Arlington Heights, but during two or three days opposed
the seizure of Alexandria. Is that all that he knows of that hateful watchword—strategy—nausea
repeated by every ignoramus and imbecile ?
Alexandria being a
port of entry, and having a railroad, is more a strategic point for the
invasion of Virginia than are Arlington Heights.
The brave Ellsworth
murdered in Alexandria, and Scott insisted that Alexandria be invaded and
occupied by night. In all probability, Ellsworth would not have been murdered
if this villanous nest had been entered by broad daylight. As if the troops
were committing a crime, or a shameful act! O General Scott! but for you
Ellsworth would not have been murdered.
General McDowell
made a plan to seize upon Manassas as the centre of railroads, the true defence
of Washington, and the firm foothold in Virginia.
Nobody, or only few
enemies, were in Manassas. McDowell shows his genuine military insight. Scott,
and, as I am told, the whole senile military council, opposed McDowell's plan
as being too bold. Do these mummies intend to conduct a war without boldness?
Thick clouds of
patriotic, well-intentioned harpies surround all the issues of the executive
doors, windows, crevasses, all of them ready to turn an honest, or rather
dishonest, penny out of the fatherland. Behind the harpies advance the
busy-bodies, the would-be well-informed, and a promiscuous crowd of
well-intentioned do-nothings.
SOURCE: Adam
Gurowski, Diary from March 4, 1861, to November 12, 1862, p. 37-49
