ELVIS
12-03-2005, 12:38 AM
SATURDAY, MAY 10, 1862
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1862/may/democratic-party-slavery_small.jpg
OUR SUCCESS.
THE regular circulation of Harper's Weekly is now between ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE and ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY THOUSAND copies. Assuming that each number of the paper is read by ten persons—a moderate estimate—a million and a quarter people derive instruction and amusement from this journal. It affords us no little satisfaction to witness this success. Certainly we may say that no effort on our part has been wanting to deserve it.
Our weekly expenses for traveling artists are alone as heavy as our total outlay for artistic labor used to be when Harper's Weekly was first established. This out-lay, however, enables us to depict, week by week, the progress of our arms along the whole circumference of the Rebellion, with a fidelity and vividness seldom equaled.
We are besides enabled to lay before our readers each week several pages of the best reading of the day, including the works of Dickens, Wilkie Collins, and Bulwer. So remarkable a combination of artistic and literary excellences has never been presented in any journal, either in this country or abroad.
We think that this Number, for instance, will bear comparison with any number of any paper ever produced in the United States or in Europe.
SATURDAY, MAY 10, 1862
DEMOCRACY ON TRIAL
DURING the Crimean war the late Prince Albert was furiously abused by the British people for saying, in a public speech, that constitutional monarchy was on trial. What he meant was, that the pending contest would test whether it was possible to carry on a great war without interfering with the free institutions which were established for peace-time. The event proved that the British system was equal to the test. The war was brought to a successful close without any violation of the laws established for the government of the British empire in time of peace. It must be remarked, however, that the war was prosecuted at a point several thousand miles distant from Great Britain; that England's trade with Russia was very limited; that the chief commerce of Great Britain was not injured by the war; and that the number of individuals whose private interests were affected by the war was very small indeed.
In these important aspects the pending war in this country differs essentially from the Russian war, and it is reasonable to assume that its bearing on our peace institutions must be widely dissimilar. The war is carried on at our own doors, with a people most closely allied to us by ties of marriage, association, and commerce; it has crippled our trade, and gravely impaired our industrial energy; and the number of persons whose interests are directly affected by it is enormous.
These essential differences explain why it was necessary, in this country, to do what was not required in England during the contest of 1854-'5; namely, to suspend the operations of those great free institutions which, in peace-time, are the main bulwark of popular liberty.
It must always be borne in mind by the candid observer that since history began there never was such a rebellion as the one we are now suppressing. The rebellion of Catiline, to which it has been compared, was only able to raise 5000 men, and of these a large portion had no better arms than clubs. The famous rebellions which constitute so important a part of the history of Great Britain and France were trumpery little disturbances in comparison with the Southern insurrection. A faint resemblance may be traced between the present contest in this country and the religious wars in Europe; but the latter, it will be seen at once on examination, were very diminutive prototypes of the present struggle. In all the religious wars in England and France there was no more bloody contest than the Battle of Winchester, which the historian will class among the minor fights of the present war. History contains no example of 8,000,000 people rebelling against 20,000,000 of their countrymen, and bowing so completely to the lead of fanatic leaders as to submit to be forced by conscription into military service. There never was an instance before of a country raising a million of men to fight each other. Nor was there ever a war, before the present one, which inflicted such wholesale misery upon the country which first took up arms; which involved so fearful an injury to peaceful commerce; which developed so much treachery on the part of persons in public employ; which brought to light such diabolical treason and such heartless perfidy. The honest historian will stand aghast when he discovers the progressive developments of the scheme of secession.
These unparalleled facts will constitute the historical apology for the violations of law perpetrated by the authority of President Lincoln. They will be deemed an ample and sufficient excuse. Posterity will decide that if Abraham Lincoln had hesitated to assume the responsibility of suspending the act of habeas corpus, or of interfering with the dissemination of treason in Northern newspapers, he would, under the circumstances, have proved as derelict as his imbecile predecessor James Buchanan.
At the same time it must not be forgotten that, if it comes to the worst, our liberties are more precious than any thing else. We could better afford to forego the restoration of the
Union than the complete reassertion of the rights secured to us by the Constitution. What has been done was right, and inevitable under the circumstances. But if it was in violation of law, the law must vindicate itself.
We are therefore not sorry to see that an action at law has been instituted against Ex-Secretary of War Simon Cameron by a party who was at one time confined in Fort Lafayette by his orders. We have no doubt but the Secretary, or the President, by whose orders he acted, had sufficient reasons for ordering the incarceration of the person in question. But it is right, it is. due to our institutions, that a jury should pronounce upon the subject. Congress will of course interpose to protect the members of Mr. Lincoln's Administration against pecuniary loss arising from such prosecutions. But the facts should nevertheless be ascertained. General Jackson was thoroughly commended by the American people for trampling on the law of the land at New Orleans; but he was sued for it, and fined $1000, and the people approve the condemnation. It must be so now. Unusual emergencies have called for unusual remedies, and remarkable assumptions of power. But wherever the laws have been violated, the violator should be punished at the bidding of a jury. Congress will grant indemnity wherever it may rightfully be claimed.
If we can not suppress the rebellion without sacrificing the fundamental principles of our political system, the work of suppression will cost dear. In the memorable words of President Lincoln:
"I understand the ship to be made for the carrying and preservation of the cargo, and so long as the ship can be saved, with the cargo, it should never be abandoned. This Union should likewise never be abandoned unless it fails, and the probability of its preservation shall cease to exist without throwing the passengers and cargo overboard. So long, then, as it is possible that the prosperity and the liberties of the people can be preserved in the Union, it shall be my purpose at all times to preserve it."
A LOOK AROUND.
AT this moment of writing we have reached a lull in the movements of the war. Driven back almost simultaneously from their outer line across the country from the Chesapeake to the Mississippi the rebels stand at Corinth and at Yorktown. At the former place Halleck for the first time appears in the field, and at the latter McClellan has the most ample theatre for the exhibition of his powers.
That the public confidence in success at the Southwest is increased by the presence of Halleck in active command is unquestionable. There has been such an accumulation of proof that we were not properly prepared for attack at Pittsburg Landing, that brave and loyal, and successful even, as
General Grant has been, it was impossible to avoid the question whether we should be any better prepared for the next onset. There has as yet been no reason assigned for the separation of the two great divisions of our army in Tennessee by so large a space that we had almost been destroyed. Common sense must count for something even in military strategy.
Parson Brownlow says he considers Beauregard the best General upon the Continent. If he be so, he is worthily opposed to General Halleck, in whose sagacity, rapidity, and comprehensive grasp of the campaign there is very general confidence. Whether this arises from the public satisfaction with his administration of the Western Department or from extraneous considerations, it is not easy to say. This only we know, that, whether the Department had been prepared for success by the operations of General Fremont, who had every conceivable difficulty to master when he was in charge, or from whatever other reason, yet the West, since General Halleck took command, has been the scene of a continuous series of splendid victories.
How much of the credit of all this belongs to the Commanding General is yet another question. But it is impossible not to recognize the prestige which the mere fact gives to him; and if he succeeds in defeating the army of desperation under Beauregard, while Foote presses down the river—for the two events would probably be simultaneous—it will not be easy for the rebels to collect another formidable army, except under great difficulties.
So also if McClellan is successful upon the Yorktown peninsula, and either defeats the enemy in a general engagement or compels him to retire upon Richmond—Norfolk falls; the rebels can hardly stand in Virginia or North Carolina; they will retreat southwestwardly, and the rebellion will be virtually inclosed in the sea-board and Gulf slave States. It would then by no means yield, but maintain itself by a general guerrilla warfare, and a sullen submission wherever the National force was actually superior. This state of things would inevitably continue until pride and passion and prejudice had had their way. At length the ordinary motives and desires of men in civil society would begin to act; the people of the rebellious section would give pledges, not oaths, of their loyalty to the National Government; and gradually, as various influences combined to extirpate the root of treason, they would be as faithful to the system which gave them dignity, nationality, honor, and power, as the most loyal citizens to-day.
It is dangerous to speculate—how much more to prophesy—so we forbear. Especially as our eyes rest upon an enthusiastic article in the Times of March 17, which exultingly predicts that "within twenty days Richmond will be in the hands of McClellan, Norfolk in possession of Burnside, and Jeff Davis either a prisoner in our hands or a fugitive among the people whom he has deluded and ruined."
The Times will smile, and justly insist that its rosy anticipations were out a little in point of time, but not of fact; and that about May-day all will be true. Amen! It is, after all, only a question of time.
HOPELESS SPITE.
THE recognition of Hayti and Liberia is another of the national acts which show that we are no longer chained to the most remorseless despotism. This Government sends a minister to the Chinese, who are yellow people; and an agent to the Japanese, who are bronze people, whom Mr. Douglas called an inferior race; we have consuls in India and a minister in Turkey, where the people are dark red and olive; and there really has seemed to be no reason why we should refuse an agent to people who are black. Nor has there been any reason except that many of the Senators, whose consent was necessary, held black people as slaves.
The utterly false, abnormal, and fatal position which this nation has occupied toward men of African descent is being rapidly changed to the natural and simple one which other civilized people maintain. Nor would there be any serious difficulty in immediately establishing it except for two things—the prejudice which always prevails in a country against an enslaved race, and the party capital which in this country is made out of it.
Such a person as Vallandigham, for instance, who comes from Ohio, is in practical collusion with slavery and its effort to destroy the Government, merely because it serves his political purpose. The slaveholders for many years had worked with the Democratic party. The consequence was that, to secure the unanimous slave section, the Democratic party gradually relinquished all its fundamental principles, and became an association for the propagation and extension of slavery and the annihilation of the safeguards of liberty. The consequence of this in turn was, that as the party left its principles the best Democrats left the party, until at last the Southern leaders stood in open rebellion, and all loyal national Democrats stood against them.
Those who did not were last summer's "peace men." These were people who thought that the Government was, as Mr. Senator Powell calls it, a tyrant and despot for laying its hand upon its enemies. They were the people who voted in Congress with Breckinridge and the other open traitors, who staid because they could do most harm by staying. These are the people who, upon the hope that the French Government has indirectly threatened recognition of the rebellion, call loudly with Vallandigham for the correspondence that the traitors may be encouraged by it. They are the men who would like to see Jeff Davis, reeking with the blood of thousands of loyal citizens, marching into the White House: who rejoiced over Bull Run: who are aghast at Pea Ridge, Donelson, and Newbern: who would gladly shut, by any means, the mouths of men who expose the true source and aim of this infamous rebellion: and who show the spite they bear to human progress, national peace, and the civilization of liberty, by opposing every measure which aims to cut the fangs of slavery. Meanwhile those measures are sure to be taken, and they will cut the fangs of these gentry at the same time.
:elvis:
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1862/may/democratic-party-slavery_small.jpg
OUR SUCCESS.
THE regular circulation of Harper's Weekly is now between ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE and ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY THOUSAND copies. Assuming that each number of the paper is read by ten persons—a moderate estimate—a million and a quarter people derive instruction and amusement from this journal. It affords us no little satisfaction to witness this success. Certainly we may say that no effort on our part has been wanting to deserve it.
Our weekly expenses for traveling artists are alone as heavy as our total outlay for artistic labor used to be when Harper's Weekly was first established. This out-lay, however, enables us to depict, week by week, the progress of our arms along the whole circumference of the Rebellion, with a fidelity and vividness seldom equaled.
We are besides enabled to lay before our readers each week several pages of the best reading of the day, including the works of Dickens, Wilkie Collins, and Bulwer. So remarkable a combination of artistic and literary excellences has never been presented in any journal, either in this country or abroad.
We think that this Number, for instance, will bear comparison with any number of any paper ever produced in the United States or in Europe.
SATURDAY, MAY 10, 1862
DEMOCRACY ON TRIAL
DURING the Crimean war the late Prince Albert was furiously abused by the British people for saying, in a public speech, that constitutional monarchy was on trial. What he meant was, that the pending contest would test whether it was possible to carry on a great war without interfering with the free institutions which were established for peace-time. The event proved that the British system was equal to the test. The war was brought to a successful close without any violation of the laws established for the government of the British empire in time of peace. It must be remarked, however, that the war was prosecuted at a point several thousand miles distant from Great Britain; that England's trade with Russia was very limited; that the chief commerce of Great Britain was not injured by the war; and that the number of individuals whose private interests were affected by the war was very small indeed.
In these important aspects the pending war in this country differs essentially from the Russian war, and it is reasonable to assume that its bearing on our peace institutions must be widely dissimilar. The war is carried on at our own doors, with a people most closely allied to us by ties of marriage, association, and commerce; it has crippled our trade, and gravely impaired our industrial energy; and the number of persons whose interests are directly affected by it is enormous.
These essential differences explain why it was necessary, in this country, to do what was not required in England during the contest of 1854-'5; namely, to suspend the operations of those great free institutions which, in peace-time, are the main bulwark of popular liberty.
It must always be borne in mind by the candid observer that since history began there never was such a rebellion as the one we are now suppressing. The rebellion of Catiline, to which it has been compared, was only able to raise 5000 men, and of these a large portion had no better arms than clubs. The famous rebellions which constitute so important a part of the history of Great Britain and France were trumpery little disturbances in comparison with the Southern insurrection. A faint resemblance may be traced between the present contest in this country and the religious wars in Europe; but the latter, it will be seen at once on examination, were very diminutive prototypes of the present struggle. In all the religious wars in England and France there was no more bloody contest than the Battle of Winchester, which the historian will class among the minor fights of the present war. History contains no example of 8,000,000 people rebelling against 20,000,000 of their countrymen, and bowing so completely to the lead of fanatic leaders as to submit to be forced by conscription into military service. There never was an instance before of a country raising a million of men to fight each other. Nor was there ever a war, before the present one, which inflicted such wholesale misery upon the country which first took up arms; which involved so fearful an injury to peaceful commerce; which developed so much treachery on the part of persons in public employ; which brought to light such diabolical treason and such heartless perfidy. The honest historian will stand aghast when he discovers the progressive developments of the scheme of secession.
These unparalleled facts will constitute the historical apology for the violations of law perpetrated by the authority of President Lincoln. They will be deemed an ample and sufficient excuse. Posterity will decide that if Abraham Lincoln had hesitated to assume the responsibility of suspending the act of habeas corpus, or of interfering with the dissemination of treason in Northern newspapers, he would, under the circumstances, have proved as derelict as his imbecile predecessor James Buchanan.
At the same time it must not be forgotten that, if it comes to the worst, our liberties are more precious than any thing else. We could better afford to forego the restoration of the
Union than the complete reassertion of the rights secured to us by the Constitution. What has been done was right, and inevitable under the circumstances. But if it was in violation of law, the law must vindicate itself.
We are therefore not sorry to see that an action at law has been instituted against Ex-Secretary of War Simon Cameron by a party who was at one time confined in Fort Lafayette by his orders. We have no doubt but the Secretary, or the President, by whose orders he acted, had sufficient reasons for ordering the incarceration of the person in question. But it is right, it is. due to our institutions, that a jury should pronounce upon the subject. Congress will of course interpose to protect the members of Mr. Lincoln's Administration against pecuniary loss arising from such prosecutions. But the facts should nevertheless be ascertained. General Jackson was thoroughly commended by the American people for trampling on the law of the land at New Orleans; but he was sued for it, and fined $1000, and the people approve the condemnation. It must be so now. Unusual emergencies have called for unusual remedies, and remarkable assumptions of power. But wherever the laws have been violated, the violator should be punished at the bidding of a jury. Congress will grant indemnity wherever it may rightfully be claimed.
If we can not suppress the rebellion without sacrificing the fundamental principles of our political system, the work of suppression will cost dear. In the memorable words of President Lincoln:
"I understand the ship to be made for the carrying and preservation of the cargo, and so long as the ship can be saved, with the cargo, it should never be abandoned. This Union should likewise never be abandoned unless it fails, and the probability of its preservation shall cease to exist without throwing the passengers and cargo overboard. So long, then, as it is possible that the prosperity and the liberties of the people can be preserved in the Union, it shall be my purpose at all times to preserve it."
A LOOK AROUND.
AT this moment of writing we have reached a lull in the movements of the war. Driven back almost simultaneously from their outer line across the country from the Chesapeake to the Mississippi the rebels stand at Corinth and at Yorktown. At the former place Halleck for the first time appears in the field, and at the latter McClellan has the most ample theatre for the exhibition of his powers.
That the public confidence in success at the Southwest is increased by the presence of Halleck in active command is unquestionable. There has been such an accumulation of proof that we were not properly prepared for attack at Pittsburg Landing, that brave and loyal, and successful even, as
General Grant has been, it was impossible to avoid the question whether we should be any better prepared for the next onset. There has as yet been no reason assigned for the separation of the two great divisions of our army in Tennessee by so large a space that we had almost been destroyed. Common sense must count for something even in military strategy.
Parson Brownlow says he considers Beauregard the best General upon the Continent. If he be so, he is worthily opposed to General Halleck, in whose sagacity, rapidity, and comprehensive grasp of the campaign there is very general confidence. Whether this arises from the public satisfaction with his administration of the Western Department or from extraneous considerations, it is not easy to say. This only we know, that, whether the Department had been prepared for success by the operations of General Fremont, who had every conceivable difficulty to master when he was in charge, or from whatever other reason, yet the West, since General Halleck took command, has been the scene of a continuous series of splendid victories.
How much of the credit of all this belongs to the Commanding General is yet another question. But it is impossible not to recognize the prestige which the mere fact gives to him; and if he succeeds in defeating the army of desperation under Beauregard, while Foote presses down the river—for the two events would probably be simultaneous—it will not be easy for the rebels to collect another formidable army, except under great difficulties.
So also if McClellan is successful upon the Yorktown peninsula, and either defeats the enemy in a general engagement or compels him to retire upon Richmond—Norfolk falls; the rebels can hardly stand in Virginia or North Carolina; they will retreat southwestwardly, and the rebellion will be virtually inclosed in the sea-board and Gulf slave States. It would then by no means yield, but maintain itself by a general guerrilla warfare, and a sullen submission wherever the National force was actually superior. This state of things would inevitably continue until pride and passion and prejudice had had their way. At length the ordinary motives and desires of men in civil society would begin to act; the people of the rebellious section would give pledges, not oaths, of their loyalty to the National Government; and gradually, as various influences combined to extirpate the root of treason, they would be as faithful to the system which gave them dignity, nationality, honor, and power, as the most loyal citizens to-day.
It is dangerous to speculate—how much more to prophesy—so we forbear. Especially as our eyes rest upon an enthusiastic article in the Times of March 17, which exultingly predicts that "within twenty days Richmond will be in the hands of McClellan, Norfolk in possession of Burnside, and Jeff Davis either a prisoner in our hands or a fugitive among the people whom he has deluded and ruined."
The Times will smile, and justly insist that its rosy anticipations were out a little in point of time, but not of fact; and that about May-day all will be true. Amen! It is, after all, only a question of time.
HOPELESS SPITE.
THE recognition of Hayti and Liberia is another of the national acts which show that we are no longer chained to the most remorseless despotism. This Government sends a minister to the Chinese, who are yellow people; and an agent to the Japanese, who are bronze people, whom Mr. Douglas called an inferior race; we have consuls in India and a minister in Turkey, where the people are dark red and olive; and there really has seemed to be no reason why we should refuse an agent to people who are black. Nor has there been any reason except that many of the Senators, whose consent was necessary, held black people as slaves.
The utterly false, abnormal, and fatal position which this nation has occupied toward men of African descent is being rapidly changed to the natural and simple one which other civilized people maintain. Nor would there be any serious difficulty in immediately establishing it except for two things—the prejudice which always prevails in a country against an enslaved race, and the party capital which in this country is made out of it.
Such a person as Vallandigham, for instance, who comes from Ohio, is in practical collusion with slavery and its effort to destroy the Government, merely because it serves his political purpose. The slaveholders for many years had worked with the Democratic party. The consequence was that, to secure the unanimous slave section, the Democratic party gradually relinquished all its fundamental principles, and became an association for the propagation and extension of slavery and the annihilation of the safeguards of liberty. The consequence of this in turn was, that as the party left its principles the best Democrats left the party, until at last the Southern leaders stood in open rebellion, and all loyal national Democrats stood against them.
Those who did not were last summer's "peace men." These were people who thought that the Government was, as Mr. Senator Powell calls it, a tyrant and despot for laying its hand upon its enemies. They were the people who voted in Congress with Breckinridge and the other open traitors, who staid because they could do most harm by staying. These are the people who, upon the hope that the French Government has indirectly threatened recognition of the rebellion, call loudly with Vallandigham for the correspondence that the traitors may be encouraged by it. They are the men who would like to see Jeff Davis, reeking with the blood of thousands of loyal citizens, marching into the White House: who rejoiced over Bull Run: who are aghast at Pea Ridge, Donelson, and Newbern: who would gladly shut, by any means, the mouths of men who expose the true source and aim of this infamous rebellion: and who show the spite they bear to human progress, national peace, and the civilization of liberty, by opposing every measure which aims to cut the fangs of slavery. Meanwhile those measures are sure to be taken, and they will cut the fangs of these gentry at the same time.
:elvis: