Various - Continental Monthly, Vol. II. July, 1862. No. 1.

V >> Various >> Continental Monthly, Vol. II. July, 1862. No. 1.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20

A decided character this 'Parson Brownlow,' and a representative man;
truly and bravely American, very Western in his traits; a man fond of
fierce argument and tough antagonisms, and not fearing the death either
by halter or revolver, which he will probably meet some day, for the
sake of Jehovah and his own stern convictions. Not exactly a man of
_salons_ and elegant _reunions_--yet full of real courtesies and gifted
with the kind heart of a true hater of wickedness, which flashes into
fury at witnessing deeds of cruelty and shame. And he has seen many
such--seen what few have done and lived--he has passed through a life's
warfare with men of his own grim obstinacy without his own honesty and
stern Puritan-like morality. We have followed his course for years--we
have met him 'afore-time,' when quite other subjects of quarrel engaged
him, and could have prophesied then with tolerable accuracy what part he
would play when it came to a question between bayonets and prisons for
the truth.

As we have hinted, he is a splendid hater, and a ferocious antagonist, a
prince of vituperators and a very vitriol-thrower of savage sarcasms at
his enemies and those of humanity. And why should he not be all of this,
when we consider that in the stage whereon his part of life is played a
more delicate student of all the proprieties would have about the same
chances of success as attended the unfortunate cat which ventured
without claws among panthers. Measure such men by their moral worth and
by the good they do, and do not require of the hard-shell Methodist
preacher and tough polemical grappler with Satan in his most bristly and
thick-skinned Western incarnations that he display too much delicacy.
Those who will read his book may gather from it, beyond the interesting
personal and political narrative of which it consists, many useful and
curious hints as to the social development of America and of what men
the country is truly made. It is a _real_ work--one of value--interesting
to all, and very truly one of the monuments of this war and
of the scenes which preceded it in Tennessee.

EDITOR'S TABLE

The proclamation of President Lincoln in reference to General Hunter,
and the bold measures of the latter calling forth Executive
interference, form one of the most interesting episodes of the war of
Freedom. Regarded from the high standpoint whence acts are seen as
controlled by circumstances and formed by events, the conduct of the one
public functionary, as of the other, will appear to the future historian
in a very different light from that in which it has been presented by
either the radical or democratic journals of the day. He will speak of
the one as a military chieftain under the influence of worthy motives,
cutting a Gordian knot which the higher and controlling diplomatic and
executive superior wished should be cautiously untied. The one has acted
with a view to promptly settling a great trouble within his own
sphere--the other wisely comprehending that the action was premature,
has decisively countered it. By attempting to free the slaves, General
Hunter has shown himself a friend of freedom and a man of bold measures;
by annulling his acts Mr. Lincoln has availed himself of an excellent
opportunity of proving to the South and to the world that he is not, as
was said, a sectional or an Abolition President, and that with the
strongest sympathies for freedom, he is determined to respect the rights
even of enemies, and leave behind him a clear record, as one who did
nothing wrongly, and who with keen and wide comprehending glance took in
the times as they were, and acted accordingly.

Meanwhile to the most prejudiced vision it is apparent that the great
cause of Emancipation has gained vastly by this little struggle between
the shepherd and that unruly member of the flock who _would_ dash a
little too impetuously ahead of his fellows. The proclamation of
President Lincoln contains but cold comfort for the pro-slavery
democracy, although they affect to rejoice over it. In vain may they
declare, as they did of the celebrated 'remunerating message,' that it
is very palatable, and vow that it 'creates fresh hope and gives a new
and needed assurance to the conservative men of the nation.' The sour
faces of their pro-slavery, Southern-adoring, English-ruled, traitorous
friends is an effectual answer to their hypocrisy. We have not forgotten
how warmly the Democratic press indorsed the message of January 6th, or
how the Democratic multitude kicked against it in public meetings.

Let the Democratic tories of the day who find this message so
consolatory, duly weigh the following extract from it:

'I further make known that whether it be competent for me as
Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy to declare the slaves of
any State or States free, and whether at any time or in any case it
shall have become a necessity indispensable to the maintenance of
the Government to exercise such supposed power, are questions which
under my responsibility I reserve to myself, and which I can not
feel justified in leaving to the decisions of commanders in the
field. These are totally different questions from those of police
regulations in armies and camps. On the sixth day of March last, by
a special message, I recommended to Congress the adoption of a
joint resolution to be substantially as follows:

"_Resolved_, That the United States ought to co-operate with, any
State which may adopt a gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to
such State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State in its
discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences, public and
private, produced by such change of system.'

'The resolution, in the language above quoted, was adopted by large
majorities in both branches of Congress, and now stands an
authentic, definite, and solemn proposal of the Nation to the
States and people moat immediately interested in the
subject-matter. To the people of those States, I now earnestly
appeal. I do not argue, I beseech you to make the arguments for
yourselves. _You can not, if you would, be blind to the signs of
the times._ I beg of you a calm and enlarged consideration of them,
ranging, if it may be, far above personal and partisan politics.
_This proposal makes common cause for a common object, casting no
reproaches upon any._ It acts not the Pharisee. The change it
contemplates would come gently as the dews of heaven, not rending
or wrecking any thing. Will you not embrace it? So much good has
not been done by one effort in all past time as in the providence
of God it is your high privilege to do. May the vast future not
have to lament that you have neglected it.'

If any one can see in this aught save the clearest sympathy with the
gradual advance of Emancipation, he must be indeed gifted with a strange
faculty of perversion. If, however, the Democrats indorse the
President's recommendation and approve the Executive policy of gradual
emancipation for the sake of the white man, why do they continue to
abuse so fiercely presses which agree exactly with the Administration,
and ask for nothing more than a recognition of the great principle and
its realization according to circumstance?

A more contemptible and pitiable political spectacle was never yet
presented than that which may now be witnessed in the actions and words
of the 'Conservative' Democracy. Driven day by day nearer into their
true light of sympathizers at heart with the enemy--upholding the
institution for which it fights--obliged to bear the odium of its
ancient opposition to protection, disgraced by its enmity to American
manufacturing interests--apologizing in a thousand shuffling, petty ways
for English arrogance--this wretched fragment of a faction, after
assuring the South that the North would not fight, and persuading the
North that the South was quite in the right in every thing, now appears
as constant meddler and mischief-maker in the great struggle going on,
giving to it those elements of darkness, disgrace, and treason which,
unfortunately, are always to be found in the greatest struggles for
freedom and right, and which, when history is written, give such grounds
to the carper, the sophist, and skeptic to ridicule the noblest efforts
of humanity. Such are the self-called Conservatives in this great
battle--men hindering and impeding the great cause, eagerly grasping at
every little premature advance--as in the case of General Hunter's
action, to scream out that all will be lost, and exult over its
correction by the leading power as though they had gained a victory!

Meanwhile it is a matter of no small import to observe that there has
been a vast increase in the mass of indorsement of General Hunter's
conduct compared to what there would have been a few months ago. However
it interfered with the general policy of the Executive, no one doubts
that as a military and local measure it was eminently wise. Sooner or
later it will be adopted--meanwhile what has been done has been
productive of results which can not be undone. The great cause is the
cause of God--and every struggle only aids it onward.

* * * * *

The London Times of May 10th contained a long editorial leader on
American affairs, beginning in the following manner:

'It will have been noticed as a singular feature of the American
quarrel, that no intervention is thought probable or practicable,
except in favor of the South. Mediation, in whatever form or under
whatever name it is to be offered, is universally taken to imply
some movement in behalf of the Confederates. So completely, indeed,
are the belligerents themselves impressed with this idea, that the
South casts it in our teeth as a scandal and a blunder that no
European arbitration has been yet interposed; while the President
of the Northern States actually proclaims a day of thanksgiving for
the deliverance of the country from 'foreign intervention,' which
he identifies with nothing less than 'invasion.' The instincts of
the combatants have undoubtedly led them to correct decisions on
this point, but the fact is not a little curious. We need not
dissemble the truth about certain prepossessions current in
Europe. It is beyond denial that, in spite of the slavery question,
the Southerners have been rather the favorites, partly as the
weaker side, partly as conquerors against odds, and partly because
their demand for independence was thought too natural to be
resisted at the sword's point by a Government founded on the right
of insurrection only. To these merely sentimental and not very
cogent considerations was added the more potent and weighty
reflection that what the Southerners had done no Power, whether
American or European, could succeed in undoing.'

The rest of the article, as the reader may recall, was devoted to
sneering at the North and in commending intervention; the whole being
characterized by an underhand, venomous, and latent treacherous tone,
much more becoming a vindictive and vulgar Oriental than a civilized and
Christian European.

A little while before the _Times_ leader appeared, the London _Morning
Herald_ had informed the world that

France and England suffer more than neutrals ever suffered from any
contest, and both begin to regard the war as interminable and
atrocious.'

It is singular that the great majority of the British press and people
should dare to talk so glibly of intervention in this our civil war,
when we consider what their intermeddling may cost them. Cotton they may
or may not get, but no intervention can compel us to buy their goods,
and, as we have already pointed out in our columns, the entire loss of
the free States market involves a disaster which will be permanent and
terrible. Apart from the danger attendant upon insolently threatening a
nation amply capable of mustering an army of a million on its own
soil--two thirds of them practiced in war--there remains to be
considered the utter loss of all American custom. We buy much more than
any other nation whatever. Worse than this, for Europe, there would
follow Such a development of our home-manufactures as would seriously
threaten to drive England and France from a hundred markets. Let them
think twice ere they intervene. But the people, it is said, are
starving; and it may be, for this is one of the occasional and
unavoidable results of England's endeavoring to become the workshop of
the world. By _over-manufacturing_, she has brought it to such a pitch
that one fourth of her population live on _imported food_--such as do
not starve outright--for be it remembered that in Great Britain one
person in eight is buried at the public expense, while one in every
twelve or fourteen is a constant pauper. They are starving at present
more than usual, simply because the North is buying less; but to turn
away any popular opposition to government, and suppress riots, they and
the world are told that the trouble all comes from the closing of
Southern ports and _the want of cotton_! This, too, when published facts
show that the stock of goods and cotton on hand far exceeds the demand,
and is likely to exceed it for a long time to come. It is not cotton
that England or France want, but _customers_. How are they to obtain
these? By exasperating their best buyers beyond all reconciliation? The
day that witnesses British or French meddling in our war, sees the
inauguration of such hostility to their manufactures as they little
dream of. There will be leagues formed to enforce this to the letter. It
will be treason to wear an inch of English cloth or of French silk, and
what lie will they say to their starving operatives then?

Already within the past year, great advances have been made in
manufacturing, especially in silks. A little closing of us up would be
the worst experiment for England that she ever yet tried. She may
possibly get cotton from the South, but not a customer from the North.
You may lead a horse to water, but it is another affair to make him
drink. And no one who can recall the prompt resolve not to use English
goods, and the beginning of leagues to that effect, of which we lately
heard so much, can doubt that in case we hear much more of this
impertinence of intervention, the American market would immediately be
lost to the insolent meddlers. It is only of late that the free States
have shaken off their Democratic, pro-slavery, anti-tariff tyrants, and
learned to be free. England has groaned and howled at our freedom; now
she goes so far as to threaten; but unless she soon stop _that_, we
shall promptly show her where the strength lies. While we were under a
half-Southern, half-British tyranny, we could do nothing. And be it
remembered that from the days of the New-York _Plebeian_, when British
gold was spent literally by the million in this country, to strengthen
the Democratic party and build up free trade, slavery and English
interests always went hand in hand to oppress the interests of American
free labor. But we shall soon change all that. It is in our power to
chastise British impudence most effectually, and we shall probably soon
be called upon to do it, by buying nothing from abroad.

The inhuman, inconsistent, and cynically selfish conduct of England
toward the North in this war, whenever we have been threatened by
reverses, should not be forgotten. It has been literally devilish in its
grossness and meanness. Whatever wickedness the South has been guilty of
was at least barefaced and bold. The South had not for years labored to
build up an Abolition party in the North, as England did. For well nigh
half a century has England howled, wailed, whined, and canted over
slavery; but at the first pinch of the pocket, away goes the previous
philanthropy, and John Bull stands revealed, the brutal, cruel,
treacherous, lying savage that he is at heart, under all his
aristocratic feudal trash and gilding. Well, we know him at last, and
will _remember_ him. His conduct toward us has put hay on his
horns--_foenum habet in cornu_--and we shall avoid him. Let the
manufacturers of America watch this intolerably insolent intervention
closely, and lose no opportunity to turn it to their own advantage, that
is to say, to the advantage of the whole nation. Let them, by means of
journal and pamphlet, profusely scattered, explain to the people the
enormous wrong which England is seeking to do us, and the deliberate, we
may truthfully say, the official falsehood on which it is based. They
have it in their power to make our country literally _free_--will they
hesitate to use that power?

The reliance of England is, by returning to her sweet, stale flatteries,
after the establishment of the Confederacy, to be friends as of old with
the North. It is, she thinks, easily done. Our servants abroad and their
friends are to be a little more favored with levee tickets and access to
noble society; a few dozen more of the rank and file will be marched
along or 'presented' before her Majesty, and thereby sworn in to endless
admiration of all that is Anglican; venerable gentlemen in white
waistcoats will make sweet speeches, after public dinners, of the beauty
of Union, just as they made them here a year ago, in reference to the
South, when the tiger was on the spring. The old see-saw of 'nations
united in language and customs--brothers at heart,' will be set to
vibrating, and all, as they believe, must jog along merrily as of old.
For it is with a very little regularly organized stuff of this kind,
turned on or off as from a hydrant, and always in dribbling drops at
that, that England has, when necessary, pacified and delighted a great
number of Americans, semi-insane to be received on terms of equality by
the 'higher classes,' whom they worshiped at heart, while they affected
all manner of bold Americanisms to hide the truth. It is time to end all
this. We have come to serious and terrible days, and must be free from
all such flunkeyism. In our hour of trouble, the English press boldly
proclaimed that its sympathy was with the South. Let it be remembered!

* * * * *

In our June number we gave the Kansas John Brown song, for the benefit
of those who collect the more curious ballads of the war. We are
indebted to Clark's _School-Visitor_ for the following song of the
Contrabands, which originated among the latter, and was first sung by
them in the hearing of white people at Fortress Monroe, where it was
noted down by their chaplain, Rev. L.C. Lockwood. It is to a plaintive
and peculiar air, and we may add has been published with it in
'sheet-music style,' with piano-forte accompaniment, by Horace Waters,
New-York:

OH! LET MY PEOPLE GO.

THE SONG OF THE CONTRABANDS.

The Lord, by Moses, to Pharaoh said: Oh! let my people go;
If not, I'll smite your first-born dead--Oh! let my people go.
Oh! go down, Moses,
Away down to Egypt's land,
And tell King Pharaoh
To let my people go.

No more shall they in bondage toil--Oh! let my people go;
Let them come out with Egypt's spoil--Oh! let my people go.

Haste, Moses, till the sea you've crossed--Oh! let my people go;
Pharaoh shall in the deep be lost--Oh! let my people go.

The sea before you shall divide--Oh! let my people go;
You'll cross dry-shod to the other aide--Oh! let my people go.

Fear not King Pharaoh or his host--Oh! let my people go;
For they shall in the sea be lost--Oh! let my people go.

They'll sink like lead, to rise no more--Oh! let my people go;
An' you'll hear a shout on the other shore--Oh! let my people go.

The fiery cloud shall lead the way--Oh! let my people go;
A light by night and a shade by day--Oh! let my people go.

Jordan shall stand up like a wall--Oh! let my people go;
And the wails of Jericho shall fall--Oh! let my people go.

Your foes shall not before you stand--Oh! let my people go;
And you'll possess fair Canaan's land--Oh! let my people go.

Oh! let us all from bondage flee--Oh! let my people go;
And let us all in Christ be free--Oh! let my people go.

This world's a wilderness of woe--Oh! let my people go;
Oh! let us all to glory go--Oh! let my people go.
Oh! go down, Moses,
Away down to Egypt's land,
And tell King Pharaoh
To let my people go.

* * * * *

Speaking of the interview some weeks since between M. le Comte Henri de
Mercier with the extremely 'honorable' J.P. Benjamin, the secession
Secretary of State, the Petersburg (Virginia) _Express_ uses the
following elegantly accurate language:

'It is said that these two distinguished functionaries spoke the
French dialect altogether, the gallant Frenchman not having yet
been enabled to master the good old Anglo-Saxon idiom.'

What, to begin with, is _the_ French dialect? The Provencal, the Gascon,
the Norman, are tolerably prominent French dialects, but which of them
is preeminently _the_ dialect we will not decide--nor why the diplomatic
gentlemen selected a dialect instead of French itself as a medium of
conversation. It is, however, possible that Comte de Mercier having
heard of little Benjamin's antecedents, talked to him in _argot_ or
thieves' slang. It may be that in the school of Floyd and Benjamin argot
is _the_ dialect.

Again, we learn that the gallant Frenchman spoke 'the French dialect'
because he has not as yet mastered 'the good old Anglo-Saxon idiom.'
This is even more puzzling than the dialect-question. Why the
Anglo-Saxon idiom? Suppose Count Mercier wished to say that he was sorry
that his tobacco had been captured by the foe, why should he couch it in
such language as, 'Tha mee ongan hreowan thaet min _tobacco_ on feonda
geweald feran sceolde'--which is the good _old_ Anglo-Saxon idiom.' We
_can_ imagine that thieves' slang would have the place of honor in
Secessia, but why the old Anglo-Saxon idiom should be so esteemed,
puzzled us for a longtime. At last we hit it. The Southrons have long
been told--or told themselves--that they are Normans, while we of the
North are Saxon--and hoping to acquire a little Anglo-Saxon
intelligence, prudently begin by studying the language which they
believe is in common use among our literati.

Seriously, it is not merely to stoop to such small game as the grammar
of a secession newspaper that we notice these amusing mistakes. There
are many persons-we are sorry to say many clergymen among others--here,
even in the free States, who, in attempting to write elegantly, use
words very ridiculously. They say 'dialect' and 'idiom' when they mean
'language;' they use 'donate' for 'give;' 'transpired' for 'happened;'
'paper' for 'newspaper,' and describe various events as taking place in
'our midst'--all because they think that these vulgarisms are really
more correct than the words or terms in common use.

We wish, however, that Anglo-Saxon--joking apart--were more generally
studied. When we remember that the very great majority of good _words_
in English are of Saxon origin, and with them all that is characteristic
either in our grammar or modes of expression, it becomes evident that
the most certain and shortest method of arriving at a thorough and
correct comprehension of English is by the study of its most important
element--one which, as a writer has well said, bears the same relation
to our mother-tongue as oxygen does to water. It is not fair to speak as
some do of the Latin and Saxon wings of the English bird--the bird
itself is Saxon--head and tail included. English has been but little
benefited by its Latin and Greek additions--the old tongue had excellent
synonyms or creative capacity like German--to fully equal every new need
of thought.

The reader who has time for study, would do well to obtain the
Anglo-Saxon Grammar of Louis Klipstein, published by G.P. Putnam,
New-York, which is by far the most practical and easiest work of the
kind with which we are acquainted. A few days' study in it will be time
well invested by any one desirous of really _understanding_ English.
When we reflect that many boys study Latin for years 'because it enables
them to understand the structure and derivation of their own language,'
while the extremely easy Anglo-Saxon is almost entirely neglected, we
smile at the ignorance of the first principles of education which
prevails. But we advise the reader who may have a few shillings and a
few hours to spare to invest them in a 'KLIPSTEIN,' and _know_--what
very few writers do--something of the roots of English. Our word for it,
he will not regret following the advice.

* * * * *

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20