NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. No. CXCIII-JUNE, 1866.-VOL. XXXIII. is with unfeigned reluctance that I have | necessity, an interested observer of many of the I undertaken to write upora subjects which opening scenes of the contest, and subsequently an active participator in its armed solution. During the winter of 1860-61 I was residing at my father's house in Martinsburg, occupied with my private affairs and arranging plans for a future of peace and seclusion. These dreams were disturbed from time to time by the indications of the approaching storm, but I resolutely closed my eyes and stopped my ears, determined not to be disturbed. I had never taken any active interest in the party politics of the have been so recently and exhaustively treated by contemporaneous pens and pencils; to pass over ground which has been illuminated by the calcium light of the American press; or to touch on questions which have been subjected to the intelligent scrutiny of Congressional Committees; yet I am encouraged by the hope that views taken from an original and somewhat peculiar stand-point may still possess sufficient attraction to justify their publication, and that a personal narrative, with all its incidental triv-day, and was the less disposed to mingle in the ialities, errors, inconsistencies, and egotism, may find an acceptable apology in the superior interest of the grand historic drama with which it is interwoven. A native of the valley of the Shenandoah, I have passed the greater part of my life on the Northern border of Virginia-a region which, from its geographical position and mixed population, has always been debatable ground between the contending opinions of the age, and which eventually became a most important theatre of the war, resulting from these opinions. It is thus that I became, almost from present strife, as I sympathized with neither of the extreme factions which, from opposite quarters, seemed to be mutually intent on breaking down the Government and destroying the peace and prosperity of the country. I saw nothing in the contest but the rage of adverse dogmatisms, sharpened by the baser lust for official plunder-that party spirit, which, Addison says, "robs men, not only of all honor and decency, but of every particle of common sense." In the rapid progress of events, however, it became manifest that the questions before the country were not to be put aside with this cyn Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by Harper and Brothers, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. VOL. XXXIII.-No. 193.-A ical and superficial observation. Under a mon- endeavored to preserve all the freshness and archy a subject may be permitted to seclude personality which pertain to the original manuhimself from the political storms that shake script. If some things have been omitted (that thrones and menace dynasties. Even amidst might be worth the telling, in place and season), the fury of war he can calmly pursue some fa- and certain obscure passages made clearer by vorite science with reasonable assurance that the light of after-knowledge, in the main the his motive and character will be respected. The recorded facts and opinions of the day remain citizen of a free Republic can claim no such unchanged. There will appear the uncertain privilege. "The price of his personal liberty gropings, the vacillations, the inconsistencies is eternal vigilance." Under whatever pretext of opinion, the errors of hasty and partial obhe may seek to hide himself or evade the re-servation, the vain hopes, the causeless fears, sponsibilities of his condition, when the storm rises he is sure to feel his neighbor's hand upon his shoulder, and hear the cry of warning and reproach: "What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise and call upon thy God." the embittered prejudices, and excited passions which necessarily accompany the progress of a political revolution, so radical and comprehensive, accomplished through a social war so bloody and vindictive as that which has recently ended. It will be also seen that in writing these individual experiences it is not proposed to emulate the dignity and comprehensiveness of History, but to give closer and more detailed views of characters and events, a series of photographic pictures hastily caught, during the action of the changing drama. Scenes where the greatness of little things, and the littleness of great things, will sometimes be strikingly illus edy, laughter and tears, frenzy and farce walk arm in arm together. And it may be that a more thoughtful class who would look behind the creaking machinery and tinseled actors of the drama, may find in these crude and un It was, indeed, high time that the Border Virginians should awake, for the gulf that was opening between the adverse sections yawned beneath their very hearths; and the sword which was drawn to divide the nation must also cut their hearts in twain. When, at length, impelled to the serious consideration of the impending crisis, I can not boast, as many do, that I clearly appreciated the merits of the quarrel or foresaw its results. Preferring to preserve a reputation for frankness to the doubt-trated by juxtaposition, where tragedy and comful honor of being enrolled among the ex post fucto prophets, I am fain to acknowledge (in the phraseology of tobacco planters) that I had very few opinions "ready cut and dry" for the occasion. I heard nothing but a confusion of tongues such as followed the destruction of Ba-skillful observations suggestion of queries which bel. I saw nothing but political chaos which seemed about to swallow up government, law, life, and property together. There had been a prevalent and growing conviction among what were called Conservative men, especially at the South, that the experiment of popular Government was a failure. Macaulay had written a letter to some one prophesying that the American system would break down on the first serious trial. I shared this belief to some extent. The revolutionary anarchy which was spreading like a fire from State to State, the seeming helplessness of the General Government, the chaos of opinion-all combined to convince me that the predicted day of trial had arrived, and that it needed no Daniel to interpret the handwriting on the wall. will be found as difficult to answer as those of the poet laureate: Shall error in the round of time Still father truth? O shall the braggart shout For some blind glimpse of freedom work itself Through madness, hated by the wise, to law, System, and empire? Sin itself be found The cloudy porch, oft opening on the sun?" Having thus indicated the geographical and political stand-point from which my opening views of the war were taken, I commence transcribing from my Diary. ......South Carolina has actually seceded! and what of that? South Carolina is a great way off, and has been threatening Secession for thirty years or more. The Toryism of 1776 has never died out in South Carolina, nor Impressed at the same time with the belief have her gentry ever fully acquiesced in our that we were entering upon an era which would republican form of government. It is high figure in history, I determined to take advant-time the questions between her and the counage of my position to observe the progress of try were settled. I wish she had made up her events and to keep a Diary. mind to try conclusions with Andrew Jackson, when she had her hand raised to pluck the forbidden fruit. Does she think it more nearly ripe now? or that the present "Old Man" won't throw stones? I'll vouch for it, that if he does not, somebody will. This promise, however, was but negligently performed at first. During the winter of 1860-61 I find nothing recorded beyond an occasional comment, opinion, or anecdote suggested by the current news, and these jotted down hastily, without date or continuity. In ......I am rather glad South Carolina has taktime my journal became more methodical, and en this decisive step. Her arrogance and rashafter I entered the military service was as fullness have arrayed even her Southern neighand accurate as possible under the circum- bors against her. She will not be supported by a single State. In preparing these notes for the press I have raised in her behalf. stances. I have not heard a voice Even those who have heretofore been most vociferous about Southern | perish at the bidding of a local faction, a conrights unite in condemning her premature presumption. A ship of war in the harbor of Charleston, and a battalion of national troops thrown into the forts, will quench South Carolina as briefly as one may snuff out a tallow dip with his thumb and finger. ......"Sedition is like fire, easily extinguished at the commencement, but the longer it burns the more fiercely it blazes." ......South Carolina is not quenched, and there seems to be no disposition on the part of those in power to put the extinguisher on her. ......As she pursues her course of presumptuous madness with impunity other States are following her example. federacy of visionary schemers, conceited dogmatists, self-deluding and self-stultifying economists-base huxters, who unblushingly pretend to barter the national honor and safety for the advantage of cheap negroes and a good cotton market; unprincipled politicians, whose vulpine instincts have warned them that the power and places which they have so long abused and so deeply corrupted are about to be withdrawn from their keeping! Is nothing lawful or constitutional but the outrages of revolutionary mobs, the violation of solemn oaths, the plundering of national property, and the babbling of seditious orators? Is the Government we have loved and trust...... Each day brings tidings of fresh out- ed indeed so pitiable and impotent a sham? rages and humiliations heaped upon the Gov- Have the founders, whom we have been acernment, seizures of arsenals, arms, forts, dock- | customed to regard as wise and good men, realyards, and vessels-of traitorous officers sur-ly put such a scurvy trick upon us? Have we rendering their charges without defense-of built houses, laid up wealth, begot children, acfaithful officers arrested and thrown into pris- quired honors, and recreated in boasting and on, besieged in forts where they are cut off self-glorification under the delusion of a Politfrom supplies and assistance-our national flag ical Idea that would disgrace a council of Pottahauled down and trampled in the dust, with all watomies? its glorious historic memories, to be replaced by some tawdry rag flaunting an obscure device known only to local office-holders and militia men. The effect of this state of things is distinctly perceptible in the tone of opinion around us. State Sovereignty dogmatism is becoming daily more open and arrogant. County court metaphysicians are modifying their Unionism with ifs and ands and peradventures-small anglers in the mud-puddle of village tavern opinion are drawing in their lines and changing their bait -petty politicians are craftily trimming their sails that their cock-boats may run with the rising wind. But while the weak-kneed are thus tottering, and trimmers fluttering in the breeze, the storm serves to fan to fiercer flame the indignation of all true men. All eyes and hearts are now turned toward Washington, expectant, eager, hopeful. There centres the power which in its infancy has met and twice foiled the giant of Great Britain, which in the very wantonness of its lusty youth made a holiday frolic of throttling poor Mexico. What will the Government do in this crisis? Such are the questions that loyal Virginians in the bitterness of their humiliation now ask each other, as the daily mails bring in the accumulating details of rebel outrage, arrogance, and menace, responded to only by governmental acquiescence, deprecatory remonstrance, and despicable compromise. "Ah, God! for a man with heart, head, hand, Like some of the simple great ones gone For ever and ever by One still strong man in a blatant land, Who can rule and dare not lie." .The proposition to call a Convention in Virginia is opposed by all discreet men. The people of the State are opposed to Secession, or even to the consideration of the subject. This idea of a Convention is only a scheme of certain Richmond conspirators to get the representative power of the Commonwealth under their hands into a more compact and convenient form for manipulation. ......In the recent election for members of the Convention the people of Virginia have expressed their determination to remain in the Union by an overwhelming majority. Gloriously has the good old State vindicated her honorable traditions and the memory of those noble sons whose effigies fill the chief places in the National Pantheon. 66 ...... Is it secret sympathy with treason or mere driveling that tells the American people "the Government has no right to coerce a State?"-a nation that for more than eighty years has maintained fleets and armies, has waged wars and made peace, has collected cus- We have been wrong in doubting the solidtoms and coined money; whose commerce cov-ity of popular government. Solomon says: ers the globe, whose flag is known and honored Many are in high place and of renown, but wherever the sun shines; whose power and mysteries are revealed to the meek." So it civilization are acknowledged by the proudest seems in our day-while our statesmen are and most enlightened peoples; whose future turned drivelers, our honorables colloguing promises to surpass in grandeur all that history with treason, the wise and crafty mazed in a has yet recorded. Such a nation has not the labyrinth of foolishness, the simple faith of the right to suppress domestic insurrection! So people is steadfast, and is alone sufficient to vast an aggregation of power, prosperity, and save us. While those learned in the law and hope must submit quietly and unresistingly to subtle expounders of constitutions are choking us with the metaphysical doubts and twaddle, comes forth the plowman from his field, the grimy artisan from his shop, the meek, unlettered citizen, without Latin enough to translate "E pluribus unum," and barely English enough to decipher the vernacular "United we stand, divided we fall." This comprises all his knowledge of statesmanship. He never has read any Constitutions, or Bills of Rights, or Resolutions of '98, or Congressional Debates. It is well for the country, perhaps, that he has not, or they might have addled his brains as they have those of many others; yet, though his political creed is so simple, he understands it, not so clearly with his head as with his heart. He learned it from his father, who fought under Jackson in 1812; who learned it from his father, who marched with Washington in 1776. He has taught it to his bare-legged boy, who tends the plow or blows the bellows at the forge. He has faith in it, and will stand by it when the day of trial comes. We, the people of these United States, will not be divided. have never seen our people so serious on the occasion of an election. They seem to have had an instinctive warning of coming evil, and, distrusting their old political leaders, have spurned the party trammels and personal prejudices which have heretofore influenced them. They seem every where in the State to have chosen the best men that were offered. Virginia is safe. I thank God for this signal rebuke to those degenerate Virginians who would have sold this glorious old Commonwealth as a convenient tool to the weak and selfish schemers of the Gulf States-a tool to be worked with, ruined, and scorned. I ......We have vexatious news from Richmond. The tone of the Convention seems to be giving way. The pressure brought to bear against the Unionists is said to be very heavy. The oily blandishments of a wealthy and polished society are spread to catch the lighter flies; the weak and conceited are taken with wordy subtleties; the venal are bought by promises; the timid assailed with insult and menace. Hired bullies and howling mobs besiege the Convention in its sittings, and follow the Union members to their lodgings, threatening assassination and lynch law. Some have yielded with a facility which indicates that their treachery was premeditated. Simultaneously with these proceedings at Richmond I perceive the State is flooded with letters, printed documents, and oratorical emissaries, circulating the most brazen impostures, backed by the most insolent threats, intended to bring the people over to the support of the proposed action of the Convention in favor of Secession. It is declared that if the State can not be carried out by an ordinance of the Convention it shall be by armed revolution, and woe to those who oppose it! It is frankly asserted, moreover, that of the voting population of Virginia not more than thirty thousand are uncompromising Secessionists, against about an equal number of decided and unconditional Unionists; the souls, bodies, and estates of the remaining one hundred thousand conservative, vacillating, and undetermined citizens would belong to the victors in the contest, serving to swell their triumph and assure their power. They boastfully claim that the Secessionists have in their ranks all the active fighting element, all the available polit- | ical ability, arms, organization, and a determined purpose, besides complete control of all branches of the State and municipal government. The domineering insolence of their tone seems to give assurance of triumph before it is actually achieved. The Unionists, they say, on the other hand, are conservative, timid, unprepared, deprecatory, without organization or positive purpose. They must therefore succumb or leave the State. This is Richmond opinion; but Virginia is a State of imperial boundaries, and these James River people will find out ere long that "There are hills beyond Pentland And streams beyond Forth." ......I have just returned from a visit to Charlestown. The politicians and tavern loungers are very full of Secession talk, but, as far as I could learn, the more solid men and rural gentry are decidedly adverse to it. hospitality of rural life in Jefferson. All the surroundings betokened easy and plenteous living. In the kitchen I found the cook-a picture of abundance, shining with greasy contentment, all unconscious of the coming wars, and unambitious of the glorious future destined for her race. With hospitable alacrity she brewed me the needful cup of coffee, and I pursued my solitary way. The road I took was through a wooded and secluded region traversing the Opequan pine hills, so my time was occupied with melancholy musings: "There will be war. Thirty years of political wrangling have made war inevitable. 'As the smoke and vapor of the furnace goeth before the fire, so reviling before blood."" There must be war. Four-score years of unchecked and unexampled prosperity has made the nation drunk-"Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked." There must be war. These convulsions are essential to the political as storms and tornadoes are to the physical world. We have gone a very long time without one. That of 1812 In returning I called at Park Forest, the birth-place of my father. The white family was from home, but the clouds of high-bred poultry which surrounded the establishment was superficial. The war with Mexico a mere gave an idea of the bountiful and succulent joke. The restless and growing energies of |