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SILENTIA.
SOFTLY the shadows come and pass
As the birds go lightly by,
Like waving blots on the shining
grass
Or against the bright blue sky—
And I know that birds sing
heavenly songs,
For in days now past and gone
This ear, that gives no sound or
thrill,
Drank in each liquid tone.
In solemn silence, dark and deep,
Life's current slowly flows,
Its course so still, no echo
breaks
The changeless, drear repose.
I see the eye grow quickly bright
And smiles on the faces dear;
I thank my God for the gift of
sight,
But a voice I never hear.
No footfall tells that friends
are nigh,
For they come and go like ghosts—
Appear beside me quick as
thought,
And as swiftly they are lost.
When a skillful hand sweeps o'er
the chords,
Then I see the harp strings
thrill;
But the wave of music finds no
shore
To break on—all is still.
Then I think of Him, whose potent
touch Unstopped the deafened ear,
Thankful of heart, through Him I
know
In the better land I'll hear—
When the angel songs through the
ranks resound,
And the harpers' praises swell,
On "the shining shore" will the
tide come in, And the breakers say, "All's well!"
THE
MURDER OF GENERAL ROBERT L. McCOOK.
WE illustrate on
page 541 the
brutal and cold-blooded murder of GENERAL ROBERT L. McCOOK, who was assassinated
by miscreants calling themselves guerrillas, near Salem, Alabama, on 5th
instant. The correspondent of the Philadelphia Press thus recounts the outrage:
NASHVILLE, August—Midnigaht.
The city is in a perfect uproar
of excitement over the details of the death of the brave General Robert L.
McCook, of Ohio. His remains arrived in town to-night, and are now lying at the
Commercial Hotel.
I write this at midnight, and
therefore am unable to send you as full particulars as I could wish. On Tuesday
last General Robert L. McCook, who was at the time very sick, was in an
ambulance near Salem, Alabama, on his way to his brigade. The ambulance was
traveling over the usual military road, and about ten o'clock in the morning it
arrived at a plantation where there was an abundance of water. After refreshing
themselves they passed on with the wounded General. Intelligence of his
whereabouts and condition was quickly spread, it is supposed; for before the
ambulance had proceeded three miles the driver discovered that he was pursued by
guerrillas.
It was impossible to think of
flight, and General McCook's condition prohibited any idea of rescuing him. The
guerrilla leader ordered the ambulance to stop, the assassins at the same time
surrounding it. The vehicle was then upset, and the sick officer turned into the
road. While on his knees, helpless and sick, he was fired at by a ruffian, and
shot through the side.
The wound was fatal, General
McCook surviving it but a few hours. He bore his sufferings heroically, and to
the last manifested an undaunted spirit. His last words were " Tell Aleck
(alluding to his brother,
General Alexander McDowell McCook) and the rest
that I have tried to live like a man and do my duty."
When the news of the murder
became known among the camps, the excitement was intense. The Ninth Ohio,
McCook's own regiment, on learning of the assassination, marched back to the
scene of the occurrence, burned every house in the neighborhood and laid waste
the lands. Several men who were implicated in the murder were taken out and hung
to trees by the infuriated soldiery.
General Robert McCook was one of
seven brothers who are or were in the Union service. One of them was killed at
Bull Run. Another, the eldest, is General Alexander McDowell McCook, one of the
most distinguished officers in the West. The father of these gallant men is a
paymaster in General Buell's army. The wanton murder of General Robert McCook
has roused the West to a pitch of ungovernable fury.
HARPER'S WEEKLY.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 1862.
THE
BATTLE OF CEDAR
MOUNTAIN.
THE
Army of Virginia has drawn blood. At Cedar
Mountain, near Culpepper Court House, on Saturday, August 9,
General Banks's corps—about 7000
strong—encountered some 15,000 of the enemy, under
Jackson and Ewell, and fought
them till nightfall. The battle did not lead to any substantial results that
day. But on the Sunday the rebels fell back toward the Rapidan, and sent in a
flag of truce for permission to bury their dead. At that time heavy
reinforcements were pouring in from the other corps composing Pope's army, and
Sigel was in the front.
This may be deemed an auspicious
commencement of the new campaign in Northern Virginia. We do not know, and if we
knew would not publish, the number of
General Pope's army. But it is no secret that,
when assembled together, it is too strong for the force with which Jackson has
been operating, and that its strength is being increased day by day. Troops are
moving forward to reinforce it in very large numbers indeed. In the course of a
couple of weeks it will require the bulk of the rebel army before Richmond to
resist its onward march. The moment that army goes out to fight Pope, McClellan
will move, and the result then
will be a mere matter of time.
Our generals are thus carrying
out to the letter, though in a different locality, the precise plan which
General McClellan formed six months ago for the
defeat and destruction of the rebel army in Virginia. According to that plan,
while he moved up the Peninsula through
Yorktown and
Williamsburg,
McDowell, with 40,000 men, was to come down on
the rebel flank from
Fredericksburg. Had this scheme been fairly
carried out,
Richmond would probably have been in our
possession in June last, and
Joe Johnston's army would have been where
Beauregard's is. With the circumstances which
overthrew this plan every reader is familiar. Taught wisdom by experience, we
are now trying it over again on a grander scale. Pope is moving down upon
Richmond by way of Culpepper, while McClellan is making ready to move up on one
or both banks of the James River. In the course of a short while each of the two
armies, McClellan's and Pope's, will be too strong to be kept in check by any
thing short of the entire rebel army. When that moment arrives the game will be
a forced mate, as they say at chess.
But our armies must be
reinforced, and that largely and promptly. By the time this paper is read troops
should be pouring into Washington at the rate of several regiments a day; and
though they will be raw recruits, not fit to meet veterans in the open field,
they will do very well for garrison duty at Washington, and by brigading them
with older regiments may, in the course of four or five weeks, be turned to good
account in the armies. There should, however, be no tenderness about drafting;
no listening to idle promises of more regiments by October; no swerving from the
policy of the order of August 4th. If this rebellion is to be put down at all,
it must be put down by sheer strength promptly developed. By October we must
have 900,000 or 1,000,000 men in the field. If we have them, we shall have peace
in the spring. If any more blunders or changes of purpose prevent their being
raised by that time, the war may last a couple of years longer.
THE
CASE OF THE BRITISH PROVINCES.
THE Prime Minister of Great
Britain has followed the lead of the London journals in sneering at the British
North American Provinces. Canada is given to understand that, because she was
not fool enough to raise and support a standing army of 50,000 men for the
purpose of fighting battles in which she had and could have no possible
interest, she is an ungrateful dependency of Great Britain, and not worthy of
British protection. The people of a great Province, possessing a territory
compared to which the British Islands are a mere speck in the ocean, and with
resources only second to those of the United States, are accused by the leading
statesmen of England of stupidity, meanness, and disloyalty because they will
not spend their money in supporting armies to menace a friendly neighbor whom
England, through manufacturing, commercial, and political rivalry would like to
see ruined.
Our Canadian contemporaries are
well able to answer these unjust British taunts in fitting language. The
sensible action of their Parliament, in refusing to raise an army which Canada
did not need, requires but little vindication. But when Lord Palmerston
arrogantly notifies the Canadians that they must expect no more protection from
Great Britain, there will not be wanting voices in the Province to assure his
Lordship that Canada is abundantly able to protect herself, not only in the
field, but by a discreet and liberal foreign policy which seeks no quarrels,
provokes no attack, and aims to make friends, not enemies. This is a policy
which Lord Palmerston never did and never will understand; but there are men in
Canada, if we mistake not, who are capable of mastering and acting upon it.
At an early stage in the present
civil war we took occasion to state that one of the most obvious consequences of
the conflict which at present desolates this country would be a change in the
political condition of the British Provinces. The people of the United States
have learned enough during the past year to perceive that they can never be safe
so long as a European Power holds territory on this continent. So long as Great
Britain can collect armies and launch gun-boats on the Great Lakes our
Northwestern States will never be safe. And it is idle to say, as some
politicians do, that we can collect armies and build gun-boats as well.
Bombarding Toronto would not console us for the bombardment of Chicago, or the
capture of Kingston for the surprise of Detroit. Fighting, bombarding, and
capturing cities is not the business we want to prosecute. We want peace—steady,
perpetual peace—which can not be broken at the whim of a crazy politician or
through the fury of an excited mob. To secure peace we must have material
guarantees, and the only guarantee that we can obtain, or that ought to satisfy
us, is the Independence of the British Provinces.
For many years prior to the
present war it was taken for granted by the more reasonable
class of statesmen in this
country that we had nothing to fear from England; because her rulers and her
people were, on the whole, friendly to us, and we were united to her by so many
ties of relationship and commerce. This delusion has been dissipated by the
experience of the past year. The Trent affair showed that Great Britain is ready
to avail herself of any pretext and any safe opportunity to ruin this country,
for the sake of destroying a commercial rival and at the same time demonstrating
the failure of democratic institutions. This discovery must henceforth govern
our foreign policy. We must hereafter regard England as our enemy; lying in wait
for us, and seeking to destroy us whenever opportunity offers. We must forget
all the old gag about a common origin, a common tongue, and so forth, and simply
realize that Great Britain will be upon us if ever we give her the opportunity.
We must either protect ourselves by building great fleets of iron-clad vessels,
and enlarging our canals so as to give them access to the lakes, at an enormous
expense, or we must negotiate England out of Canada. The latter will be by far
the simplest, most effectual, and most economical method of securing peace on
this continent.
Whenever the political relations
between Canada and Great Britain are discussed in this country, a certain class
of Canadian politicians and papers begin to squeal lustily that the Yankees are
going to annex them. Let these timorous souls take heart. There is no party in
this country which is anxious to annex Canada. If the Province came to-morrow,
cap in hand, to beg for admission to the Union, Congress would be much divided
in opinion on the subject. It would be an advantage in one point of view to have
the British Provinces in the Union; but in many others it would be a decided
detriment. The admission of the French Province of Lower Canada would add
seriously to our dangers, and would be violently opposed by a large section of
people in this country. On the other hand, while Canada would, in the event of
annexation, gain much by becoming part of a great and powerful nation, she would
at the same time lose something by surrendering her separate nationality; and it
is not easy for a foreigner to decide which course would be really most
conducive to her interest. If, after establishing their independence, and taking
their place fairly among the nations, the people of the British Provinces felt
that it would be to their interest to unite their destinies with ours, the
subject would receive full consideration, and there would be a large party here
who would welcome their admission to the Confederacy. But the application would
have to come from Canada. When, in 1849, a large number of Canadians, comprising
the bulk of the wealth and intelligence of the Lower Province, formed a league
for the open and avowed purpose of securing annexation, they received no
encouragement from here. The people of the United States waited. They were in no
hurry.
For the sake of seeing the
British Provinces independent, and consequently no longer a menace to us, and no
longer liable to be used as a cat's-paw by our commercial and political rivals
across the ocean, the United States would give and sacrifice much. Circumstances
can be imagined under which they would go to war to achieve this object. But to
force Canada into the Union no American will ever shoulder a musket or draw a
sword.
THE
LOUNGER.
VIGOR AND RIGOR.
THE spirit and method of our
national salvation may be stated in two words: vigor and rigor. The peculiar
circumstances which fully justified the slow and temperate policy of the early
war exist no longer. For the same reason that the Government was reluctant then,
it should be rapid now. When it knew not upon whom to count; when there were
neither men, money, nor material; when it was questionable whether the Border
States were for us or against us; and it was doubtful whether the rebellion were
not successful before it declared itself, then the Government was compelled to
temporize and delay. But now when the conspiracy is fully unmasked; when it is
manifest that the nation must hopelessly conquer the rebels, or that they will
utterly subjugate the nation; and when to this end immense armies and vast
armaments are prepared upon both sides, and the war is, of necessity, war to the
knife, hesitation is ignominious, doubt is dangerous, delay is fatal.
What is the vital necessity of
our situation? To strike the rebellion heavily upon every side; to weaken it at
all points; not only to overcome it, but entirely to uproot and annihilate it.
If a fire seizes our houses we do not cover it up, we put it out. If a
pestilence falls upon the citizens we do not only cure them, we change the very
conditions of the atmosphere which breeds and conveys death. If a poisonous
reptile in the garden, or a wild beast in the woods, threatens our children, we
do not drive them away merely, we pursue them, seize them, drag them into day,
and kill them beyond peradventure of recovery. The vital necessity of the nation
is, that rebellion shall be utterly destroyed in all its symptoms and its
essence; and that the colossal and benignant result, purchased by the enormous
expenditure of every thing precious to man in this war, shall be the absolute
release of the country from the
slightest risk of any return of the terrible conflict.
Father, mother, why have you
given your son to the chances of civil war? Brothers all, why have we said
good-by with smiles and heard of the death of our brave and beautiful without a
tear and with only a quicker heart-beat? Friends, why stand we ready to-day to
leave wife and child, if it must be so, and die in battle or of wasting
sickness? Is it that things may be smoothed up for a little while? Is it that
the next generation, that the children for whom we fight, may have the fighting
to do all over again? Is it that the infamous injustice which bred the war shall
have new chances to entangle itself in our politics and withstand civilization
and the development of Liberty? It is to maintain the Government—but what is the
Government? It is a political organization to secure Liberty; and the war is
here because that organization has been used to confirm Slavery. It is to
preserve the Union, but what is the Union? It is a banded power to secure the
results contemplated by the Government.
Let us take care then that the
conspiracy does not cheat us of what we honestly buy by the war. Let us take
care that it is Slavery, and not Liberty which is to suffer by the rebellion. By
the appeal of rebels to arms, the direct power of ending slavery is given to the
Commander-in-chief. By the desperate energy with which they use the arms, the
necessity of ending it is manifest. Energy, energy, energy—it is all that is
asked of the Government. Longer to temporize, longer to delay, longer to wonder
what Mr. Wickliffe will think, and what Mr. Garrett Davis will do, is to ruin
the Government and to betray the hope of humanity. They may be good men and
true, of that we do not speak. But they are no braver nor truer than other men,
and the conditions they impose are clearly conditions which make success
impossible. A policy as great, as generous, and as intelligent as the people, is
the only policy that can save the nation. Doubtless the Government knows that it
must be vigorous; but does it sufficiently remember that risk is essential to
vigor? If it can not take risks, the rebels can and will.
THE
BOOT ON THE RIGHT FOOT.
A GOOD test of our secret opinion
of the real loyalty of certain papers and persons is to ask the question whether
we would intrust the safety of the nation to them in the present crisis.
There are papers and persons of
whom Mr. Wickliffe is the fair representative. To read their terrible diatribes
you would fancy that a dark and desperate body of conspirators had laid their
hand upon the throat of the nation and were sworn to have its life-blood; were
marshaled in battle-array and moving upon the very seat of the Government,
justly exciting the ferocity of feeling with which they are denounced, and that
these gentry were the Abolitionists: while certain of our fellow-citizens had
fallen into error, not without great reason, and were called rebels.
"Let us suppress the
Abolitionists," cries some slack-witted orator, "and the rebellion will end!" Of
course it will, you dear soul; and if all your fellow-citizens had been of your
calibre and kidney there would have been no rebellion at all. If Hampden and his
friends had said, "Let us suppress these fellows who cry out against
ship-money," England would have quietly submitted to the tyranny of the Stuarts.
If Otis and Patrick Henry had shouted "Hurrah for King George and the stamp
act!" there would have been no bloody revolution. If Mirabeau and the French
people had bellowed "Hurrah for starvation: aristocrats forever!" all the
trouble in France would have speedily ended. To be sure every right would have
been annihilated, every liberty destroyed, and a few rich and remorseless people
would have governed France; but there would have been no difficulty, except
moral rot and general national decay.
"Let us suppress the
Abolitionists!" But suppose you begin at the beginning. First subdue the common
sense of the people of the country; then you may subdue those who influence it.
It is not what you call with an amusing persistence abolitionism which caused
the war, but the opening of the eyes of the people so that they saw. The people
of this country know perfectly well that slavery is at the bottom of this
rebellion. If there had been no slavery there would have been no war: just as
there would have been no abolitionism. The temperance movement springs from
drunkenness: and when a drunken man tries to kill his wife, don't you think that
the tee-totalers are responsible for it?
Slavery was trying to kill the
country. It had almost succeeded "Watch! watch!" shouted the Abolitionists.
Slavery, maddened that its crime was discovered, shot and stabbed right and
left. "There! there!" cry the sensible Wickliffe and Company—"this comes of
calling the Watch! Why the devil can't you hold your tongues? Let us suppress
these fellows that cry Watch! watch! and all will be quiet again!"
Certainly: a dead dog or a dead
nation are both perfectly quiet. And a nation of freemen throttled, with its own
consent, by a
slave system like ours, is the deadest and
meanest of all dead dogs.
A
LITTLE COMMON SENSE.
IT is constantly said by those
who resist an unconditional patriotism as Abolitionism that the freedom of the
blacks would overrun the North with laborers, and take the bread from the mouths
of our working men. The Irish laborers especially are told that to enlist for
this war is to fight for men who are their direct rivals; and every possible
appeal is made to their prejudices and ignorance by newspapers and politicians
that eagerly pander to the basest passions of human nature.
It can not, therefore, be too
constantly and plainly repeated that the blacks live in a part of the country
where they were born, to which they have the strongest attachment, and in which
they (Next Page)
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