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ONE
DAY'S COMMAND.
THE plumed staff officer gallops
Along the swaying line,
That shakes as, beaten by
hailstones,
Shakes the loaded autumn vine;
And the earth beneath is
reddened,
But not with the stain of wine.
The regular shock of a battery
The rattling tumult stuns;
And its steady thrill through the
hill-side
Like a pulse beneath it runs;
The many are dead around it,
But the few still work the guns.
"Who commands this battery?"
And Crosby his clear, young eyes
From the sliding gun-sights lifting
As the well-aimed death-bolt
flies, "I command it to-day, Sir!"
With a steady voice replies.
Answers as heroes answer,
With modest words and few, Whose
hearts and hands to duty Even in death are true,
Though its awful light is
breaking
Full on their blenchless view.
The officer passes onward
With a less troubled eye,
The words and the look unshaken
Bid every wild doubt fly;
He knows that young commander
Is there to do or die.
To do and die; for the battle
And day of command are done,
While stands unmoved on the
hill-side
Each shattered, blackened gun,
And Crosby in death beside them
A deathless name has won.
HARPER'S WEEKLY.
SATURDAY, MAY 30, 1863.
"Scarcely any paper is doing so
much for UNION and LIBERTY as Harper's Weekly."—Boston Commonwealth.
THE
ARREST OF VALLANDIGHAM.
IT is known that Clement C.
Vallandigham, late member of Congress from Dayton, Ohio, was lately arrested at
his house by order of
General Burnside, tried by court-martial, and
convicted of inciting resistance to the Government in the prosecution of the
war. And it is reported that he has been sentenced to imprisonment in a fortress
during the war. The President enjoys the power of commuting or remitting this
sentence altogether; and it is the unanimous hope of the loyal North that he
will remit it.
For, whether the arrest of
Vallandigham was or was not a wise step, there can be very little question but
his imprisonment for months, and perhaps years, in a military fortress would
make a martyr of him, and would rally to his side, for the sake of liberty and
free speech, an immense number of sympathizers. It would probably make him
Governor of Ohio, and would impart great strength to the rapidly-decaying
Copperhead sentiment of the Northwest. Notwithstanding the new lessons taught by
the war, and the new duties which it has devolved upon us, we have not yet
learned to look with complacency on the methods which are familiar to Old World
despotisms; and the spectacle of a man immured in a prison for opinion's or
words' sake shocks our feelings and arouses our anger.
It is all very well to say, as
General Burnside says in his noble and patriotic reply to the Cincinnati Court,
that war involves a sacrifice of liberty, and that this man Vallandigham was a
pernicious and malignant enemy of his country. This we all know, and if
Vallandigham would go out of the country to the rebels or any where else, loyal
people would heartily rejoice. But the question is not whether Vallandigham be a
traitor, or whether war involve a suspension of individual rights: it is—shall
we better ourselves and help the country by locking this man up in a fortress,
instead of letting him prate his seditious trash to every one who will listen?
To that question the reply must be in the negative.
The mistake which has all along
been made in this war by the Government and many of its agents has been not
trusting the people sufficiently. Arresting seditious talkers implies a fear
that the people have not sense or strength of mind enough to resist the appeals
of sedition; just as the suppression or retention for a time of intelligence of
a defeat implies a doubt whether the people have courage enough to bear bad
news. Let us assure
Mr. Lincoln, and all in authority under him,
that the people of the United States have quite courage enough to bear any
amount of misfortunes, and quite sense enough to withstand any amount of
seditious nonsense, be it uttered ever so glibly. The only effect thus far
produced by such talkers as Vallandigham has been to kill off the Copperhead
sentiment in the Northwest, to reduce
Fernando Wood's party to a mere corporal's
guard, and to render the names of the Copperhead leaders a by-word and a
reproach among honest men.
Vallandigham was fast talking
himself into the deepest political grave ever dug when Burnside resurrected him.
The people can be trusted to deal
with traitors without any help from Washington, and those who suffer the penalty
they inflict—ignominy and disgrace—never find sympathy any where. At the meeting
held in this city on 18th to protest against Vallandigham's arrest not one
leading man, not a single man who commands general esteem, or who carries the
least weight, ventured to be present, and the performance was, on the whole, the
most wretched of all the wretched fizzles that have ever been enacted in this
city in the way of political meetings. Not but that every body, including the
leaders of all parties, and the editors of all leading journals, regret the
arrest. But Copperheadism has become so odious, and the doom of every
sympathizer with treason so obvious, that not a single man who has any future to
risk will jeopard it by placing himself on the record as even indirectly
sympathizing with a Copperhead. So long as the people are thus firm in their
loyalty it is surely superfluous for Government to interpose for their
protection against traitors.
LAY
REPRESENTATION IN THE
METHODIST E. CHURCH.
AN important convention of
Methodist laymen met in this city on May 13th and 14th to devise means of
securing a representation of the laity in the General Conference of their
Church. About two hundred and thirty members were present, most of them
delegates. Among the number were ex-Governor Wright of Indiana, Governor Cannon
of Delaware, Hon. M. F. Odell of Brooklyn, Hon. James Bishop of New Jersey,
President Allen, late of Girard College, Judge Bond of Baltimore, and other
distinguished gentlemen. The West and Northwest were well represented. Large
delegations were also present from Philadelphia and New York.
The last General Conference—a
body which meets once in four years—declared its willingness to admit lay
delegates, if their introduction should be desired by the people, and directed
the sense of the laity to be ascertained by a popular vote. The vote was taken
at an unpropitious time, shortly after the breaking out of the rebellion, and
was, in consequence, exceedingly small. Out of nearly a million of members less
than eighty thousand voted, about thirty thousand of the votes being for lay
representation, and upward of forty thousand against.
Resolutions were adopted by the
Convention asking for a representation of laymen in the General Conference equal
to that of the ministers, declaring their unabated attachment to their Church,
and their conviction that lay representation would give greater life and vigor
to all the operations of Methodism. Speeches were made upon the resolutions by
Messrs. Curran of Indiana, Cooke of Chicago, Ross, Hoyt, Nottingham, and
Forrester of New York, Riddle of Delaware, Allen of Philadelphia, Bond of
Baltimore, and others. Several ministers were invited to address the Convention,
among them Bishop Simpson, who made an elaborate speech in favor of the lay
movement.
The presence of so many
well-known laymen, and of such ministers as Doctors Durbin, Stevens, Nadal,
Hagany, Rev. R. M. Hatfield, and Bishop Simpson, is indicative of the strength
which this important movement has already attained in the Methodist Church. It
is supposed by many that the next General Conference, which meets at
Philadelphia in May, 1864, will grant the concession asked for. Another
Convention, to assemble concurrently with the General Conference, was appointed
to meet in the same city on May 17, 1864. The laymen certainly show great zeal
and determination in urging their suit, and no doubt will, in a short time,
accomplish their object.
THE
LOUNGER.
IMPORTANT NOTICE.
THE design of the seal upon the
envelope, in which the following notice is sent to us, is curious and
interesting. It represents a copperhead snake upside down, or reversed; a
wingless wasp rampant; with the motto, "Private honor; public virtue; and the
statute of Limitations."
The State Committee on the
distribution of prizes for treason, rebellion, murder, and civil war, will meet
upon the third day of June at such time and place as shall be hereafter
announced. The Committee desire to offer a most fraternal and cordial welcome to
all traitors; all members of lynching and vigilance committees; all
superintendents of hanging, burning, quartering, and tearing by wild horses of
Union men; all artificers in Union bone-work; and especially all murderers in
cold blood of negroes; and to invite them respectfully to compete for the
premiums, which will be adjusted by the following scale:
For a complete case of rebellion
without cause, beginning by every kind of public and private dishonor, theft,
fraud, and perjury; continued by terror, famine, and wholesale slaughter,
involving the people in enormous loss of life and vast expense—either a
restoration of the Union upon terms to be dictated by the authors of the
rebellion, or separation with a view to reconstruction upon
terms to be made entirely
agreeable to the same gentlemen.
For any equally great, causeless,
and bloody insurrection hereafter, the same premium will be presented.
For any partial effort in
resisting the laws by force—a partial modification of them at the option of the
insurrectionists.
For single cases of complete
disobedience and forcible defiance of the law—a public dinner at the expense of
Government.
For single cases of successful a
obstruction by fraud—a handsome bound copy of the statute of Limitations.
The Committee desire, in
conclusion, to express the following fine sentiments:
We love anarchy. We will never
willingly relinquish it. Its enemies are our enemies. To enforce the laws is
unnatural. To punish people who steal our property and murder our
fellow-citizens is fratricidal. The men in power are incompetent. What could be
expected of people who turned out Buchanan? They are also fanatics. But we of
the Committee, and Jeff Davis, and Robert Toombs are not in the least fanatical.
They are also corrupt. Let us then hasten to recall Floyd, Cobb, and Plaquemine
Slidell, the noblest Roman of them all; not forgetting, indeed, our worthy
chairman, who has now for two years been wantonly and wickedly deprived of his
rights in the Mayoralty of New York, and whose name, like that of our equally
worthy secretary pro tem., is the synonym of purity, incorruptibility, and
political honor.
In view of these great truths,
and aside from all loyal and honorable men, we know that the public voice
demands that we shall be put in high places. We want this voice to find
expression and to be heeded, for we are extremely anxious to get in. We go for a
vigorous grinding of our own axes. And while we would submit to nothing that can
injure our individual chances of power or advantage, we will gladly go as far as
we think will pay in the abandonment of national honor, faith, and glory.
F. W., Perpetual Chairman.
J. B., Secretary pro tem.
SOLDIERS AND SAINTS.
STONEWALL JACKSON was evidently a soldier born.
He may have been a saint also. But there is no relation, as some seem to
suppose, between the two. A soldier as we understand, when he is in actual
service, perceives and acts instinctively. There are certain movements to be
made, certain points to carry, certain results to achieve, and those things the
soldier, whether a good man or a bad one, knows how to do and succeeds in doing.
His skill, his coolness, his daring, his rapidity; do not depend upon his faith
in his cause.
They are in his temperament.
Thus, for whatever cause he might be fighting, and however much or little he
might believe in it, and however religious or irreligious he might be,
General McClellan, for instance, would be
cautious, slow, and apprehensive. Kearny, in like manner, would have been always
dashing, impetuous, enthusiastic.
Religious faith, purity of
character, love of home and country, may make a man persistent and patient, but
they do not make him a skillful soldier. Marlborough was the falsest of
Englishmen, but he led the British arms to incessant and splendid victory.
William III. was one of the noblest and truest and bravest of men, but military
success eluded him. Lafayette loved France with all his heart. He was a good man
but a poor soldier. Napoleon loved himself and France for his own glory, but he
loosed the French eagles in every heaven. It would be very hard to show that
Marlborough or Napoleon would have been better soldiers if they had been
religious men. Cromwell was a great general, not because he was a strict Puritan
and pietist, but because he had military genius. John Banyan was doubtless as
sincerely pious as Cromwell; but he would hardly have saved England in the
field.
Honesty is always admirable; but
it is a two-edged sword. Philip II. was doubtless as honest as William of
Orange; Servetus as honest as Calvin who burned him; Torquemada as honest as the
Protestants he slaughtered. Let us respect honesty every where, but denounce and
resist evil-doing. The honesty of a man who tries to destroy the foundation of
civil society because its peaceful progress enlarges human liberty, is not so
striking as his monstrous crime.
THE
NEW SOLDIERS.
IN the Southwest ten colored
regiments have been already formed, and
General Thomas expects that ten more will be
organized.
General Butler had four such regiments in his
command when he left Louisiana.
General Banks is organizing a
colored army corps. General Foster, in North
Carolina, who was bitterly opposed to enrolling colored men, when he was caught
in Washington armed three companies of them, and is now most anxious to have as
many regiments as he can get.
General Hunter, in South Carolina, whose
colored force has seen service, commends them as hardy, brave, patient, and
obedient. In the District of Columbia a regiment is forming. In Massachusetts
there is one regiment ready, another is rapidly filling its ranks, and a most
competent officer, General Wilde, has been designated to the command of a
colored brigade which will probably rendezvous at Newbern.
These are the signs of the return
of common sense to the nation, for there was a time, not very long ago, when, if
there were any willingness to use the services of colored men at all, it was a
general opinion that they must not be actual fighters. And yet great as is the
stake of all of us in this war, it is peculiarly vital to the colored race, for
it concerns their personal freedom and consequent social consideration, as well
as their civil liberty. It was clear from the beginning of the rebellion that
there could be but two classes of men in the
country, the loyal and
disloyal—those who were willing to fight for, and those who meant to fight
against, the Government. To undertake the creation of a third class, consisting
of those who were individually and collectively quite as much interested in the
result as we, was one of the many foolish theories in which we indulged. What
could be more absurd than to hail with joy the assistance of foreigners, many of
whom could not even speak our language, and who could not be supposed to
understand even their own interest in the war, and reject with scorn the strong
hands of men whose right to themselves and their children was to be settled by
the struggle? The war is not the battle of any particular race, or color, or
nativity, for the American people is the most eclectic under heaven. It is the
fight of all the people loyal to a Government which secures equal rights,
against their fellow-citizens who would overthrow both rights and guarantee, and
plant a despotism of privilege upon the ruins.
We do not claim for the colored
regiments bravery superior to that of other soldiers. All we ask is that they
shall have as fair a chance as any. They may not be especially heroic; but since
Bull Run, in which Americans, Germans, and
Irish fled in promiscuous panic, we have learned that valor is to be tested only
by long and various observation. One negro at Hilton Head, after he enlisted and
the regiment was ordered to Florida, ran home and hid himself in the chimney. He
was pulled out, went with the rest, and was so cool, brave, and effective in
actual battle that he was promoted to a sergeancy on the field. It would be idle
to sneer at German soldiers because the Eleventh Corps at Chancellorsville were
called "Dutchmen," for Frederick the Great fought with German soldiers. And if
in some great battle the same panic which has at times overcome all our soldiers
should seize the colored ranks, we bespeak for them the charity which has
protected all the others.
MORE
PEACE.
THE gentlemen who have signed the
call for a convention to arrange the terms upon which men in armed rebellion
against the laws will consent to obey them, have put themselves in a position
which for a time, at least, separates them from the sympathy of loyal men. They
say: "We think that the effort to sustain the Union by force of arms in the
hands of those who now direct time Government has proved a failure." To this
statement they sign their names and call for peace. Their sagacity is committed
to the assertion that the war is a failure. Their ambition can be gratified only
by the justification of that assertion. If that is false they are wrong; and
they are not likely to be trusted with power by their fellow-citizens. Now most
of the names signed to the call are totally unknown, but of the few who are
known not one can be supposed to wish to be put in the wrong. Our success in the
field would show that the war was not a failure, and bring their words to shame.
Consequently from this time forward they desire the defeat of our armies. Their
cry for peace comes to just this—that they hope the enemy will succeed in
slaughtering and driving back the Union soldiers; that the nation may be so
utterly dispirited and disgraced that it will ask the rebels what they want, and
beg them, for pity's sake, to take it!
No wonder that to such a call
there is not a single name attached which carries the least weight, or inspires
the slightest confidence in any part of the State.
CAVALRY.
A FRIEND returned from rebel
captivity speaks of the use made of cavalry from the beginning in the rebel
armies. The conscript infantry are surrounded by the mounted "gentlemen" of the
South, who relentlessly cut down all stragglers from the ranks. The same cavalry
have dashed into our lines, have even ridden round our armies, and left a
feeling of uneasiness and dread. For some inexplicable reason we have been
hitherto indifferent to that most valuable branch of the service.
But at last a series of
magnificent and incisive cavalry thrusts info the very heart of the rebellion
have disclosed its hollowness, and inspired universal terror and despair. They
are inestimable not only for time work of cutting communications and destroying
supplies, but for the revelation of the fact that behind the military crust of
this rebellion there is little substance. The thinly populated section is at the
mercy of these bold and broad forays. Not a spot is secure, not a family is
safe. The war they have so wantonly and wickedly invoked lays its red hand upon
every rebel household. In vain the "gentlemen" whip in the "white trash;" the
laborers "whom capital ought to own;" the poor, starved, ignorant, deluded
masses of the South. The "gentlemen" must bethink them of their own snug
estates, of their own cherished families, within their lines, indeed, but no
longer safe from the far-reaching hand of justice and of war. Those conscript
masses will also learn that the people of the North are not what they have been
painted. They are not savages because they are intelligent; they are not brutes
because they believe in civil order; they are not cowards because they are free.
But they will learn also that in war such men are terrible.
In this week's paper there are
two remarkable pictures of cavalry attacks, by Thomas Nast and Charles Parsons.
The irresistible torrent of horse and rider sweeps devastating across the land.
Woe to those and eternal infamy who raised the flood-gates and let in desolation
and death.
GIGNOUX'S PICTURE.
THE exhibition of Church's
Cotopaxi at Goupil's rooms has closed, and Gignoux's Sunrise in the Alps is now
to be seen there. It is by far the most important and successful work of his we
have ever seen; and the subject is so pleasing, the treatment so thoughtful and
skillful, that it can not fail of great popularity. (Next
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