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TATTOO.
THE sun has sunk behind the
hills,
The moon sails high and wintry
clear ; Her pale light falls on twinkling camps
That lie around me, far and near.
Near, like a village lit they seem, For, like the fire-fly's fitful gleam.
Ah ! many a thousand weary men
Are welcoming the restful night,
Glad that a day of toil or watch
Withdraws its labors with its
light. They but await the evening call
That shall release them from
their thrall.
Hark ! far away the sound begins
One only lonely simple strain ;
Then fife and drum and bugle-call
In tumult answer back again;
As when one bird at morn awakes
A chorus in the woods and brakes.
And all is still again. The ranks
Have answered to the evening
call—Come, O fair goddess Rest ! and smooth
The rough beds of the soldiers
all, And Sleep, with softest fingers, close The eyes that wake to watch our
foes.
HARPER'S WEEKLY.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, 1864.
THE
PEACE BLONDINS AT
NIAGARA.
THE late Peace performance at
Niagara Falls was not very mysterious. It was simply a movement of the rebels to
help their friends the Copperheads. It was a notification, to whom it might
concern, that if the Government of the United States were handed over to the
friends of the rebels, then the rebels would lay down their arms. It was a
confession that the rebel leaders are sorely pinched, that they foresee
disaster, and that they are perfectly willing to have us give them by our votes
the victory which they despair of obtaining by their arms.
The conduct of the President was
simple and proper. Informed that there were accredited agents from the
rebel
chiefs who wished to treat of peace, he consented that they should visit
Washington. But when they confessed that they had no authority whatever, the
President, in order that there should be no apparent justification, even, of the
assertion that he had refused to listen to overtures of submission from the
rebels, issued a notice, to whom it may concern, that the Government of the
United States is always ready to hear and consider any authorized proposition
from the rebel leaders involving the restoration of the Union and the
abandonment of slavery. To this the discomfited and self appointed rebel agents
reply in a manifesto intended to represent the President as an autocrat and a
despot, etc., and expressing their own resolution never to submit to conquest,
etc. It is interesting to learn from this paper that in a region where every man
between fifteen and sixty-five is dragged into the ranks, and exempted soldiers
are legislated back again to serve as long as they are wanted, there is no
military autocrat ; and that, in a section where the most hopeless terrorism
universally prevails, social institutions, established constitutions, and
priceless hereditary self government are not overthrown, subverted, or bartered
away. Mr. CLEMENT CLAY'S letter is but a poor specimen of our own Copperhead
orations and editorials. But it is not without value, for it shows to the
dullest mind the perfect sympathy in sentiment between Copperheads and rebels.
It is suggested that the
Constitution does not authorize the President to make any condition such as the
abandonment of slavery. Those who say so honestly are mistaken. There may be a
question of policy, which we think the President has rightly resolved ; but
there is no Constitutional question. The Constitution defines treason,
authorizes making of war, appoints the President Commander-in-Chief, and
authorizes the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in cases of rebellion and
invasion. There is nothing in any of these provisions which deprives the
Government of the right of exercising its common sense, or compels it to lay
down its arms at the will of rebels or foreign enemies. The Government is the
judge when a foreign war is over or a domestic rebellion quelled. Nor is there
in the Constitution or in reason any obligation upon the Government to connive
at its own destruction. The Government of the United States is bound by every
consideration to secure peace; and peace is impossible while the active cause of
war remains, watching for its opportunity. The cry that the President can not
constitutionally require the destruction of that cause as a condition of peace
is but another effort of the enemies of the country to prolong the war
indefinitely. When the Government was established the cloud of slavery was as
large as a man's hand. Four years ago it was a tempest, blackening the heavens
and raining fire. And now we are told that it is proper to put up an umbrella to
keep off the wet, but unconstitutional to erect a lightning-rod to draw the fire
harmless to the ground. It is idle to
shirk the vital point of the
whole war, and imagine that peace can be made with slavery. To that point the
public mind has advanced. If a truce should be called and the question opened
for debate, the truce would soon disappear in fresh cannon smoke. Liberty and
slavery are fighting for and against this Government. Is he a wise man who
affects to think that by omitting the name we can avoid the thing ?
In the following article we
propose to indicate briefly why Union and Liberty are henceforth identical.
LIBERTY AND UNION.
THE war proves the essential
antagonism between Slavery and national peace ; but it is no less evident in the
nature of things. Without freedom of speech and of the press a free popular
government is impossible. The people of the United States, therefore, in their
Constitution have forbidden Congress to abridge either of these rights ; and
what they would not suffer their supreme legislature to do, they will not permit
to any local assembly. But nothing is plainer than that if Slavery exists
freedom of speech and of the press must be forbidden. In a city built over a
powder magazine the scratching of a match must be a capital crime. Nothing is
clearer than that if you establish the social and industrial system of South
Carolina you must impose ignorance and silence by law. For the system violates
human rights, and the human heart and conscience instinctively protest against
it. And this, consequently, is done.
The Revised Statutes of Louisiana
of 1852 enact that if any white person be convicted of saying or printing any
thing with intent to diminish the respect which is commanded by law to free
people of color for the whites he shall be imprisoned not less than six months
or more than three years. The code of Virginia of 1849 provides that if a free
person maintain by speaking or writing that owners have no right of property in
slaves he shall be imprisoned or fined. Such laws are perfectly legitimate and
necessary wherever Slavery exists ; but are they compatible with the
Constitution of the United States, and with the necessary conditions of any free
popular government whatever ? If it were made a penal offense in half a dozen
States to discuss a banking system, or a school fund, or the rate of interest,
or a tariff, or internal improvements, or distribution of the public money, or
any question whatever which involved the common interest and rights ; or if in
those States the mobbing, expulsion, and massacre of citizens who ventured to
write or speak upon such subjects were encouraged by the State authorities and
protected by the national Government, could peace long be possible ? If the mere
discussion of any system or institution in any part of the country be too
exciting to be tolerated, is not the system or institution itself too dangerous
to exist? The alternative is plain. Either the system or popular government
itself must be overthrown.
There has indeed been an apparent
union of freedom and slavery in our political system. But it has been only
apparent. Our political history for thirty years has been the struggle of' the
two principles for the mastery, and when it was clear that Slavery was to cease
to control it tried to destroy. The convictions of the American people have been
at war for many a year, and the actual resort to arms was merely a question of
time. Thus the war was inevitable. If indeed the Slave interest had not been
thwarted; if it had been allowed to prevail ; if the principle of the Lemmon
case had become by acquiescence the law of the land ; if every thing which it
had demanded had been yielded, there would have been no war, because the contest
would have been decided without arms, and Slavery would have been nationalized
by the national consent. But in no other way was the contest to be escaped. Does
any honorable American citizen or Christian man seriously regret that it was not
avoided upon such terms?
There were gentlemen of political
sympathy with the great anti-Slavery party who thought that matters might be
arranged. Mr.
THURLOW WEED is perhaps the most conspicuous example of those who
thought that there was some plan by which the irrepressible conflict might be
repressed. It is surely not necessary to suspect the honesty or the patriotism
of such gentlemen whatever we must think of their sagacity. But what is there in
human nature, in history, in our own national experience, in our knowledge of
the character and course of the Slavery policy, which justified such an
expectation ? A truce, how much less a peace, was possible only upon condition
of some vital surrender of the principle and authority of the Government. Mr.
WEED is unsparing in his denunciation of his former political friends for not
acceding to his plan. But could it have honorably secured peace ? We have in our
possession a letter written from the city of New York in January, 1861, by a
gentleman who calls himself in it "an ultra BRECKINRIDGE Democrat." It is
addressed to a friend in the South, who is now, and has been from the beginning
of the war, a rebel. His correspondent was so entirely Southern in feeling that
he expresses an intention of moving to Richmond in case of separation. In this
letter are these remarkable words : "The machinery
is all in motion. New York will
back the plan of Weed up, * * * * and if the demands of the Secessionists of
Georgia are any criterion, even they will gain every important point." ROBERT
TOOMBS was a Secessionist of Georgia. He and his friends were to gain every
important point. But in that case must there not have been some vital surrender?
Ought peace to have been bought for such a price ? We have no wish and no right
to think that Mr. WEED acted from any but truly patriotic motives. But ought he,
in his turn, to censure so sharply his old friends who were unwilling to support
a plan of preserving peace by which Mr. TOOMBS and his associates were to gain
every important point ?
We repeat, therefore, that
Slavery has been proved practically incompatible with national peace and the
American Union. Therefore it must be abolished. It is a plain question for
practical men. Has any thing changed the nature of the system? Is it not just as
inconsistent as it was before with the spirit and laws of a free people like
ours ? And if it be tolerated hereafter under any plea of conciliation or
forbearance, shall we be wiser than the foolish peasant who warmed the frozen
viper to life in his bosom?
THE
NEW CALL.
IN calling for 500,000 more men
the President neither betrays doubt nor apprehension, nor need any loyal man
give way to either emotion. The whole force of the rebellion is in the field and
desperately fighting. Whatever may be the successful progress of our campaign,
we shall manifestly require a force which shall exercise a moral as well as
physical influence upon the enemy. For suppose that Richmond falls, that
LEE
retreats, and that
SHERMAN, intrenched in Atlanta, darts flying columns after
the scattered hosts of HOOD. The fall of
Richmond and the occupation of Atlanta
are not the end of the war. Baffled at one point and driven to another, the
rebels will still stand at bay, for their leaders have educated them to believe
that they are defending family and honor against foreign invasion, and those
leaders themselves have no alternative but war or exile.
However signal, therefore, our
advantages may be, we must always remember that a civil contest does not end
like a foreign war. We must still occupy the points that we recover. We must
still sustain the supremacy of the Government. If we had beaten every rebel army
in the field; if SHERMAN had marched on to Savannah, and
GRANT had pushed
through to Raleigh; or if the forces of LEE, and HOOD, and FORREST, and KIRBY
SMITH had been scattered, could we recall our armies, disband our regiments, and
put our ships out of commission? Would the late rebel officers and soldiers,
would the delectable dames of
New Orleans and
Charleston and even Baltimore
become at once our loving brothers and sisters? If our military success in the
rebel section were complete, does any good citizen doubt that military
occupation of it must follow ?
We are preparing for ourselves a
foolish and disastrous disappointment if we blind our eyes to the nature and
circumstances of the war. If we followed the advice of the Copperhead doctors
tomorrow, and agreed to separate or to unite upon the rebels' terms, we must
still be a military nation. If we separated, we must maintain an army for the
frontier defense and for the wars that would immediately ensue. If we united
upon the rebel terms, they, being in possession of the Government, could retain
it only by the same means. There is no possible contingency of peace or war in
the future that would not require a vast army.
The President therefore proposes
that we shall have that army, first to end the active military operations, and
then to prevent the chance of their recurrence. It is to avoid the necessity of
more fighting; to assure the victory which Providence offers to our hands if we
choose to employ the means ; to secure and perpetuate peace at the earliest
moment that the call is made. To delay is to postpone peace. To hesitate is not
to force the Government to end the war, as the Copperhead papers are fond of
saying, for it is not a war of the Government but of the people ; but to
hesitate is to bring the war into our own streets and to our own homes. The
Copperhead papers do not speak for the loyal people of the country, who are the
immense majority. But, gratified and dazzled by the steady progress of our arms,
even loyal men may sometimes forget the necessities of the case. We can not have
too many men, nor have them too soon, for peace. Let every true man go, or, if
that is impossible, see that somebody goes for him. Then we shall not only
obtain peace but secure it.
JUST
WHERE HE IS WANTED.
GENERAL JOE JOHNSTON of the rebel
service is a candidate for commiseration. For eighty days he has been decoying
General SHERMAN further and further from his base. He has lured him on to
mountain gorges and fortresses before which he has enticed him to draw up in
battle array, while he befooled him into flank movements, and then the sly
JOHNSTON has quietly withdrawn, leaving poor SHERMAN no
thing to do but to push farther
on and occupy one town and fortification after another. Sometimes, to entrap his
victim more completely, JOHNSTON has made a stand, and when SHERMAN came on, has
fought him, and after going through the form of a defeat has again slipped
alluringly away. With consummate sagacity every position he had fortified he
abandoned when SHERMAN came up, and with profound duplicity, in every engagement
but one, he suffered himself to be bloodily defeated.
There was no end to the
astuteness with which he drew the hapless SHERMAN on from
Chattanooga to the
Chattahoochee At that point the deluded Yankee supposed he must fight. He knew
that it was the most defensible rebel position, and that the fortifications were
elaborate and probably impregnable. But vainly would the Yankee cope with
chivalric cunning. The old fox, JOE—if he will pardon such vulgar Yankee
familiarity—took care not to hinder a movement upon his right flank, which, by
not preventing, he may be said to have forced upon his bamboozled opponent, and
stole away to Atlanta. Meanwhile he arranged, with masterly strategy, that there
should be no sufficient opposition to the Yankee occupation of Decatur, whereby
his chief communication with his capital was cut off, and his investment in the
city secured.
This was the crowning glory of
his campaign. He had drawn SHERMAN forward over mountain and river all the way
from Chattanooga. He had surrendered to him half the Empire State of the
rebellion. He had shrewdly suffered his army to be incessantly beaten upon a
continuous retreat. The wily soldier had finally shut himself up with that army
in a city of the utmost importance to his cause, in which he had secured his
absolute isolation, and at this triumphant moment, at the very time when,
according to the jubilant testimony of that happy family, the rebel and
Copperhead journals, JOHNSTON had SHERMAN exactly where he wanted him, he was
removed ! If this is to be the fate of rebel Generals, who put Yankees into the
very place where they are wanted, what is to become of those who do not ?
General HOOD, JOHNSTON'S
successor, apparently wished to have SHERMAN exactly some where else, for he
marched out and fought him. But SHERMAN, agreeing with JOHNSTON that he was just
where he ought to be, drove HOOD back again with great slaughter. Why can not
General HOOD let well enough alone ? We are all agreed, good citizens, rebels
and Copperheads, that SHERMAN is just where we want him.
A
SCENE IN PARLIAMENT.
THE great field day has come off
in the British Parliament, and the Danish policy of the Government is sustained.
But a more foolish public farce was never played. The real question was whether
England would fight for Denmark, and there were three parties in the Commons—the
Ministers, the Tories, and the Radicals. Yet of these parties not one was in
favor of going to war. The debate, therefore, took place upon a secondary
question, whether in the measures taken to avoid war the Ministers had not
compromised British honor and influence. This was a secondary question, because
if it had been affirmed, if the vote of censure had passed, and a change of
ministry had followed, there would have been no change of policy. The House was
much excited. The great debaters were up, and apparently lost their temper. The
British senate howled, groaned, yelled, and hissed as only a body of British
legislators can ; and finally the PALMERSTON Ministry was sustained by a
majority of eighteen.
In America we have no reason to
regret it. It is true that neither PALMERSTON, RUSSELL, nor GLADSTONE are
friends of our Government or its cause. They would gladly see us divided, and do
not hesitate to express their sincere belief that we shall be. But events have
taught them the wisdom of neutrality. They have stopped the rams, and are not
likely to wink at
SEMMES'S getting another English ship in which to recommence
his piracy. The Tories, however, are less likely to have remained neutral. They
have taunted the American policy of Earl RUSSELL as cowardly. Had they acceded
to power they would have found themselves constrained to do something and to
keep some promises, and our war would have offered the most feasible
opportunity. They would not really wish war, for John Bull asks only to be let
alone. But they have used strong language, as men out of power are apt to do,
and the advantage they have thus given the Ministry was skillfully used by Mr.
LAYARD, the Under Secretary of State.
The Tories had been bidding for
the Radical votes of Mr. CORBEN and his friends. Mr. LAYARD, therefore, turning
to these gentlemen, and speaking of the Tories, said. "The day that sees them
transferred to this bench will see rams go out of Liverpool." The words were
greeted with a tremendous uproar of rage from the Tories, who felt the mortal
blow, and of delight from the party of the Ministry, who felt that the Radical
vote was secured. The tumult did not silence LAYARD. "Their highest legal
authority, the gentleman most likely to be Attorney-General if they come into
power," he (Next Page)
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