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Harper's Weekly, January 19, 1861

Other Pages From this Newspaper Include:

Governor Pickens (Cont.) | Civil War Map of Fort Sumter |  Civil War News from January 19, 1861 |  Civil War Ship "Brooklyn" | Star of the West |  Civil War Letters Between Major Anderson and Governor Pickens

 

Below we present a leaf from the January 19, 1861 edition of Harper's Weekly.  We have digitized an image of the original leaf, and have converted it to readable text.  This leaf presents biographies of important people in Charleston South Carolina, and news of the day.

 

 

HARPER'S WEEKLY.

[ JANUARY 19, 1861.

34

(Continued From Front Cover Biography on Governor Pickens of South Carolina)

man at the door on all state occasions, and acquitted himself with all the dignity due to his position. When Colonel Pickens was about leaving St. Petersburg he said to his old servant, 'Tom, I am going through Germany, and I want to send a courier with very important dispatches to our Minister, Mr. Dallas, in London. Now, Tom, I shall make you courier; you shall go with my dispatches to Mr. Dallas.'

"Tom accepted the mission, and we do him but justice when we say that he discharged his duty with promptness, correctness, and fidelity to his master."

JUDGE MAGRATH.

WE publish on page 33, from a photograph sent us from Charleston, South Carolina, a portrait of Judge Magrath, late Judge of the United States District Court at Charleston. Judge Magrath is a lawyer of high standing at the South Carolina bar, and enjoys the respect of the public. He has hitherto taken no leading part in politics outside of his State; but in the Convention he was reckoned one of the strongest men, and is now one of the Executive Council of the new nation of South Carolina. The first act which directed public attention to him was his resignation of his office on 7th November last. On that day, when the Grand Jury reported that there was no more business before them, Judge Magrath said :

" The business of the term has been disposed of. And under ordinary circumstances, it would be my duty to dismiss you to your several avocations, with my thanks for your presence and aid. But now I have something more to do ; the omission of which would not be consistent with propriety. In the political history of the United States an event has happened of ominous import to fifteen slave-holding State:. The State of which we are citizens has been always understood to have deliberately fixed its purpose, whenever that event should happen. Feeling an assurance of what will be the action of the State, I consider it my duty, without delay, to prepare to obey its wishes. That preparation is made by the resignation of the office I have held. For the last time I have, as a Judge of the United States, administered the laws of the United States within the limits of the State of South Carolina. While thus acting in obedience to a sense of duty, I can not be indifferent to the emotions it must produce. That department of government which, I believe, has best maintained its integrity and preserved its purity, has been suspended. So far as I am concerned, the Temple of Justice, raised under the Constitution of the United States, is now closed. If it shall be never again opened, I thank God that its doors have been closed before its altar has been desecrated with sacrifices to tyranny. May I not say to you that in the future which we are about to penetrate, next to the reliance we should place in the goodness of that God, who will guide us in the right way, should be our confidence in our State, and our obedience to its laws. We are about to sever our relations with others, because they have broken their covenant with us. Let us not break the covenant we have made with each other. Let us not forget that what the laws of our State require becomes our duties. And that he who acts against the wish or without the command of his State usurps that sovereign authority which we must maintain inviolate. To you, gentlemen of the jury, I may speak as the representative of the juries with whom I have been connected : and to you I now give expression to that conviction I have always had, of the fidelity with which the responsible duties of jurors have been here discharged. To my brethren of the bar, whose uniform courtesy and aid have made my official intercourse and duties the sources of pleasure and instruction, I tender the assurances of my kind and grateful recollection. To the officers of this court, with whom I have been so long and pleasantly connected; to the Attorney of the United States for this State, whose ability and fidelity in the discharge of his duties merit the highest commendation; to the Marshal whose zeal has ever kept pace with the obligations of his office ; to the Clerk, whose experience has ever been generously exercised in the business of the Court ; to all other officers, who have invariably been exact in all they were required to do; with all of whom my official relations have been productive of the highest gratification: I now tender, as the last official act which I shall here discharge, my kindest wishes for their happiness and prosperity."

At the conclusion of these remarks his Honor laid aside his gown and retired.

REV. DR. BACHMAN, OF SOUTH
CAROLINA.

WE publish on page 33 the portrait of the Rev. Dr. Bachman, of South Carolina, the minister who was selected by the Secession Convention to ask a prayer on the ratification of the Ordinance of Se-cession. Dr. Bachman is distinguished as a naturalist, but has made himself more conspicuous, latterly, by his strong political leanings to the side of disunion. The Charleston Mercury thus describes the scene which attended the signing of the Ordinance of Secession :

" The scene was one profoundly grand and impressive. There were a people assembled through their highest representatives—men most of them upon whose heads the snow of sixty winters had been shed—patriarchs in age—the dignitaries of the land—the High Priests of the Church of Christ—reverend statesmen—and the wise judges of the law. In the midst of deep silence an old man, with bowed form and hair as white as snow, the Rev. Dr. Bachman, advanced forward, with upraised hands, in prayer to Al-mighty God, for His blessing and favor in this great act of his people about to be consummated. The whole assembly at once rose to its feet, and, with hats off, listened to the touching and eloquent appeal to the All-Wise Dispenser of events.

At the close of the prayer the President advanced with the consecrated parchment upon which was inscribed the decision of the State, with the great seal attached. Slowly and solemnly it was read unto the Last word—'dissolved;' when men could contain themselves no longer, and a shout that shook the very building, reverberating long continued, rose to heaven, and ceased only with the lots of breath. In proud, grave silence the Convention itself waited the end with beating hearts."

CHARLESTON ZOUAVES.

WE have given pictures of the Chicago Zouaves, whose admirable discipline has rendered them an object of general envy among our military folks, We now publish on the preceding; page a picture of the Charleston Zouaves, a corps less generally known, but one which may become pretty conspicuous

 in the course of the next few weeks. The uniform, it can not be denied, is very handsome; and the men who wear it are gallant and brave.

HARPER'S WEEKLY.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 19, 1861.

THE TRADE AND PROSPECTS
OF NEW YORK CITY.

THE exports of produce, goods, and merchandise from the port of New York during the year 1860 were valued at the Custom-house at the sum of $103,492,280, about thirty per cent. more than the heaviest previous export on record. Adding specie to produce, goods, and merchandise, New York exported in 1860 $145,683,451, against $137,696,187 in 1859, $85,639,643 in 1858, and $117,724,329 in 1857. The peculiarity of the commercial movement of 1860 was that our specie export was comparatively small, while our aggregate exports were notwithstanding largely in excess of previous years.

To explain this more fully : the Atlantic States receive from California some forty mill-ions of gold annually. The amount is uncertain, because a portion of the gold which comes here is not manifested. Taking an average of five years, we export the whole of this gold to Great Britain and France. In 1858, the year after the panic, when the importations were light, exchange ruled low, and we only ex-ported $26,001,431 in specie. This was less than we received, and left a balance in the country. But the year following (the imports being heavy) we exported $69,715,866 in specie —nearly seventy-five per cent. more than we received. Last year we exported $42,191,171 —say about as much as we received from California, Pike's Peak, and the Southern gold mines. But as during the year 1860 we imported $8,832,330 in specie from Europe and elsewhere, it results that the close of the year leaves the United States nearly nine millions richer in specie than they were at New Year, 1860.

During the same year, 1860, New York received $238,260,460 in foreign goods—not quite as much as it received in 1859, but considerably more than any other year. It is probably safe to say that, in 1860, New York received three-fourths of the exports of the United States, and exported one-third of their exports.

Recent political developments have directed attention to the commerce of this port, and alarm has been created by threats of raising up commercial rivals to New York. It does not appear that this alarm rests on a substantial basis. Before the Revolution Charleston imported more foreign goods than any Northern city. After the Revolution, and previous to 1800, Philadelphia was the principal emporium of foreign goods on this sea-board. New York has now superseded both. It has done so with-out the least favors from Government, but simply by the force of geographical influence and the energy of its people. Philadelphia urges that the availability of New York harbor in winter is the cause of our supremacy. But Charleston harbor is freer of ice than ours. Charleston says that the depth of water over the bar at Sandy Hook explains the mystery. But Portland has no bar, and vessels of very heavy draught can enter at Philadelphia. The simple fact is that a variety of concurrent circumstances—an excellent harbor, a central position, an energetic commercial community, an unequaled system of internal communications, a liberal commercial code, and a uniformly healthy climate—have combined to render this city the metropolis of commercial America. Our taxes are heavier than those of any other city on the continent ; our Municipal Government indisputably worse than any. Last year we raised $11,000,000 for Municipal purposes; in a year or two the Common Council will demand $15,000,000 of us. Yet we thrive not-withstanding, and two-thirds of the business of the country are done here.

Those who fear that the sceptre is passing away from New York will do well to bear these facts in mind. It is very easy to open a port, and to expect a great trade, but it is very hard to create a rival to New York, This city is the product of a variety of concurring influences, such as may never be united again on this continent. Until equally powerful influences are combined in favor of some other sea-port, New York will maintain its supremacy undisputed.

THE GROWTH OF THE WEST.

THE returns of the census of 1860 which have been made public reveal a growth of population in our Western States that is unexampled in history. In ten years six States—to wit, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, and Wisconsin—have increased from less than four millions to nearly eight. They have, besides this, peopled Minnesota, an entirely new State, and thrown a few hundred thousand people into the Pike's Peak Region, Washington Territory, and Oregon. They have built more miles of rail-

way than there are in all the rest of the Union ; and, if New York and Pennsylvania be omitted from the comparison, we will venture ,to say that they have more cities, better hotels, school-houses, and churches, than all the rest of the country together. The men still live who re-member to have walked over the bare prairie where Chicago now rears her splendid face unless present appearances are very deceptive indeed, many of us who read these lines will live to see Chicago the most populous city on the continent.

For eight millions of working people are a mighty fact. Much has been said and written about the delinquency of the West in the mat-ter of debts. No doubt Wisconsin has some-thing to answer for in the way of stay-laws and repudiated mortgages : some other States, too, will need, by-and-by, to clear their record of certain laws and legal proceedings of the hard times. But it must be remembered that the West relies solely for subsistence on its crops, and that they really had not a good crop there between 1856 and 1860. Two good crops in the West enable a man to pay for his land. Two bad crops make him a bankrupt. The creditors of the West will get good news from there this spring.

Eight millions of free, intelligent, reading people are a fact which overrides a legion of minor drawbacks and temporary checks.

THE SOUTHERN FORTS.

EVERY thing relating to the United States property in the Southern States is now of interest, and we are glad to be able to subjoin the following accurate list of the United States Forts in those States. The list begins with the forts in Louisiana, and follows the coast line to Maryland :

FORT JACKSON AND FORT ST. PHILIP,

on the Mississippi River, 75 miles below New Orleans.

FORT MORGAN,

Mobile Point, at the entrance of Mobile Bay, 40 miles below Mobile.

FORT GAINES

(unfinished), on Dauphin Island, opposite Fort Morgan, and three miles distant. (These two works defend the entrance to Mobile Bay—of which Fort Morgan is finished, is immediately adjacent the ship channel, and far the most important. This has been taken possession of by Alabama troops.)

FORT PICKENS,

Santa Rosa Island, entrance to Pensacola harbor. One of the largest works on the Gulf. Finished.

FORT McREE,

on Foster's Island, opposite Fort Pickens, and 1 1/4 miles distant. A powerful casemated water-battery.

FORT BARRANCAS,

near the Navy Yard, Pensacola, and facing the entrance to the harbor. Intended also to cover the Navy Yard from a land attack. Much smaller than the other two.

FORT JEFFERSON,

a very important work—not quite finished—intended to protect the superb anchorage of the Tortugas, as a naval depot and station for guarding the immense commerce which follows the channel of the Gulf Stream, and for controlling the navigation of the Gulf.

FORT TAYLOR,

Key West—an important work, nearly finished—protects the harbor of Key West ; and (with Fort Jefferson) protects the commerce of the Gulf.

FORT PULASKI,

Cockspur Island, a few miles below Savannah, protects the entrance to the river and the approach to Savannah. An important work—now taken possession of by Georgia troops.

FORT MOULTRIE AND FORT SUMTER

protect the entrance to Charleston harbor. The former is on Sullivan Island, about 3 miles below the city—an old work repaired. The latter is a new and powerful work, 1 mile distant from Fort Moultrie, and 1 mile from the nearest land.

CASTLE PINCKNEY,

a small work on the approach to, and near the city of Charleston. This (as well as Fort Moultrie) is now held by South Carolina troops. Major Anderson holds Fort Sumter.

FORT MONROE AND FORT CALHOUN,

 entrance to Hampton Roads. protect these Roads and the approach to Norfolk' James River, etc. The former is the largest work in the United States. The latter is but recently commenced, and not in available condition.

FORT MCHENRY,

an old work, protecting the harbor of Baltimore.

FORT CARROLL,

a few miles below Baltimore. A very important work, now in progress of construction.

THE LOUNGER

OLD FASHIONED.

DID you ever hear of a good old-fashioned snow-storm ? Did you ever know a satisfactory fall of snow any where that somebody was not sure to call it a good old-fashioned snow-storm ? If people want you to be very sure of enjoying yourself, and wish to give an irresistible point to their invitation, have you observed that they infallibly promise you a good old-fashioned time ? And the orators who Mourn every thing that exists will not end without an eloquent invocation of the good old-fashioned ways.

And yet in our secret souls, we lucky fellows, who have water hot and cold all over the house, can not have a very profound admiration for the good old-fashioned inconveniences of a pump in the kitchen or a well in the yard, as the sole resources and supply. We who, by e dexterous twist of the valve in the air-box, shed a soft summer heat

through our houses—so that while it may he the fiercest January outside it is the finest June within—can net regret very deeply the great barns of halls and the little barns of passages, and the freezing on one side and roasting on the other before the great open fire in the parlor. There were good old-fashioned fires, wood fires, but we have come round to them again, and a hundred-fold more comfortable than they were. The days of anthracite coal grates, the dark and dreary days of the thin, black, air-tight stove, are gone, and we have the low open ranges of soft coal, Cannel best of all., which crackles and sparkles and flames, and re-stores the beauty of the old fire, with a comfort it never knew.

Then you have not forgotten the good old-fashioned times of stone-cold chambers ? Leigh Hunt, in the Indicator, has a most judicious paper upon early rising, under the good old-fashioned circumstances. How one did dally with bed ! How cruel the air which caught your breath and waved it visibly and defiantly in your face, by way of impressing you with the terrible fact of cold! How doubly warm and comfortable your position, as you lay close upon your back, hating to stir! The very demon of cold seemed waiting for you. He had sheeted the window with frost. Even the sun-beams came chilled and white through that impertinent crust. And oh ! in the pitcher and the pail, you could not see but you knew. It was ice, unmitigated ice.

Do you think these good old-fashioned conditions of getting up were avorable to good health and good habits? Do you think that the home standing blue and numb was likely to do justice to his ablutions, for instance? And was he not sure to cut his chin in shaving? It is all very fine to sleep with your window open or your head out of the window, but dressing is another matter. Why should you select an hour or two in the morning to expose your body to a pinching extreme of temperature ? If you afterward dressed in muslin and sauntered out in the snow, a la bonne heure ! But you do nothing of the kind ; furs, mufflers, woolens, are your only wear. No, no. Habits of general cleanliness, the universal morning bath, came in with the new-fashioned times, when they don't use ice for soap.

The world would have been in a bad way if it had listened more credulously to this incessant siren song of the good old-fashioned times. The old-fashion was new-fashion once, and if it is a poor thing to be a new thing, then those times are already self-condemned. Do you suppose Harry, who was betrothed under the clear moon last night to Lucy, believes that the good old-fashioned times of old lovers were so splendid as the new times of new lovers? Will you renounce your Erard for the good old-fashioned harpsichord? or your orchestra of the Philharmonic for the limited bands for which Mozart wrote ? Will you exchange your space-annihilating and comfortable car, which laughs the winter to scorn as it turns the snow from its track, for the good old-fashioned covered sleigh in which you creaked and strained and froze, accomplishing forty miles a day, or wrecked in a snow-drift?

The good old-fashioned sunshine we have as out fathers had. The good old-fashioned beauty of all the world is ours unimpaired. The good old-fashioned traits of character that make them honored' and revered did not die with them. They were no more honest, generous, religious people than we are. The world is not set back. Let who will begin his New Year with a groan, the good, new-fashioned times shall he the best times of all.

A SHORT SPEECH UPON SPEECHES.

AT last the Egyptian collection of Dr. Abbott is established in its permanent position at the His. torical Society's rooms. It belonged to us, and we have it; but the feeling of satisfaction is alloyed a little by the thought that the collector cat not share in the pleasure. His portrait, however is to be hung in the rooms, and so his visible memory be perpetuated. There was a pleasant meeting to commemorate the final lodgment the other evening. There was plenty of good talking, o Egyptian reminiscence and scholarship, and sow speech-making. Doubtless, when we are hero enough to dispense with the speeches, we may have reunions as agreeable as the soirees of the Royal Society at the Marquis of Northampton's s few years since.

But we must exorcise the demon of speech-making before we can hope for millennial meetings There are many of the pleasantest and most fitment people in the country who will not go to meetings because they may be obliged to speak; and it is not left to your discretion. If you are noted for any thing you must make a speech. Now you may be the most charming novelist, or essayist, or poet, or painter, or inventor, or general, or mechanic, but it does not follow that you can turn an oratorical period. And then, unhappily, per contra, you may reel off the most fluent and felicitous harangue, and yet not be so errs, great a man after all. Washington Irving would not go to public meetings of any kind except upon the ex. press understanding, not only that he was not to speak, but that he was not to be called upon, and so have to speak in declining. Thackeray, at a dinner in Liverpool, when he rose to speak, was suddenly deserted by the muse of eloquence, and after saying, good-humoredly, " Really I thought I had something to say, but I find I haven't," sat down. In general that remark should be put in the form of statement and rejoinder

ORATOR. " Really I thought I had something to say."

AUDIENCE. "Yes, but we see that you haven't."

The secret of the real enjoyment of club meetings and social dinners is, that nobody can spring the trip of a speech upon you. May an humble inquirer reverentially ask why the Historical Society can't have meetings without speeches—not the papers which are read, but the ceremonious harangues?


 

 

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