Continental Monthly Volume 1 Issue 3 by Various

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_Mr. Welles._ Would you arm them?

_Mr. Stanton._ Yes, if exigencies of situation so demanded. The
beleaguered garrison at Lucknow armed every one about the place--natives
or not, servants or masters. Did General Washington spare the whisky
stills in the time of the insurrection in Western Virginia when they
were in his way? Yet the stills were universally agreed to be property,
and were not taken by due process of law. Shall we fight a rebel in
Charleston streets, and at the same time protect his negro by a guard in
the Charleston jail?

_Mr. Blair._ But what instructions would you give to the soldiers about
this _casus belli_?

_Mr. Stanton._ None at all. The soldier should know nothing about _casus
belli_. General Buell answered the correspondent well when he said, 'I
know nothing about the cause of this war. I am to fight the rebels and
obey orders.' Cries a general to a subaltern--'Yonder smokes a
battery--go and take it.' Do we issue specific instructions to the
troops about the women, the children, the chickens, the forage, the
mules-persons or property--whom they encounter? The circumstances and
the exigencies of the situation determine their conduct. A household
mastiff who will pin a rebel by the throat when he passes his kennel,
flying from pursuit, is just as serviceable as would prove a loyal
bullet sped to the rebel's brain. I believe that the acknowledged fact,
the necessary fact, that wherever our army advances, emancipation
practically ensues, will carry more terror to the slave-owner than any
other warlike incident. But I would have them understand that this
result is not our design, but a necessity of _their_ rebellion.

_Mr. Bates._ You are like the last witness upon the stand--subjected to
a vigorous cross-examination upon everything gone before. Have you ever
thought what is to be the upshot of the contention?

_Mr. Stanton._ Restoration of the Union!

_Mr. Bates._ Aye, but how to be brought about? Are not the pride and the
obstinacy growing stronger every day at the South?

_Mr. Stanton._ 'Men are but children of a larger growth.' Who of us has
not conquered pride and obstinacy in the nursery? I have seen the boy of
a mild-tempered father fairly admire the parent when he broke the truce
of affection and vigorously thrashed him. The large majority of the
Southern people have been educated to believe the men of the North
cowardly, mean, and avaricious. Cowardly, because they persistently
refused the duel. Mean, because all classes worked, and there seemed
among them no arrogance of birth. Avaricious, because they crouched to
the planters with calico and manufactures, or admired their bullying for
the sake of their cotton.

And the great masses of the South have been and are learning how the
present leaders have duped them upon all these points. They have
discovered we are not cowards. Every prisoner, from the chivalric
Corcoran to the urchin drummer-boy at Richmond who spat on the sentinel,
has afforded proof of courage and fortitude, whilst thousands and
thousands of people have secretly admired it. The very death vacancies
at family boards throughout the plantations perpetually remind the
Southrons that _we are not_ cowards in fight. They have learned, too,
that we are neither mean nor avaricious, when the millionaire merchant,
whom they knew two years ago, cheerfully accepts the poor man's lot of
to-day; or when they behold all classes without one murmur hear of a
million dollars per day being spent on the war, and then _clamor to be
taxed_! If they perceive the negroes leaving them, they at once also
perceive that in loyal Maryland, loyal Virginia, loyal Kentucky and
loyal Missouri,--in Baltimore, St. Louis, and Louisville,--the slaves
under local laws are protected to their owners. Thus the most stupid
will reason, It is our own act which has placed in jeopardy this our
property. With a restored Union, Georgia and Louisiana must be as
Maryland and Kentucky continued even in the midst of camps. Who, during
the acme of the French revolution, could have believed that the people
of Paris would so soon and so readily accept even despotism as the
panacea of turmoil? Show a real grievance, and I grant you that
rebellion achieves the dignity of revolution. Provide an imaginary or a
colored evil as the basis of insurrection, and even pride and obstinacy
will eventually comprehend the sophistry of the leaders.

_Mr. Lincoln._ Seward's secret correspondence with Southern loyalists
proves these things. Mr. Stanton must read that last letter from....

_Mr. Stanton._ Indeed! You surprise me. Pray how could you receive
intelligence from him?

_Mr. Lincoln (opening a drawer)._ Do you see this button? I unscrew this
eye. The two discs now separate. Between them you can put a sheet of
French letter paper. When the troops advanced to Bull Run, certain of
the soldiers were provided with such buttons. Various deserters have had
them.

_Mr. Seward (laughing.)_ Who knows but General Scott's coachman had one
or two?[M]

_Mr. Stanton._ This practically corroborates my theories. If we in
Washington find it so difficult to repress communication and spies, is
it not fair to presume that in Richmond, Savannah, New Orleans and
Memphis (where there is _real_ incentive from suffering and
persecution), it is equally impossible to stop information? It was
impossible to procure it when the three rifled cannon at the Richmond
foundry were found spiked. It would prove serviceable to the patience of
the nation, could it only step behind the scenes and learn much--known
to us--which it must ere long understand.

* * * * *

_Mr. Lincoln._ I have just received by our secret mail a very affecting
letter from Col. Corcoran. I will read an extract. [_Reads._]

'Of my physical suffering I will not speak. If restored to friends and
home I shall, however, be a memorable example of the victory of mind
over body. I determined to lay down my life for my country when I left
that home; and if it will serve the cause, as I have repeatedly told the
people here, to hang, or draw, or quarter me, I am ready for the
sacrifice. But there are hundreds among the prisoners whose minds are
not so buoyant as mine, who do suffer terribly. Can not some means be
devised to clothe and feed _them_, or to exchange for them?'

_Mr. Blair._ A patriot soul. The clerkship left in the New York
post-office when the Colonel departed for the war has been retained for
him.

_Mr. Lincoln (quickly)._ Ah! _that_ heroic sufferer shall have something
better than a clerkship if he ever returns.

_Mr. Stanton._ I have thought much of this exchange of prisoners and
captivity amelioration. When the insurrection was inchoate, we could
afford to be punctilious. But its present gigantic proportions surely
affect the question (so to term it) of ransom. When our countrymen were
in the Algerine prisons we took means to treat for them. What say you,
gentlemen, against sending commissioners to Richmond for the purpose of
supervising the medicines, clothing, food and exchange of our prisoners?

_Mr. Seward._ That may only be conceded by accepting commissioners for a
similar purpose from the rebel government.

_Mr. Chase._ Our plans are now so perfectly matured that even the danger
of spies recedes. I am in favor of Mr. Stanton's proposition.

_Mr. Lincoln._ I think you can try it. There are so many prisoners, from
all parts of the country, that public sentiment must uphold the measure.

_Mr. Smith._ Mr. Secretary of State, you were taking notes whilst Mr.
Stanton was giving his views upon the restoration question. Were they on
that subject?

_Mr. Seward._ Yes. Some fleeting thoughts occurred to me which I was
desirous of preserving for to-morrow. _I_ have a great deal of faith in
establishing Southern 'doughfacery.'

_Mr. Welles._ Doughfacery?

_Mr. Seward._ Yes: that supremacy of pocket over pride which so long
afflicted the North. Above and beyond the slave-owners must rise the
great class of manufacturers and merchants,--almost every third man of
Northern origin, too,--whose pocket is the great sufferer, and without
whose property, hereafter, plantations can not prosper. Given a decent
pretext for adjustment, when pride will go to the wall. Once allow the
masses to grasp the reins, and the slave-owners will be driven to the
wall-side of the political highway also. This I call Southern
doughfacery for the sake of a phrase well understood.

_Mr. Blair._ Then your old plan of the great national convention comes
in vogue?

_Mr. Lincoln._ _My_ plan! (_Good humoredly._) You must not _all_ steal
my thunder. By the way, Seward, your pleasant friend Judge D----, who
came from New York about Col. Corcoran, told me the meaning of that
phrase. It seems a Dublin stage manager got up a scenic play with
thunder in it perfectly imitated by a diapason of bass drums. A rival
got up another scenic play, to which, out of jealous _pique_, the
inventor repaired as a spectator. To his surprise he heard his own
invention from behind the scenes. He instantly exclaimed aloud, 'The
rascal, he's stolen my thunder!'

_Mr. Seward (jocularly)._ The President finds a parallel between a
national convention and thunder. Well, well, the clearest atmosphere is
breathed after the clouds culminate in thunder and lightning. I accept
the application.

_Mr. Chase._ But if the South is to surrender pride, what are _we_ to
surrender?

_Mr. Seward (quickly)._ _Political_ pride. The battle of freedom was
fought and won when the Inaugural was pronounced. The South can not
recover from the present stagnation in a quarter-century, by which time
it will again have accepted contentedly the original belief that
slavery, like one of the lotteries of Georgia, or one of the red-dog
banks of Arkansas, is a purely local institution.

_Mr. Stanton._ I heartily accept the project of a national convention.
But I am against any agitation or committal to leading ideas which are
to control it. One convention ruined France, and another saved it. We
can better obtain consent of North and South to holding a convention by
forbearance from discussing its probable platform. Let it meet. No fear
but it will elucidate _some_ satisfactory result.

_Mr. Welles._ You have just discussed this question of war. I wish
something could be done to settle this affair of privateering. To my
reflection it appears to embrace a very important consideration of
'policy' as well as of law. A man does not always punish his embezzling
clerk because the law gives him authority to do so. The ocean rebel who
to-day captures our transports laden with soldiers, may to-morrow put
off twenty boats in the Potomac, and capture our men on the river
schooner. The Attorney General's opinion and the law of Judge Kelson in
New York hang the former; but military law will exchange the latter
whenever a satisfactory opportunity presents itself.

_Mr. Lincoln._ The policy question has become a grave one. I have been
much struck by the letter of Judge Daly, of New York, to Senator
Harris--a most opportune, learned, and temperate paper.

[_Enter an attendant._]

_Mr. Lincoln._ Gen. McClellan is at the door. Invite him in.

_Mr. Stanton._ By all means. He is 'the very head and front of our
offending.'

[_Enter Gen. McClellan._]

_Gen. McC._ Good evening, Mr. President and Cabinet. (_Speaking rapidly
and brusquely._) The bridge equipages are now entirely complete. Here is
a dispatch acknowledging the receipt of the last supply. With February
is ushered in the Southern spring, which, as you all know, _must_ end
'this winter of our discontent.' The Western V now is perfect from Cairo
and Harper's Ferry at the top to Cumberland Gap at the bottom. It is the
first letter in Victory.

_Mr. Lincoln._ When the General becomes oratorical, then indeed has he
good news.

_Gen. McC._ I have, sir; but, with great respect to all these our
friends, it must be for your own ears, to-night at least.

_Mr. Lincoln (rising)._ We will withdraw to the library. Gentlemen, pray
come to some understanding during our absence respecting the reply to be
sent to M. Thouvenel's extraordinary secret dispatch. I will rejoin you
in--

_Gen, McC._ Seven minutes, Mr. President--those are all I can spare.
Good evening, gentlemen.

* * * * *

LITERARY NOTICES.

BORDER LINES OF KNOWLEDGE IN SOME PROVINCES OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. An
Introductory Lecture delivered before the Medical Class of Harvard
University, Nov. 6, 1861. By Oliver Wendell Holmes, M.D., Parkman
Professor of Anatomy and Physiology. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1861.

It is a pleasant thing to realize, in reading a work like this, how
perfectly GENIUS is capable of rendering deeply interesting to the most
general reader topics which in the hands of mere _talent_ become
intolerably 'professional' and dry. The mind which has once flowed
through the golden land of poetry becomes, indeed, like the brook of
Scottish story, more or less alchemizing,--communicating an aureate hue
even to the wool of the sheep which it washes, and turning all its fish
into 'John Dorees.' And in doing this, far from injuring the practical
and market value of either, it positively improves them. For genius is
always general and human, and rises intuitively above conventional
poetry and conventional science, to that higher region where fact and
fancy become identified in truth. And such is the characteristic of the
lecture before us, in which solid, nutritive learning loses none of its
alimentary value for being cooked with all the skill of a _Ude_ or of a
_Francatelli_. Many passages in the work illustrate this power of
aesthetic illustration in a truly striking manner.

In certain points of view, human anatomy may be considered an
almost exhausted science. From time to time some small organ,
which had escaped earlier observers, has been pointed out,--such
parts as the _tensor tarsi_, the otic ganglion, or the Pacinian
bodies; but some of the best anatomical works are those which have
been classic for many generations. The plates of the bones of
Vesalius, three centuries old, are still masterpieces of accuracy,
as of art. The magnificent work of Albinus on the muscles,
published in 1747, is still supreme in its department, as the
constant references of the most thorough recent treatise on the
subject--that of Theile--sufficiently show. More has been done in
unravelling the mysteries of the faciae, but there has been a
tendency to overdo this kind of material analysis. Alexander
Thompson split them up into cobwebs, as you may see in the plates
to Velpeau's Surgical Anatomy. I well remember how he used to
shake his head over the coarse work of Scarpa and Astley
Cooper;--_as if Denner, who painted the separate hairs of the head
and pores of the skin, in his portraits, had spoken lightly of the
pictures of Rubens and Vandyck_.

Laymen can not decide, where doctors disagree; but there are few who
will not at least read this lecture with pleasure.

JOHN BRENT. By Major Theodore Winthrop.
Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1862.

It is strange that so soon after the appearance of _Tom Tiddler's
Ground_, with its one good story of a wild gallop over the Plains, a
novel should have appeared in which the same scenes are reproduced,--the
whole full of wild-fire and gallop.--American life-fever and
prairie-dust,--uneasy contrasts of the feelings of gentlemen and
memories of _salons_ with pork-frying, hickory shirts, and whisky. The
excitement and movement of _John Brent_ are wonderful. Had the author
been an artist, we should have had in him an American Correggio,--with
strong lights and shadows, bright colors, figures of desperadoes
inspired with the air of gentlemen, and gentlemen, real or false, who
play their parts in no mild scenes. It is the first good novel which has
given us a picture of the West since California and Mormondom added to
it such vivid and extraordinary coloring, and since the 'ungodly
Pike'--that 'rough' of the wilderness--has taken the place of the
well-nigh traditional frontiersman. It is entertaining and exciting, and
will attain a very great popularity, having in it all the elements to
secure such success. Those who recognized in _Cecil Dreeme_ the
vividly-photographed scenes and characters of New York, will be pleased
to find the same talent employed on a wider field, among more vigorous
natures, and assuming a far more active development. Never have we felt
more keenly regret at the untimely decease of an author than for
WINTHROP, while perusing the pages of _John Brent_. There went out a
light which _might_ have shown, in Rembrandt shadows and gleams, the
most striking scenes of this country and this age.

MEMOIR, LETTERS AND REMAINS OF ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE. Translated from
the French, by the Translator of Napoleon's Correspondence with King
Joseph. In two volumes. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1862.

No French writer enjoys a more truly enviable popularity in America than
M. DE TOCQUEVILLE. That he should have discussed the vital principles of
our political and social life, in a manner which not only made him no
enemies among us, but established his 'Democracy' as a classic
reference, is as wonderful as it was well deserved. The present work is,
however, a delightful one by itself, and will be read with a relish. We
sympathize with the translator (a most capable one by the way) when he
declares that he leaves his task with regret, fearing lest he never
again may have an opportunity of associating so long and so intimately
with such a mind. The typography and paper are of superior quality.

POEMS BY WILLIAM ALLINGHAM. ('Blue and gold.') First American Edition.
Boston: Ticknor & Fields.

'Fresh, beautiful, and winsome.'--Among the living poets of England
there may be many who are popularly regarded as 'greater,' but certainly
there is none more unaffectedly natural or simply delightful than
WILLIAM ALLINGHAM. We are pleased at his probably unconscious Irish-isms
in his humbler lyrics, which have deservedly attained the proud eminence
of veritable 'Folk-songs' in the mouths of the people, and are touched
by the exquisite music, the tender feeling, and the beautiful picturing
which we find inspiring his lays. It requires but little knowledge of
them to be impressed with the evident love of his art with which our
Irish bard is filled. It would be difficult to find in the same number
of songs by any contemporary so little evident effort allied to such
success.

THE CHURCH MONTHLY. Edited by Rev. George M. Randall, D.D., and Rev.
F.D. Huntington, D.D. Vol. II. No. 6. Boston: E.P. Dutton & Co. 1861.

This beautiful and scholarly magazine, which abounds in 'the elegant
expression of sound learning,' contains, in the present number, a noble
article on _Loyalty in the United States_, by Rev. B.B. BABBITT, which
we would gladly have read by every one. Almost amusing, and yet really
beautiful, is the following Latin version of 'Now I lay me down to
sleep,' by Rev. EDWARD BALLARD.

_In Canabulis_.

'Nunc recline ut dormirem,
Precor te, O Domine,
Ut defendas animam;
Ante diem si obirem,
Precor te, O Domine,
Us servares animam.
Hoc que precor pro Iesu!'

WORKS OF BAYARD TAYLOR. Vols. I. & II.
New York: G.P. Putnam.

BAYARD TAYLOR has the pleasant art of communicating personal experiences
in a personal way. It is not an unknown X, an invisible essence of
criticism, which travels for us in his sketches, but a veritable
traveler, speaking, Irving-like, of what he sees, so that we see and
feel with him. In these volumes, the ups and downs, the poverties and
even the ignorances of the young traveler are set forth--not
paraded--with great vividness, and we come to the end of each chapter as
if it were the scene of a good old-fashioned comedy. CORYATT without his
crudities, if we can imagine such a thing, suggests himself, with
alternations of 'HERODOTUS his gossip' without his craving credulity.
Perhaps these volumes explain more than any of their predecessors the
causes of TAYLOR'S popularity, and like them will do good work in
stimulating that love of travel which with many becomes the absorbing
passion sung by MULLER,--'_Wandern! ach! Wandern!_'

THOMAS HOOD'S WORKS. Edited by Epes
Sargent. New York: G.P. Putnam. 1862.

A beautifully printed and bound volume, on the best paper, with two fine
illustrations,--one by HOPPIN, setting forth Miss Kilmansegg and her
golden leg with truly Teutonic grotesquerie. It contains Hood's Poems,
never made more attractively readable than in this edition. As a gift it
would be difficult to find a work which would be more generally
acceptable to either old or young.

NATIONAL MILITARY SERIES. Part First.
By Captain W.W. Van Ness. New York:
Carleton, 413 Broadway.

A neat little work on military tactics, conforming to the army
regulations adopted and approved by the War Department of the United
States. It is thoroughly practical, 'being arranged on the plainest
possible principle of question and answer,' and being within the reach
of the dullest capacity, and thoroughly comprehensive of all required of
the soldier, will probably become, as its author trusts, 'a standard
military work.'

FORT LAFAYETTE; OR, LOVE AND SECESSION.
By Benjamin Wood. New York:
Carleton, 413 Broadway. 1862.

Even while a tree is being blown down by the hurricane, small fungi or
other minute vegetation spring up in its rifts; every social shock of
the day is promptly scened and 'tagged' at the minor theatres; and shall
this war escape its novels? Mr. WOOD votes in the negative, and supplies
us with a somewhat sensational yet not badly manufactured article,
which, like the melo-dramas referred to, will be received with delight
by a certain line of patrons, and, we presume, be also relished. It is a
first-rate specimen of a second-rate romance.

HEROES AND MARTYRS: Notable Men of the Time. With Portraits on Steel.
New York: G.P. Putnam, 532 Broadway. C.T. Evans, General Agent. 1862.
Price 25 cents.

The first number of a large quarto, exquisitely printed, biographical
series of sketches of the military and naval heroes, statesmen, and
orators, distinguished in the American crisis of 1861-62, and edited by
FRANK MOORE. The portraits of Commodore S.F. DUPONT and Major THEODORE
WINTHROP, in this first number, are excellent; while the literary
portion, devoted to WINFIELD SCOTT, deserves praise. The cheapness of
the publication is truly remarkable.

TRANSACTIONS of THE MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, FOR THE YEAR
1861. Boston: Henry W. Dutton & Son, Printers, Transcript Building.
1862.

A work testifying to the great extent and efficacy of the labors of the
society, and one which, among a mass of merely business detail, contains
much interesting information. An article on the first discovery of the
heather in America, by EDWARD S. RAND, is well worth reading. Can any of
our wise men re-discover the lost Pictish art of making good beer from
that plant?

* * * * *

BOOKS RECEIVED.

DINAH. New York: Charles Scribner, 124 Grand Street. Boston: Brown &
Taggard. 1861.

THE REBELLION RECORD. A Diary of American Events, with Documents,
Narratives, Illustrative Incidents, and Poetry. Edited by Frank Moore.
New York: G.P. Putnam.

THE BROKEN ENGAGEMENT; OR, SPEAKING THE TRUTH FOR A DAY. By Mrs. Emma
D.E.N. Southworth. Philadelphia: T.B. Peterson. Price 25 cents. 1861.

THE AMERICAN CRISIS: Its Cause, Significance, and Solution. By Americus.
Chicago, Illinois: Joshua R. Walsh, 1861.

* * * * *

EDITOR'S TABLE.

Step by step the vast net is closing in on the enemy,--little by little
the vice is tightening,--and if no incalculable calamity overtake the
armies of the Union, it is but fair to assume that at no distant day the
rebel South will find itself in the last extremity, overwhelmed by
masses from without and demoralized by want of means within. Government
at present holds the winning cards,--if they are only skillfully played
the game is its own. It is impossible to study the map and the present
position of our forces with our resources, and not realize this. 'Hemmed
in!' is the despairing cry from Southern journals, which but the other
day insolently threatened to transfer the war to Northern soil, and to
sack New York and Philadelphia; and, with their proverbial fickleness
and fire, we find many of them half rebelling against the management of
Mr. JEFFERSON DAVIS and his coadjutors.

This is all encouraging. On the other hand, we are beginning to feel
more acutely the miseries of war, and its enormous cost. The time is at
hand when the whole country will be called on to show its heroism by
patient endurance of many trials, and by _living_ as well as dying for
the great cause of liberty and Union. Let it all be done patiently and
without a murmur. Every suffering will be repaid tenfold in the hour of
triumph. Let it be remembered that as we suffer our chances of victory
increase, and that every pain felt by us is a death-pang to the foe.
Now, if ever, the Northern quality of stubborn endurance must show
itself. We, too, can suffer as heroically as the South boasts of doing.
It is this which in the course of events must inevitably give us the
victory, for no spirit of chivalry, no enthusiasm, can ultimately resist
sturdy Saxon pluck. The South, foolishly enough, has vaunted that it is
inspired by the blood and temper of the Latin races of Southern Europe,
and it can not be denied that their climate has given them the
impulsiveness of their ideal heroes. In this fiery impatience lies the
element which renders them incapable of sustaining defeat, and which,
after any disaster, must stimulate dissension among them.

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